“I wanna live like there’s no tomorrow..”

Today I took all the boys to the beach, by myself. Yes, it was a bona fide foolish thing to do. I might not try it again any time soon. It’s been warm here, and I just really wanted to go to the beach! The boys very excitedly dressed in their swimming trunks and packed in the van. We’ve never gotten ready to go somewhere so quickly!

Do you have a soundtrack to your life? I am one of those people who burst into RANDOM songs, ALL the time. If I’m not singing, I’m not happy. I sing, and I sing, and I sing. My head is like the “shuffle” option. It just pops up different songs all the time. Sometimes it’s because the song fits the day, and that was the case today.

There’s a new song out that just FELT like TODAY. To understand the title of my post and the vibe of our day out at the beach, you should hear this song:

Isn’t it great? So peppy! Plus, it really is a beautiful day to be alive.

Only, one small problem. I have a toddler.

He ties with his brother Joshua for being the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. 🙂 But at least his fits are silent. That’s right. That picture is one of JD’s famous “silent fits.” He was mad at me because I wouldn’t let him chase the birds anymore.

So let me tell you about our day.

First, we went to our favorite beach. It always has this great big tidal pool/drainage ditch that you have to cross, but usually there’s a bridge, and we just deal with it.

Today the wooden board that we call a bridge was gone, and the great big tidal pool was almost a river that went all the way to the ocean. It was massive. I would have taken a photo, but I was too busy trying to keep JD out of that nasty water. Alan says it’s nasty sewage drainage water. 🙁  He is a civil engineer, so I figure he knows a thing or two about it.

We had to hike a half mile around the thing to get to the ocean. That may not sound far, but when you are escorting a person that is two feet tall, insists on walking himself, all while lugging four beach towels in your shoulder bag, let me tell you, it’s far.

The big boys waited very sweetly for the slow team (JD and me) to catch up. They love jumping in the waves, and thankfully none of them get in too far.

Look closely. That’s Dan, not JD, looking for more ladybugs.

JD has this fascination with chasing birds. Do all little boys do this? I think ALL of mine have. When I decided to do the beach thing by myself, I thought it would be okay because last time JD just sat and dug around in the sand and complained a little bit. No biggie.

This time JD kept taking off after birds. Now that wouldn’t be so bad, but I have three other boys to keep an eye on. I had to keep making Daniel come with me to get JD.

In this video, you can see the boys running, but you can’t tell how big this drainage pond is. It was much longer than it was wide!

Finally, Dan just banked himself in the sand and started building ladybug houses. Caleb soon joined him.

We found lots of ladybugs in the sand today, and we all thought that was really neat.

building ladybug houses

This is the best I can do for an all four boys pic.

Once JD accepted that I was finished chasing birds, he threw his silent fit, and then he spent a while watching a ladybug. Joshua started asking to go home, so he took a vote. We said, “JD, do you want to go home?”

JD smiled, “Yes!!”

Hoping to avoid the long trek around the nasty water pool, I spotted what I thought would be a short cut around the other way. Let’s just say it didn’t end where I thought it would, and we ended up walking on asphalt in our bare feet. Thankfully, the boys are so used to California briars in their bare feet in our backyard that I was the only one complaining. JD was happy to be carried all the way back to the car, which didn’t end up being a shortcut at all. It was another long hike. I was so grateful that Joshua could carry the beach bag for me!

It was not the peaceful day at the beach that I had pictured. It was a stressful hour at the beach. One hour. That’s how long we lasted. I mean, of course it wasn’t relaxing. Ha! What was I thinking? But I was singing, “It’s good to be alive,” the whole time because you know what? It is!