A day at the "beach"....

Today started off with us going to the big kids' new swimming lessons. It went okay- Marky can basically swim- he's just fine tuning. Sissy acted like she'd never seen water before and clung to her teacher like a koala bear. Completely different from the girl who would jump off the wall and swim to me in the middle of the pool last summer. So we start back at square one. It was funny that the teacher used lots of "school" analogies to teach that were lost on Julia like "you know how you have to raise your hand at school?" or "you know how you have homework?" :)

I think it was being in the warm indoor pool and seeing on my car thermostat that it was 74 degrees today that got me in a "let's go to the beach on a whim" kind of mood. But I think I jumped the gun- I mean, it is February still. And I forgot about wind chill. Nevertheless, after swim lessons, I ran by the house and picked up towels, sand toys and a picnic and we headed out to the lake.
We had a great time- the kids explored and built sand castles. The beach was almost empty- I mean, it was chilly after all.

Julia and Tucker insisted on getting in the ICE cold water! Just up to their knees- but still- it was freezing!

Marky put piles of lake mud in the strainer and found treasures...

Here are the treasures...

The only way I could drag them away from the beach was to promise some yummy lunch at the pavilion- that got them moving towards land...

Mr. Cheesestick never sat down- he's always on the go....

So, while I don't advise going to the beach in February- I will say it was nice, and I got that "I need to feel like summer" feeling out of my system- as my trunk is full of sand and water-sogged bags and I've got to wash a load of towels now. :)

Now Mr. T is sleeping and the big kids are down at the creek in the woods behind the house and I'm keeping up with them with a walkie talkie. I love that they have all this free time to be out and about. I can't wait for spring!