Beach Babies...

I present to you, our first trip to the sacred chapel known as the beach.  And you know that annoying person at a party who tells the same stories over and over again?  I'm sooo gonna be her.  And one of the tales I will have on repeat will be this one... the day we took these little gents of ours to see the power and beauty of the ocean for the very first time.  It was just that good.

I'm kind of a nature gal.  I love me some snow capped mountains, some golden fields, some red dirt and some spring flowers.  Now nearing the top of my, "God does everything best" list is the beach... and seeing it's wonder through the eyes of my babies.

 These two LOVED it.

They ran into the cold water and let the waves chase them up the receding sands about a thousand times... giggling every time. 

 This one wasn't so convinced.  He would curl his little toes up and out of the cold water keeping them a safe distance from the ground and mostly keeping himself up in the safety of someone's arms.

Which was just fine by me.  They are all growing up so fast.  I'll gladly savor the babe-on-hip moments as long as they'll let me.

 I watched and snapped for hours.  Literally.  It was so, so revitalizing and we breathed in the salty air and noticed that all around us was this obvious enjoyment painted in the form of smiles on everyone's faces.  A drunk-on-life morning in the rays of the California sun.  

 Dax didn't stop from his game of "chase and be chased by the waves" the entire time we were there.  Not even an impressive pile of sand castle building supplies could sway him.  He was mesmerized.

Kael walked up and down the little beach in search of shells and sticks and critters.  And he found them.  In bulk.  He declared his collection complete only after he had gotten a few shells for every member of our extended family, his teacher and his preschool friends.  

 And little man found his comfort zone up higher on the shoreline surrounded by sugary sand and colorful toys where his feet were coated brown and his shoulders became pink.

  With the occasional quick visit out to the edge of the water just to prove to himself that he could.

I don't know, I might just become a beach kinda gal after all.  Don't be surprised if everything we own is for sale soon and we drift off into the sunset like floating gypsies.  :)

For now we find ourselves with a heap of new memories, a camera full of sunny blue pictures and a little collection of seashells and sand.