The Beach

Last Saturday we decided our family outing was going to be to the beach. We've been in Chicago for over three years now and not once have we been. I've often heard people talking about their day at the beach thought it sounded fun. We knew Carter would love it. What little boy doesn't love dirt and water as far as the eye can see. I wasn't quite sure how things were going to go with Austin. He's not content to just sit and watch anymore and he's a taster. This kid will put anything in his mouth! By 11 o'clock we were out the door. We went to the beach on 31st Street. When we got there there was just a small handful of people around so we found a nice clean patch of sand and set our stuff out. Carter and Zach went straight for the water with the toys we'd brought and started to build and dig. I fed Austin his lunch while he sat in his stroller but as soon as I was finished he wanted out. I set him down on the towels we'd spread out and of course he immediately started to move toward Zach and Carter. As soon as his hands hit the sand he stopped dead in his tracks. He didn't move for 15 seconds (that's a long time for him). Then he started to push his hands farther into the sand. He sat up and let the sand run through his fingers and there he was for a few minutes just sifting sand through his little fingers. Then it seemed he decided he wasn't ready to venture too far into this strange new ground cover and we played on the towels for a while. When I took him down to the waters edge by Zach and Carter we think he liked it. It was kind of hard to tell because he just kept grunting and we weren't sure if it was a happy grunt or an, "I'm about to cry" grunt. He liked to stand on the wet sand and wiggle his toes so the sand covered his feet. Carter ended up soaking wet and covered in sand. He had a blast. I think Carter's favorite part was when he dropped his bowl and a wave of water caught it pulling it away from him and then bringing it back in to him. He played that game for at least 15 minutes. Eventually Austin decided he was sick of being confined to the small square of towels that he was on and just took off across the beach. It was pretty funny. We all had a lot of fun and may find ourselves back there again this weekend. We only have so many warm days left.

Believe it or not, I remembered to take the camera with us on our outing and even took pictures. I'll put them on as soon as I figure out how.