BEACH TRIP #1

Gramma bought the kids boogie boards (since they have gotten so much braver in the waves over our past two beach trips) and while Cora was nervous at first and declined to try the first day, James was so overly excited that he ran full-boar into the ocean and refused to listen to our helpful tips, thereby landing himself immediately under water and dragged a bit. Which scared him. And caused him to set the boogie board lessons aside for the day... (It was all I could do to get him to stand still for half a second with his board and smile before he took off with me throwing my phone down into my camp chair to chase him into the waves!)

Clearly this child has no trouble pausing to pose for photos...

Almost every trip to the beach occurred at low tide, which provided awesome "warm" water pools halfway up the beach for the kids to play in (and warm up in - the Atlantic is still pretty dang cold!)

Since James didn't want to ride his boogie board out in the waves, I offered to pull him across the sand (and 1-2" of water that came up with each wave). Which quickly led to Cora wanting to be pulled around as well. Which equated to over 95 pounds of kids being dragged up and down the shoreline. I sprinted as fast as I could and did as many reps as my arms would allow (Bootcamp included FORTY jumping pull-ups the day before...), then passed the kids off to Jay so he could contribute to their fun (until he also became too tired). Then we sent them back to the sand for digging.

(The sand and water being kicked into their faces was a bit much for them. But not too much, obviously, since they happily rode around for the 20 or minutes we collectively lasted before exhaustion set in.)

After the beach, Jay went into town to pick up Uncle Jamie from the airport, and we enjoyed a hearty dinner and one of Jay's homebrews (Three Wild Ones, which is his take on Sudwerk's Three Best Friends), followed by some snuggle acrobatics by James.

He is not on the couch. He was somehow balanced on Gramma and Daddy's legs.

This was sweet until Cora joined in and caused a wrestle ruckus...

Once the kids calmed down, we snuck out with Jamie to the Engine 15 and Green Room breweries for a couple of new treats (and some snacks...) It was a great first day!