Why didn't somebody warn us about taking a two year old and a 6 month old to the beach?!

We had an unsuccessful trip to the beach to say the least.

We attempted it yesterday morning. Slathered everybody with sunscreen and packed up the car. Drove the couple of miles to the beach. It was easy to park.

We quickly realized that we would need a couple of trips to get all our crap onto the beach. I tucked baby A under my arm, gathered a couple of things and started walking. J grabbed D and a couple of bags and the beach umbrella and we all headed up the walkway over the dunes. D insisted on walking himself, but soon tired out.

When we got to the end of the walkway, J abandoned his bags in order to carry D. I trudged onward through the soft sand, scouting for a good spot down, way down near the water.

Half an hour or so after we left the car, we arrived at our spot. (j/k) It didn't really take that long. It just kind of felt that way. Once at our spot, we commenced try to get set up.

Spread out the beach blanket, the one that isn't quite heavy enough to not fly away in the wind. Try to spread it out again and throw our bags on the corners all at once. D begins to run from us into the water and J tries to get him leaving me to wrestle with the blanket with jumbo-baby under one arm.

J brings D back who comes with fistfuls of sand which he deposits in the middle of the partially nailed down blanket. Great. Baby A is almost instantly coated with sand which sticks to him because of the heretoforementioned slathering of sunscreen. I also think I hear baby A's fair skin beginning to sizzle under the sun and feverishly try to set up his little sun shelter. While also holding the beach blanket down as the wind continues to wrestle it away.

J is chasing Daniel again and when he comes back, I ask him to put up the beach umbrella. Hah. It stays put for two seconds before it is aloft over the beach, landing about 20 feet from where we were. Luckily, it didn't impale anyone. So, the umbrella is enlisted in the struggle to hold the blanket down.

A's sunshelter also does not wish to remain grounded, so I try to hold it down with my knee and quickly lay baby A in it. After about two minutes when it starts blowing down over him, he wants out.

Meanwhile, D keeps running down the beach before we know it and pitches fits when he's brought back. Not too good at sticking around is that boy. Ten minutes in and I've had enough. I can't just hold the baby because I don't want him in the direct sun, and if he's not in his shelter, I have to hold it down with my leg or whatever.

"That's it," I growl at J. I'm going back to the car. He follows with D. We take some stuff and abandon the rest for J to make a trip back once we've secured the children inside our vehicle.

Beach outing: aborted.

J will just take D by himself with minimal bags to carry.

Ugh. What were we thinking?

The beach is really nice here though.