March 11

We woke up this morning to breakfast on Maggie's lanai, which overlooks lush woods and a lovely pond. 

Fruit for the kids, coffee for me, and coloring for everyone.

Eli was delighted by a Lego guy, and by Uncle Tim's flamingo.

Maggie told us about a great beach where shark teeth are known to frequently wash ashore, so we decided to pay a visit. Not to swim, of course, but just to walk the beach and look for shells and teeth.

Big mistake.

We should have remembered that a cardinal rule of parenting especially applies to the beach: all children within 10 feet of water will get wet. When children are fully clothed, they will get wet if they are in sight of a body of water. 

Eli and I snuck to the beach first for a quick selfie.

Baby on my back = dry baby. But you know he didn't stay up there for long!

He demanded to be put down. I insisted on a sun hat.

Just feet. Feet are ok. Just don't get your clothes wet.

Totally do-able.

Look! Just feet in the water. Clothes totally dry. 

Wait, what happened to Eli's pants?

Oh. They're soaking wet, because Chris put him in the ocean.

Now Daisy's pants are soaked, too.

Looks like Caleb and Lily are also well on their way to getting wet.

Digging! (with a soggy diaper, because we were totally unprepared for the wetness.)

And she's drenched and covered in sand. So it goes.

But isn't the ocean lovely? And aren't they having fun?

Luckily, even though I wasn't prepared this time, I am typically a very prepared parent. That meant I had blankets and spare clothes (albeit seasonally inappropriate ones) in the van. We dried the kids off warmed them up, and had lunch on the beach.

Lily enjoyed Maggie snuggles. Maggie and my mom are the only two people she loves this much. It is so sweet.

What? My wrap-averse baby allowing me to wrap him twice in one day? I was feeling pretty lucky! (Really, he was probably cold from getting wet in the ocean, and being wrapped up on my back is a pretty good way to warm up!)

Waiting for lunch. The server gave us pens with the kids' menus.

Caleb was so happy to be at the beach!

Hi, Daisy!

Chris and Maggie.

Sweet Lily with the wet hair.

After lunch, we went out on the pier. Caleb and Daisy were both really nervous to be out over the water. Really nervous.

Eventually, I wrapped Daisy up on my back because she was so nervous about being that high up and that far from shore. I was able to reason with Caleb, explaining to him that the worst thing that could possibly happen would be him falling into the water. In that case, he would splash, then swim to shore. If he couldn't swim, I, or somebody else, would jump in and help him. No big deal.

He countered with, "What if the whole pier came crashing down into the ocean?"

Kid is good with worst-case scenarios. 

Luckily, none of that happened.