Beach, beach, beachity beach!

 On Saturday we met my parents at the beach.  I love love love that it is nicely situated between our homes--it's the perfect meeting place!  We told the kids the night before that we were headed to the beach but didn't tell them my parents would be there--they were SO EXCITED when they got out of the car and saw their grandparents!

We spent a good six hours enjoying the perfect weather, the warm sun, and the not-too-frigid water.  And, of course, the requisite burying-everyone-in-sand occupied a good chunk of the afternoon (the blond little boy in just trunks is not mine, the blond little boy in a lifejacket IS mine. In case you were wondering if we picked up a sixth child--just a friend we made at the beach!).

 Abigail was buried so deeply that it took quite awhile to dig her out.  The boys decided to be helpful and pour water on her to wash away the sand, but it ended up just making a giant mucky mess and it was quite amusing to watch her trying to get out.

Here's Jules lying back in the sun...


I didn't get a picture of Isaac in the sand, since I was nursing Nathan, but you can get a good idea of how diligently Luke was trying to help Isaac cover his face.  Yikes!



And Luke was so funny--he just lay there with this giant smile on his face and I was actually thinking that he might have fallen asleep, since it was his naptime.  Nope--just enjoying his turn to do what the big kids were doing!

 This will be the last picture of me for quite some time without raccoon eyes--I made sure all the kids got lots of sunscreen and completely forgot to do myself (nursing every time I remembered and just thought, oh, I'll do it as soon as I finish).  Since I was wearing knee-length running tights over my swimsuit (so much better than swimsuit bottoms for keeping out the sand!) I have the worst burn lines ever just below my knees--and around my face in the shape of my sunglasses, since I forgot that I wasn't wearing makeup with a heavy-duty SPF built in.



And I took this set of pictures while the girls were noshing on baguettes and big hunks of Brie--hence the puffy cheeks.

 This picture is of the boys looking for more things to feed the seagulls.  We had SO MANY seagulls flocking around us because the kids thought it was so funny to feed them.  Then I got up to show Luke how to chase the seagulls away and how cool it is to make them all go crazy and fly up at once--well, I tripped over the tarp, stepped in a hole in the sand, and did a totally spectacular fall down the sandy bluff to the water.  I was laughing so hard...but probably not as hard as everyone else who watched it.  The kids gave me the Funniest Fall of the Day award.

 And Nater Tot was so so good all day!  (which is saying something considering he's been on a nursing strike that has required pumping and syringing milk down his throat with a medicine dropper to keep him fed.  not fun.)

The only thing cuter than Nathan at the beach is fat little sandy Nathan toes at the beach.

Nathan had a great time hanging out with my parents--the other kids did too; I just put my camera away pretty early on!

Beach hair! I hope Luke does his hair like this when he's 15 or so.

 Sisters!  I was trying to recreate this picture from last summer, which I LOVE, but which has people in the background--unfortunately when I moved to get better light it allowed time for somebody else to get in the photo!  Oh well.

 Near the end of the day, the kids built this huge sand structure with Neil that involved a cave, a tunnel, and a moat running out to the water.  Pretty cool stuff.

Perfect perfect day.  I'm so glad that we live where we do!  Previous beach posts: 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008 (nothing from 2007 because Jules was born in August and we didn't go, nothing from 2006 because I didn't start my blog until that fall, and nothing from 2005 because OH WAIT WE LIVED AT THAT BEACH ALL SUMMER and I really should have had a blog.  Because we literally lived there for 3 months right after Abigail was born).