We’ve been wanting to make a day trip to the coast for a long time. Elias loves playing in the sand, but rarely gets the opportunity. A week or so ago we realized that we had a free Saturday, and decided to fill it up with a good ol’ day at the beach. It was perfect because Elias even woke up a little early this morning. We packed a picnic, and headed to the coast early enough to get a good parking spot…even on a day this nice!
So…here is our day at the beach in pictures. I have to warn you…there are quite a few of Elias playing in the ocean. It was his first time after all…it has to be well documented.
The first thing we did after staking out our spot on the beach was play in the sand. Elias loved building sand castles. He would fill his bucket, ask Nathan or I to flip it really fast into a castle, and then start over again. He enjoyed counting the number of castles he had after each one was made.
After a little over an hour of sand play, we were getting too warm, and were ready to dip our feet in the ocean. Elias was a bit tentative at first. It was pretty cold and the water moving in and out made him a bit disoriented at times.
Here you can see Elias getting a bit more comfortable in the ocean. He is still staying where it is very shallow, but he is having fun splashing around as if it is a wading pool. He made Nathan and I splash as well. He kept saying, “Mama too, Daddy too!”
Now he’s really starting to have fun!
This picture was taken shortly after Elias fell in the water. His head didn’t fully submerge, but he definitely got a good taste of salt water and his clothes were pretty well soaked. After an initial shock, he decided to laugh it off with Daddy.
Elias gets a little more confident. He wants to go a bit deeper!
After falling again, and being chased down by a “large” wave, Elias goes to Mommy for more reassurance.
The falls didn’t phase him for long, though. Here is Elias running in the ocean and having a blast!
Lesson learned for other rookie parents like us: Always bring your child’s swimsuit to the beach. As I was packing this morning, I asked Nathan, “Do you think we should bring his swimsuit?” The reply: “Nah. We aren’t going swimming. We’ll just get our feet wet.” I agreed. Well….with waves, falls, running, splashing, and Elias’ short legs….he got soaked. At least we were smart enough to bring an extra outfit.
I love this boy. He had so much fun. Here he is running to give me a hug toward the end of our ocean play.
Elias and Daddy walking back to our spot on the beach. Those boys are so cute together….uh…I mean…handsome.
After getting back to our beach blanket, we ate a picnic lunch and played in the sand a bit more. Then we decided to head inside for a little air conditioning. Shops….here we come!
Elias having his own private tea party in the toy store in the carousel mall. He let me join him after I took this picture.
Here is Elias preparing for his first carousel ride. He actually rode this carousel when he was 6 months old, but I was on the horse with him that time so it doesn’t really count. This time he went solo!
Here is the carousel in action. Sorry the picture is not as good…I was trying to watch and take a picture. Elias seemed very serious during his ride, but after it was over, begged to go again. “More choo-choo” he kept saying.
After our carousel ride we looked in a few more shops, ate some ice cream, and then went back out to the beach for some more fun. It was much more crowded, and the tide was much farther in so the water was more rough. All that coupled with the fact that it was now 2:45, and Elias was really starting to feel his lack of nap…well we didn’t stay too long. Elias was asleep almost before we got out of the parking lot.
But our adventure was not over yet! As we pulled into our condo complex, we saw fire trucks parked in front of our building….with hoses out…and water everywhere….and our neighbors all evacuated on the front lawn! My first thought was of the cats…and then of hoping it wasn’t our fault! Apparently we had just missed a fire in our building. Thankfully, the fire was contained to just one unit…and it was the opposite side of the building from ours. No one was injured. But it’s still scary to walk by and see all that siding melted off! It is a testament to the good construction of our building, and the quick response of TVFR, I think, that the fire did not spread more on this hot of a day. We decided to head to the air conditioned Applebee’s down the street for dinner, and then had a relaxing evening.
It was a wonderful family day at the beach!
