Beach fun!

Yes, we made it safely to the beach and back today. Gramma Lou and I get an A++ for effort. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the makers of the Radio Flyer "Pathfinder" wagon. No, the children did not ride in the wagon at the beach, but all their crap did! And, it handles itself like a dream through the sand. All this and more for the low low price of 80 bucks on Amazon.

The beach, you ask, with 2 kids under 2? What are you thinking??

Well, simply put, I am thinking that it is 105˚F in Encino and we needed an out. It was fun to watch the temp drop as we neared the ocean - landing at a lovely 78˚ as we parked the car, my kind of weather!

We found a nice spot and spread out the blanket for Ben to roll around on. Emma was in heaven with all the sand. She immediately started playing in it - and by playing I mean diving into it belly first then throwing it in the air and onto Ben, so we had to redirect her attention elsewhere so Ben wouldn't need a trip to the ER on his first visit to the beach.

We lubed up with spf 50 and headed down to the water. I was carrying Ben and Gramma Lou and Emma were walking close behind. The water - as expected - was freezing! Emma avoided it at first out of fear then very quickly out of temperature. The first time the surf came in and reached her feet she screeched and ran toward the shore, stumbling into the 60˚ waters. She quickly decided that the sand was more fun than the agua.

We were there for about 2 hours total, not bad considering Ben is one day short of 6 months and Emma is, well, Emzilla. She loved playing on the beach and the whole way home kept saying, "Beach fun, Mama. We fun beach."

What a difference a year makes: Emma @ 1 year and 2 years