Happy Summer Days

It's a week into summer vacation and the weather has been great. There is always this sense of urgency that  lingers in the background,  the feeling that we have to do all the summer fun activities on our list asap just in case the weather takes a turn for the worse and never comes back.  We usually have a few weeks in the summer where the heat is turned up high and just when you think you can't take another hot day... relief sets in and it rains.  Then after a day or two of rain, when you feel like you've regrouped and put some order back into the house and done some rainy day crafts, you are ready to bring on the heat again.   The thing is, the heat never really comes back again.  That is how short our season is.  So when mother nature is dishing out some sunshine... all things are put on hold and we head to the beach.

I love going to the beach.  In any given summer there are only a handful of perfect beach days.  Days when the sun is so hot that you can't wait to get in the water.  You do a beach rotation...relax...start sweating...jump the water, ahhh, refreshing, back in the chair, dry off, heat up again, water...

Our first trip to the beach was near perfect.  I say that because I didn't go in the water past my knees.  The weather was beautiful, just not hot enough to get me to fully submerge my body in the water.  But we did all the other beach rituals.  We ate our first bag of cheese puffs of the season.  These have become our traditional beach snack.  The soft cheese puffs that melt in your mouth and turn your fingers and mouths bright orange.  The perfect, messy, never allowed in the house, beach snack.

Each year the beach experience is different because everyone is a year older. And last summer, Lexi happily sat in her stroller on the beach munching on popcorn twists lightly peppered with sand and watching the big kids splash in the water.  And this year, she just seemed to blend in to the crowd...still the youngest but not quite so noticeable.

We started the summer circuit of spray pools and parks this past week.  We visit them all as they each have different features and attractions.  By the end of the summer I consider myself an expert in park design as I critique them at each visit.  Things like the slide ending being too high off the ground.  And why do they have the baby swings facing backwards? And can they make spray pools out of rubber so Lexi can stop skinning her knees?

The circuit began at the best toddler pool... worst toddler park location.  But really, any day outside in the sun on summer vay-cay can not be complained about.

The other day we played tourist.  We got our Happy Meals and had a picnic at the Tourist Bureau.  It was just one of those days where we weren't ready to go home yet so we shook the sand off the beach blanket and had a lovely little time hanging out with the other visitors in our community enjoying the sights and the town's history.

Callie's attempt to pose like the Big Man...and the new hat she picked to keep the sun off her pretty little face.

Happy summer days. I'm lovin' it!