Beach Baby

I finally have one. Neither of the boys liked the beach when they were little. They hated the sand. Bella loves it.... and the water! Before I get ahead of myself though...

Dh had some cousins come into town that he hasn't seem in probably 13 or more years (and they don't live that far). They wanted to go to the beach so I bought a new beach umbrella/tent (since I'm still burned), went grocery shopping and packed as much as possible on Saturday. This morning we took off with my BIL/SIL (future) following us and headed to Coquina Beach down in Bradenton. It's a really nice family beach. Our families always took us there as kids. This was Bella's first trip to an actual beach on the Gulf. Dh's cousin, his cousin's teenage nephews (1st cousins once removed?), our niece Christina and MIL all met us there too.

We got there and started setting up and Bella took to the sand and toys like she'd been doing it forever. Dh took her out to the water while I sat in my wonderfully shady tent and when he came back he said she loved it- all except for the waves that crashed into her face- can't say I blame her there. She giggled when he jumped the waves. Logan got right in too and would go further and further past my comfort level at times. He's not a strong swimmer so I kept calling him back or making sure someone else was with him. There was a yellow warning out which is moderate surf and currents. I didn't have to worry about Ian so much. He stayed at the shoreline building sand castles or helping the other boys out. He's not a water boy...yet.

The rest of the day was spent jumping waves, digging holes and filling them, burying Uncle Franky, and chasing waves. Bella was right in the thick of it. She's Little Miss Independent all right. Ian eventually got into the water somewhat. He laid down and let the little waves wash over him. A couple of times someone would try to take him out further and he'd cling to them like white on rice. Silly boy.

Around 3:30ish or so it started to thunder so I told dh it was time to pack it up. I live in FL and I know what thunder means. If you can hear it, there's lightning close by as well. It was amazing to me that so many people stayed and more were arriving. By the time we packed everything up and left it was getting very dark. It rained off and on while driving home but things got really bad as we got closer to our area of town. It was so bad that I could barely see the road and I ended up in an exit only lane for an exit I didn't want to get off of! To top it off it was a toll road but we were able to bypass it. The storm was B.A.D. It was like white out conditions (or what I imagine them to be) for a while. At one point I started freaking out inside because the water had puddled up next to the median and I didn't realize until I went thru it and although I slowed down and my windshield wipers were on high the water was sheeting over my windshield so much that I could not see anything!! I didn't know if I was going to drift into the next lane and hit someone or hit the median on the other side of me. OMG. Thankfully we made it home in one piece. What a day!

I'm still not a huge fan of the beach. I hate the sand getting all over me, I hate when people get sand all over my blanket and my skin hates the sun. I'm still burned and maybe burned on top of burned and I'm peeling on top of that! LOL It was nice to watch the kids but also hard to watch them. They went in three different directions! I don't think it will be something I venture out to do by myself anytime soon. There's just no way I could relax or even sit in the shade trying to keep up with those three! Pics to come tomorrow!