Maybe Life is a Beach after all

Over Memorial Day the husband and I attempted to take the kids to the beach. The in-laws live on LBI and that is “what you do” on Memorial Day right? Our day at the beach was stressful and annoying and I swore I would not attempt a beach trip again for a very long time.

Fast forward to this past Friday night. I was making some returns at The Loft (don’t you love price adjustments?) and I had this nagging feeling in the back of my head that I needed to come up with something for the kids to do on Saturday. The twins had been out of school a week and by 4pm Friday they were bored, hot, tired and sick of playing with their brothers.

Hmmmm, what to do?? The husband was off from work (a rarity) and it was supposed to be nice out. I know – let’s go to the beach! I came home and told the husband my idea and he just stared at me. You want to go to the beach on a Saturday? It will take all day to get down Route 72 on a Saturday in June are you insane? was his response.

No wait, I have an idea. We will leave for LBI after lunch this way we will miss the turnover traffic and if we take the kids to the beach later in the afternoon, it won’t be as crowded and hot. We can even bring the kids pjs and bathe and change them at your mom’s and then when they fall asleep in the van we can carry them up to bed.  It’s win-win for everyone!!

So there we were around 2pm on Saturday heading to LBI. There was barely any traffic and we were able to get there under 2 hours (with 2 stops). The kids settled in and had some juice boxes before we headed over to the beach. You would have thought we were going to be gone for a week with the amount of stuff we crammed in the beach cart – chairs, an umbrella, towels, drinks and enough toys for every kid on the beach.

We headed up the beach path and when we reached the top it was amazing the beach was empty! OMG we not only had our pick of beach spots but the kids had the run of the beach. They could run, throw sand and scream and it wouldn’t bother anyone (except maybe the cute couple sharing a blanket not too far from us).

Dare I say it was one of the best beach days I ever had. I was able to sit in a chair and just watch the kids in amazement. How can it be that I have kids? I remember spending hours, alone in my beach chair, carefully calculating the best angle for tanning with my only worries being if I remembered my book or that the umbrella would fly away if I fell asleep. Now here I was sitting in a beach chair with wheels (my in-laws chairs) watching 4 crazy boys run all over the beach like they had been locked away in windowless room their entire life.

On the ride home that night I thought about the day in shock. We were able to take the kids to the beach AND have a good time AND have no drama?? WOW wonders never cease do they?!

I am sure the next time we head to LBI it as perfect but a girl can dream.

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