mini | beach | boys

"I did not come in this water to get wet!"
Me, as a teenager when my hair got all wet in the ocean.

Sadly, I still don't like to get my hair wet. In fact, until recently, I was not a huge fan of the beach at all.

Last year I almost burst into tears when John kept insisting that he wanted to go to Hawaii. I disdained all those sandy beaches...that and I was afraid of plummeting to my death while flying over the ocean.

So when John suggested going to the beach last weekend, I was very surprised that I actually did want to go. Very, very much.

Usually we go to Hume...mmm...snack shop ice cream and piping hot fries...but this summer I was more than happy to skip all that for the beach. I guess I've had a change of heart(that's allowed, right?).

John and the boys were so cute. They eagerly went to Target and purchased some buckets and shovels for making sand castles. And we borrowed an EZ-up from friends, to provide shade. We were all so excited. We had not been to the beach since Ollie was 4 months old.

We decided to rent a condo with John's parents in Cayucos. I was on pins & needles as we drove up to our prospective beach house. Was it that cute green one? Oh, I hoped so!

But no. It was not the adorable green beach shack.

It was the round white stucco building that resembled a dentist's office.

?????Seriously??????

My heart sank to my toes from the disappointment of it all. I was planning to take a photo of the atrocity, but forgot:(

The inside was actually quite roomy and serviceable though. It even had some cute decor.

Besides, we were going to be playing outside every spare second, so it didn't really matter.

Or so I thought.

That evening we all walked down to the beach. It was so windy and cold-to-the-bone, I thought I would go into shock. I draped a towel from my head to keep warm. I looked like a total bag lady. This was not what I had envisioned.

Poor little Ollie was so traumatized by the ocean, he closed his eyes and hid his face in John's shorts as a coping mechanism.

So, so sad.

And Calvin was also pretty terrified.

Sheesh, we were a rum bunch.

I ran around and snapped some photos just to get my blood running again.

The next day, we awoke to overcast skies and more dreary weather. And John had a migraine. I wondered why on earth we even came here.

Thankfully, that afternoon, we spent a lovely day at the beach. It was still quite overcast, but the temperature was absolutely perfect. I breathed a sigh of relief.

And Ollie came out of his shell. After a few minutes, he was ready to brave the ocean with his baseball bat.

It was so much fun to watch Finn racing up and down the beach like a hummingbird, with his little bucket in tow.

And Twain was pretty much a perfect little peach the whole trip.

Well, aside from a few pouts here and there. Which I think is adorable, by the way.

Unfortunately we were never able to pry Calvin away from his post...he stayed as far from the ocean as possible.

"Maybe when I'm 6 or 7 I'll go in the water", he declared.

It was really nice having John's parents around--good company AND help with little boys.

Betty was like a kid at the beach. She was very busy collecting shells with the boys and playing by the water for hours on end. Unlike Calvin, we could not pry her away from the beach.

On the final day, I finally convinced John to bust out the EZ-Up. He did not think it was sunny enough to warrant a shade canopy, but I nagged and nagged.

I don't know why, but this EZ-up made all the difference in the world for me. We were FINALLY on vacation. All my beach dreams came true.

Despite the wind

and freezing weather

and fussy child that insisted on climbing stairs half the time

and John's migraine

and our dentist office digs,

I think it was totally worth all the effort to vacation at the beach(or anywhere for that matter).

to create memories.

to take photos.

Yes, it was totally worth it, even if just to break out of our normal routine and beat the heat!