A day at the beach

It was about 8:15 this morning and Gavin was eating his waffles, I was getting some coffee ready and Justin was talking in his crib. It was late for us, but that's fine. I have a long week of work ahead of me, so I was just planning on going to the store this morning for more coffee (I had just ran out) and that was about it. My mom called and said that Scott was putting his mom in to a nursing home today. That's a good thing because she really needs the help so I was happy. It was going to take a couple of days and that left my mom in Indianola while he was dealing with his mom, and my mom had hoped to come back here today. I offered to come over and pick her up. To go there involves about 40 min of driving to get to the ferry, waiting to get on, riding the ferry for 30 min, then another 10-15 min drive to my mom's house in Indianola. She was really excited and I managed to get us all together and packed for the trip over (including a trip to the beach while we were there) and we were out of the house by 9:15.

After an uneventful drive, and a 30 min wait at the dock for the next ferry, we got on the boat and went upstairs to hang out for the float over the water. Gavin looked through his binoculars and saw jelly fish, ducks and "pseed boats". It was fun for all 3 of us.

After we got to my mom's we hung out for a few minutes, and headed up to the Inidanola Store for lunch. It is the only store in town, and I worked there for 5 1/2 years way back when. We said "hi" to the owner and enjoyed some yummy sandwiches. Then back to mom's to get ready for the beach. We got all ready and drove to a little trail just down the road. I had forgotten Gavin's sandals so he was going to go bare foot. Well, as he put it, "It looks like we're in the forest" which we certainly were. It is a really beautiful trail, but somewhat overgrown (that's an understatement). He did most of it on foot and was poked by sticks, but did amazingly well. It was so grown over that I was ducking. My mom and I were both carrying towels and beach toys, and responsible for a kid a piece. Finally, near the end (after I helped everyone over a narrow log over some water) we ditched the stuff, each held a kid up over the stickers, and finally made it out to the beach. I went back for the stuff myself. It was so hard to navigate the trail that I decided to walk down the beach to the "boat launch" where we'd be able to walk up a driveway to the road and back to the truck that way. The walk down the beach probably took 30 min, and if you know the beaches around here, the sand was scarce. It was mostly rocks, but Gavin was amazing. He kept saying how it was poky, but he kept pressing on. He could see where we were going and kept saying "we're almost there" to us. We'd pick our paths carefully through the rocks and sand and eventually we got there. We put our blanket down and played in the sand for a while. We tried to go in the water but the tide was too high, and the rocks near the water were all covered in barnacles. No different that when I grew up, but I was used to it as a kid.

I left them there and walked the 10 min back to the truck to drive it to them and pick them up. We ended up having a great time, but next time we'll drive to a different part of the beach, and remember the shoes. I also plan to look at the tide maps and try to hit it at low tide so the boys can play on the sand flats.

When we were back at the house, the 4 of us sat out on the deck and enjoyed a cinnamon roll and a bunch of water. I asked Gavin to go get his shoes and socks on in preparations for going home, and the first thing he brought me was my ace wrap (I injured my ankle 1 week ago and the walk on the beach did not aide in the healing). He is so wonderful and intuitive! Then he got his shoes and socks on and my mom and I were both doubled over laughing. He still had his swim shorts and a swim shirt on, then put his brown camo socks on with his "Cars" shoes. His socks were pulled up as high as they would go and it was hilarious. Of course he had no idea what we were laughing at, but even now I am laughing about it. He is so awesome I can barely stand it!

Justin also was amazing today. He had a lot of trouble figuring out how to walk on the beach, but kept trying and eventually could walk almost as fast as normal. He loved playing in the sand and was not bothered at all by the cold water. Not much bothers him, except for Gavin trying to take something that Justin is playing with. He slept for a while in the truck and was as beautiful as ever. He is so adventuresome and fun to play with. I love my boys so much that my heart feels like it's going to burst. What a fun day.

(pictures to follow. I've tried 3 times and the upload isn't working)