Beach Fun

Since summer is almost over, I wanted to blog about our visit to the beach a month ago (July 17th). It was the first time we took Kayleen to the beach. I thought it was pathetic that we've never taken her to the beach given that we live in Southern California and how much she loves the water! So... we decided to go. The prep of going somewhere with 2 small kids (somewhat far, for a long period of time, and a "non-home" location) requires extensive prep. The prep started a few days before by buying the required "gear" for the beach. You know.. the usual big umbrella, beach mat, sand kit, swim suit, cute beach clothes for the kids, etc. Yes, sadly, we adults haven't been to the beach for a few years as well so we don't have all those goodies.

Then the night before, the "real" prep started. Diaper bags are examined to make sure that they contain all the necessary stuff. Is one change 0f clothes enough? How about if it gets wet? How about if the baby throws up/spits up? How many diapers should we bring for each kid to last us a few hours? How do we keep the milk for being spoiled (I guess we should bring a cooler). But how do we warm it up conveniently? What kind of snack should we bring and how much? To add to the madness, David decided (and I agreed) that we should have an egg salad for lunch. Yum, yum...but little did we know that Ralphs and other markets do not carry egg salad! We were so set on egg salad that I decided to MAKE it the night before. Yes...as if we had tons of free time to do this in addition to the prep!!

After a few more hours of prep in the morning, we finally got to the beach around 2P. It was a beautiful day, perfect for the beach, not too hot, not too cold. The beach was crowded even though it was a Thursday. We had to walk quite far from the parking lot. Thank goodness we brought the stroller! Because of all the stuff we brought, we had to make two trips from the parking lot to where we set up our stuff.

My oh my....Kayleen went crazy when she saw the water!! We thought she may get scared by the big ocean, but noooooo....she went right to it! It's actually scary for us. She literally had no fear of the water, even though the waves could easily swiped her off her feet. David had to constantly hold her, because if not, she would just go into the ocean! She also enjoyed playing with the sand. Wes, on the other hand, did not really enjoy the whole experience. Maybe when he gets older. Check out the last picture below....he was just about had it there hehe...! Afterwards, we bought some ice-cream at a gelatto store nearby. It was sooo...good! Reminded me of the yummy gelatto we had in Italy eons ago.

Did we enjoy the beach? Well, it was a 12-hour prep time for a 2-hour beach fun but it was all paid off when we saw how much Kayleen enjoyed her first beach experience. So, yes, but I wish we went to beach more often prior to having kids because I don't see having a "relaxing" time at the beach anytime soon!