Sandy Bottoms

This trip to the beach wins the "Sandiest Trip of the Summer" award. It was actually an impromptu trip. S.K. was spending the day hunting online for an apartment in Texas so we decided to spring A.K. for the day. On the way back from A.K.'s home to our's the kids and I decided that it was too nice of a day to sit inside and that we better go to the beach. I did a quick mental search of who I might know who could meet us there that would #1 drop everything for a quick trip to the beach #2 help me keep an eye on the kids #3 have someone for Superkid to play with (most of his pals are in kindergarten or pre-sechool) #4 (and most importantly) entertain me ... and I thought of my good pal D.P. She is a kindred spirit. I got her on the horn and without a nano-second of hesitation she agreed to meet us at the beach (of course this is without knowing my secret requirements). She brought her free-spirited daughter and their new Labradoodle puppy for us to play with. We found that while this puppy is hypoallergenic, she is still a sand-magnet. The kids had a great time feeding her Tummy Yummies.



Because this was an impromptu trip, and because Pops had cleaned out the car the day before, I had zero beach equipment on hand. I did manage to find a stick of roll on sunscreen while riffling through my purse. I buttered myself and the kids up with it. I thought I was so clever. I left the kids tethered in their car seats, only releasing them to the beach after I got a good thick coat on their exposed skin. Of course the first thing Abizella did when she hit the sand was to pick up two hand fulls of sand and throw it on A.K., a trick she never tires of. But this time it was like throwing glitter onto glue. The sand stuck, and it stuck for good. Note to self: stick sunscreen, while good for the pool, is not good for the beach. By the time we left the beach we all looked and felt like sand paper.

Maybe it was because Pops scoured the purple minivan the day before (even completly removing the seats from the van to vacuum), maybe it was the stick sunscreen, maybe it was my ill-preparation (no spare outfits or even diapers), maybe it was because I wanted to get home before Tadpole woke up and thus didn't even give the kids a pat down before tying them down, but I don't think I have EVER seen so much beach in the van before. These little sand mounds were marched straight from the van into the tub where, after dumping much water over them, erroded into the children I know.

For some reason I was shocked to find what this diaper concealed after pulling one of the sand mounds out of her car seat.



But as always, we all agree it was worth it. Even Pops, who said he would happily re-vacuum the car seats. Even the Sand Mounds, who all had to endure MANY buckets of water over their heads. I was going to say EVEN D.P. but she actually took home more sand than me on that frisky little pooch of hers!