Beach Ready

Only one more sleep until....THE BEACH!  You may already know that our family is a beach loving family and that we look forward to our yearly beach trip all year long.  This has been a particularly long summer of waiting.  For some reason, we planned our beach trip for the very last week of summer.  Ugh...remind me not to do that again because the waiting has been killing me.  Unfortunately, we got a little sad news a couple of weeks ago when Daddy got called up to go help fight wildfires in Oregon.  While it was an "opportunity" he couldn't pass up, we were sad that it meant he would likely miss nearly all of our vacation.  The trip has been booked since early this year, and we couldn't exactly postpone it since Evan will be starting back to school the very next week.  Sigh.  It looked like the boys and I would be heading to the beach for a week by ourselves.  The days since Daddy left have been a whirlwind of good times and some not so good times.  Life as a single mom of two boys can be rough at times, especially when a certain three year old gets in a very bad mood and refuses to nap.  Of course, there have been good times too cuddling in the big bed with my two little men, tickles and laughter, and other fun times.  While it has been a pretty exhausting week and a half, we have been anxiously awaiting our days at the beach.  The boys don't expect Daddy will be joining us until next Wednesday.  Won't they be surprised when we actually get to pick him up from the airport on Saturday?  Yep, Daddy just got the news that he gets to come home early and doesn't have to miss the majority of our beach trip.  While this still means I have to load us up and drive us to the beach by myself, it also means we only have one night alone at the beach before Daddy joins us.  It is a true blessing, I tell you!  I am not telling the boys because I just can't wait to see their surprised faces!  So for now, our bags are mostly packed, only one load of laundry is in the dryer, the beach gear is loaded in the car, and I just have to get these boys fed dinner and in the bed before loading the rest of our bags and ourselves into the car tomorrow.  Yay!

For now, here is a little testament to our fondness of the beach through the years.

Evan's first beach trip

We didn't make it to the beach this year but a cool dip in a mountain stream satisfied Evan's need for the water and sand.

Evan's first beach trip where he actually could enjoy the water.

The first of many family pictures on the beach.

Brody's first trips to the beach.  He was a beach bum from the start.

A special trip for us all despite our sad circumstances.

We look forward to more great memories being made this year!