The Beach

I can hear all of you chiding me for my infrequent posting and I humbly apologize. Sometimes the pressures of childrearing shove hobbies into the corner but it is a blessing that our family adventures take up my free time instead of more burdensome tasks. I have entirely too many hobbies right now and many, many waiting in the wings.

Since weekends are so busy with church activities, Erik has Mondays off every week. This has been wonderful because we can visit all the touristy places of Southern California and, for the most part, miss the tourists. On Monday mornings we pack up the van with a sack lunch, diapers, juice, sippy cups, bottles, changes of clothes, toys, books, the camera, etc. We climb into the van and then then decide on an adventure for the day. This week we headed to a state beach just south of Santa Barbara. We parked on the hillside and walked down a path and then carried a terrified Jacob over the train tracks (we had just watched an Amtrak train pass and that was a bit awe-inspiring), then walked down a short road and carried all three kids over a large pile of rocks (a wave breaker) to a small section of dry beach. We only played for about 30 minutes because the tide was coming in and our small strip of dry beach was becoming smaller by the second but it was worth it!

These pictures aren't the best quality, I know, but with the prospect of carrying three children down a hill, over the train tracks, down a road and over the rocks, the camera couldn't make it to the top of the priority list. These were taken with Erik's cell phone. Libby was less than impressed with the beach, but as usual was simply happy to be held and loved on. Danny enjoyed digging his toes in the sand and making large holes in the sand with seashells.

None of Jake's previous apprehensiveness about the ocean is left. I bet Erik $5 that we wouldn't leave without Jake being wet and I won before I could finish the thought. He chases the water with each wave and will get distracted by a rock or shell that was hidden before. The next wave then knocks him off of his feet and he runs to tell us that the ocean "got" him. Then he is off again. It seemed silly to leave him in wet clothes so Erik stripped Jake to the striped underwear he had hand-picked that morning. I think little boys feel tied down by clothes because as soon as you remove them you can't catch them to put them back on. He was never still from that moment on. Even though this is Southern California, remember that it is January and the currents hit our coast straight from Alaska. The water is not warm by any sense; the surfers were wearing full wetsuits. Jake needed only underwear, if that.

Of course the worst part of the morning was hiking back over the rock, down the road, over the tracks and up the hill with three kids while carrying their wet, sandy shoes and clothes and precious beach finds but overall it was another great Monday adventure that I hope will add great memories of childhood.