Cocoa beach

I wasn't going to blog tonight, and really I probably shouldn't because we had a long day and I'm exhausted. But I'm going to post anyway because there are too many good pictures to share. I just love the beach.

Technically we split our day between the Kennedy Space Center and the beach. The space center was neat but the beach was wonderful. I'm sure if you asked other people who had been with me today which activity was their favourite they would have answered completely opposite. I think space exploration is fine and interesting but I happen to think the beach is wonderful.

What can I say? I'm a mother. Space exploration for me is when I go one night without a child climbing into bed with me. And NASA is cutting (or has already cut) their low-level space exploration and is focusing on how to do "deep space" exploration. I don't know what that equates to in motherhood. Maybe not smelling like spit up anymore? That's a far out idea.

Anyway, after spending the day at the Kennedy Space Center, which I'll write about tomorrow, we headed to Cocoa Beach. We walked from the parking lot (which was free at the pier—and we couldn't believe it ourselves) to the beach without our swimming gear. A big thunder storm had just rolled through and had cooled things down considerably and we weren't sure if we'd be getting in the water and blah, blah, blah...

But we had Rachel with us.

I mentioned that to Andrew. She's not going to test the water. She's incapable of testing the water.




That child is Going. In. The. Ocean.

It could be December and she'd still be going in the ocean. I don't know how anyone figured a little 80 degree breeze in June was going to stop her from getting in.



Miriam, on the other hand, was stopped from going in just on the merit of the ocean itself. She parked herself by the volleyball pits and refused to move. But she did enjoy the sand.

Rachel ended up getting soaked from head to toe before I could even convince Andrew that we needed to go back to the van (where we'd left Grandma to sit with a napping Benjamin) for the swimming stuff.

Since this happens every time we attempt to go to the beach while the kids are still in their clothes, no matter the time of year or temperature of the water, I'm going to put my foot down next time and insist we put Rachel in her bathing suit the very first thing.

Andrew was a good sport and trekked back to the car to retrieve all the swimming stuff while I watched Miriam roll around in the sand and Grandpa watched Rachel tumble in the waves. Then Andrew and I got in with Rachel while Grandpa watched Miriam.

The water was deliciously warm and the waves were ripe for body surfing. We had a blast (and got covered in sand and bruises).

Eventually Miriam decided that since she was at the beach she needed to be wet, so she ran off to the showers (there was no chance she was even going on the wet sand, let alone in the ocean!) and was met by Grandma, who was lugging Benjamin and his gear onto the beach.

Benjamin was at first terrified of the ocean.

After he got changed into his swimsuit and warmed up to the idea, he enjoyed the beach just fine. He spent quite awhile dry-landing it with Miriam before eventually venturing off into the sea.

He's so fun to watch while he explores his surroundings. He kept picking up fistfuls of sand, letting the grains trickle through his fingers and then would act all surprised that his hand was empty.

I don't know where he's headed in this picture but his little sandy-butt is too cute to not include:

Miriam, now covered in caked-on sand thanks to her shower, decided to do some more beach yoga. She's pretty sure the only thing waves are for is accompanying yoga.

This was her failed attempt at a handstand:

She is such a sand monster:

Not only was she covered in sand, but she continually tormented her little brother by either throwing sand at him or grabbing onto him:

Benjamin eventually realized that the only safe place from Miriam was the ocean. He took a split second to weigh his options and decided the ocean was probably the safer bet before turning tail and scurrying off into the waves.



Miriam followed him for a while, at least, until she noticed where he was headed.



Out to the open sea!

He joined Daddy and Rachel (who had apparently lost her pants by this time) in their extreme sandcastle building. It's like regular sandcastle building only instead of building your castle away from the crashing waves you purposefully choose to built it in the waves—it's a race against the tide. I think they actually call it "crazy sandcastles."

Benjamin thoroughly enjoyed being part of their game (and I love his little face so much).

This is Benjamin saying "boeuf," which is a noise that roughly translates to mean "impressive" (or "beef" depending on whether you're translating from the babytalk or the French).

My cute boys:

My cute water babies:

Extreme/Crazy Sandcastle building is not without its risks. You always have to be watching for rogue waves (and please do note Miriam's face in the background (although she terrorizes her brother she is gravely concerned about him (and is screaming, "Nooooo!"))).

After a while the sandcastle effort was abandoned in favour of more body surfing. Rachel's terribly good at catching those waves. She had more sand in more places than you could possibly imagine. As did we all.

Benjamin sat happily at the edge of the tide, his toes occasionally being splashed, while he sampled the sand. It was, in his opinion, exquisite.

Right around the time sharks are getting really hungry, Miriam decided she'd had enough of the beach so Grandma took her back to the van to get changed. It took us a few minutes to convince Rachel that the rest of us had to leave, too. We finally pulled the same tactic we use at the playground, only instead of giving her x-number of "slides" to do, we told her she could "catch three more waves."

Meanwhile, Benjamin and I watched from the shore:

We showered off and then changed Rachel into her bathing suit for the ride home. It was the only dry thing she had with her. And what do you suppose she did the very first thing when we arrived at the condo? She hit the pool with Grandpa and Miriam!

They might not have gotten into bed until 9:45, but those girls were asleep the minute their heads hit their pillows. Benjamin, on the other hand, took some (hours) of coaxing before he'd go to bed and he was the first one up this morning! So I'm exhausted...and yet here I sit...