Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

I can't remember the last time we went to the beach. And by "went to the beach," I don't mean "took off for Florida in the dead of winter" -- I mean, I literally cannot recall when G and I last packed up all our worldly possessions plus a cooler so that we could go get gnawed to death by blackflies while surrounded by approximately half the population of the Garden State. The hairy half.

While we were getting through the last two weeks of prep for my sister's wedding, we decided it would be a good time to head back down the shore. Shae's been asking us to take her anyway -- at least once a week, all summer long, she's practically begged to go. So I took a couple of days off to recover from the adrenaline (and Sambuca) hangover, and we decided today would be the day.

Incidentally: we were not expecting it to be the hottest freaking day of the year when we made these plans. The fact that it was 102°F at noontime was just a bonus. The infestation of biting bugs? They were like hitting the lottery.

But those are really our only complaints. It was actually a beautiful day, especially when we first got there and there was hardly anyone else around.

We spent the morning digging and building sand castles. Fortunately, to a two-year-old, castles don't need to be that big, or even very precisely castle-shaped.

Oh, and apropos of nothing, but can you believe what my mother has in her garage? A highly vintage Happy Meal beach bucket from 1989 squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Oh yes, we used it. We used the snot out of it. Anybody who's anybody was coveting our beach bucket, yesireebob.

Of course we got up to our usual shenanigans, like when we ran off after some seagulls ...

... and needed to be hunted down by Daddy.

And of course we went into the ocean, because otherwise what would be the point of packing three towels, a blanket, three chairs, an umbrella, three different kinds of sunscreen, six sandwiches, ten juice boxes, four packs of fruit snacks, six little bottles of Gatorade, a half-pound of grapes, six bottles of water, chips, pretzels, and a jar of pickles into the back of the car and then eating the sand twice just to make sure it was actually gross the first time?

We also discovered the benefits of natural exfoliation ...

... and almost got eaten by a kraken, or perhaps Ursula the Sea Witch.

Oh, and Mommy lost her sunglasses in a big wave, so thank goodness they were only $9 at TJ Maxx, the end. (More wedding stuff tomorrow.)