You can't beat the beach!

This is going to be a mostly photographic post--I could have saved it for Wordless Wednesday but instead I'll briefly share the highlights of our first (but hopefully not our only) beach day this summer.

I waited for perfect conditions--not too hot, not too cool.  Quiet weekday, not crowded weekend.  No chance of rain whatsoever.  And it has to be a day when we have no other demands on our time.  Why am I so selective?  Because admission to our beach is not cheap.  If we are going to go, we are going to stay all day and collapse in our beds when we get home.  And that's just what we did.

oh, yes we did

There are many things I like about this beach.  The first is that it is only fifteen minutes from our home.  No, we don't live that close to a major body of water.  In what I think was a major coup for our communities, this beach, boat launch, fishing pier and splash park were created from an abandoned quarry.  The "lake" is huge.  If I hadn't just told you, you would look at it and think it was a 10,000 year old gift from the glaciers. Unfortunately, you'll have to take my word for it-- in almost all of my photos, the lake is behind me.

We used our swim shirts, hats and two cans of sunscreen.  Speaking of which, I just read that the spray is not as effective as lotion.  I stocked up and must have six more cans in the closet--it's so quick and convenient.  I'll have to do some more research and then decide if we should go back to greasy white lotion.  UGH.  In addition, I make the boys wear Chapstick with SPF 15.  Easy to do at four and six years old but I'm not fooling myself into thinking I'll always be able to get them to coat their lips on sunny days.  And (sigh) as you can see, Liam isn't very good at keeping his hat on.

I brought a small cooler with fruit and other snacks along with lots of water and extra ice for my iced coffee.  (A girl has to have her priorities.)  Because we stayed for almost seven (7!) hours, we did, of course, avail ourselves to the burgers, fries and ice cream served beachside.

Plenty of not-so-great things have been happening this summer.  Quite a few things have been weighing on my mind; some are within my control but most are not.  Reality is, well...reality.   It's messy.  Life is not a day at the beach.  Except when it is.