Swimming and the Beach

Even though Southern CA doesn't really cool off until late October or November, I think "summer" is pretty much coming to an end.  We've had a good one though!  We made dozens of trips to the lagoon down the street and had several beach days as well.  I wanted to post a few pictures from our various visits.

I had been telling my sister Sandy about the tide pools in Laguna that Isaac loves so much and she wanted to bring her kids to see them too.  Her husband Chris took a day off work and they drove out to go to the beach with us.  We went in the afternoon so it was much more crowded than our usual morning trips.  Luke and I spent most of our time up on the sand playing and eating snacks.  

Uncle Chris took the older kids out to the tide pools.  But Sandy told me later that he was a party pooper and wouldn't let them feed the crabs.  I guess technically you aren't supposed to, but it's not like we've been feeding them Doritos or anything.  They eat the muscles anyway!  We're just helping nature along.  Anyway, the kids all had fun exploring out there and getting little glimpses of the sea creatures. 

Isaac has always been timid around the ocean.  Whenever we go to Hawaii or some other beach vacation it always takes him a few days to warm up to the idea of getting anywhere near the water.  On this particular beach trip he was able to get over his paranoia within an hour or so.  At first he was clutching my hand for dear life and screaming "DON'T GO ANY FURTHER!!!!  RIGHT?!?!?!"  It was just a little bit funny.  But by the time we were ready to leave, Chris was helping him ride waves up to the sand on a boogie board.  

But Luke, on the other hand - who usually loves playing in the waves - wanted nothing to do with them on that day.  

We also finished up Isaac's swimming lessons in August.  He took two sessions of them and he started out strong, but by the end all he wanted to do was play.  He also started plugging his nose all the time -   and you just can't learn to swim very well with only one arm!  So I bought him this silly nose plug which he loved.  He was able to swim about halfway across the pool on his own, but he preferred to just bob around under water with his goggles on rather than working on strokes or technique.  We'll try again next summer.  

We spent several Saturdays at the lagoon with our whole family.  In past summers we've spent every Saturday at one of our neighborhood pools, but this year with Luke it was much easier to go to the lagoon because he can play on his own in the shallow water.  Luke also discovered the slide and loved for us to take him down it over and over again.  I love his face in this photo:

Here's a rare shot of Isaac & Luke actually playing together.  They were dumping handfuls of wet sand on each other. 

There's been a few evenings when Charlie got home from work and it was just so hot in our house, so we'd head over to the lagoon for an evening swim to cool off.  I love not having to deal with sunblock on squirmy protesting children!  Here is Luke throwing handfuls of sand.  

It was 100 degrees here last weekend and we did not want to be home in our hot house, so we spent Saturday morning at the beach.  I know I've said it before, but we love love love this cove in Laguna and getting there first thing in the morning is the best.  It almost feels a little Hawaii-ish.  

Okay, I usually would not take much notice of a man in a Speedo but these ones had me cracking up.  We spotted the really pale guy first, and let me tell you those bikini briefs were just about as high cut in the back as they are in the front.  Oh my gosh, Charlie & I were just dying!  The bigger guy was pretty funny too and when they all started posing for photos I just couldn't help pulling out my camera too.  I just wish I would have caught the moment when a wave snuck up behind them and sent them all tumbling down.  Too funny!

Maybe we'll try and sneak in another beach trip or two while it is still warm.  Anyone want to join us?