It Doesn't Get Better Than This

Because it's summer, and because it's a beautiful Friday, we went to the beach.   And not just any beach, but the hands-down most super fantastic beach in our neck of the woods.

 White Rock beach, up in Surrey, British Columbia has sand.  Real sand!  And a big white rock - see it there in the background?  In Washington, we love our beaches, but we're accustomed to rocky beaches with just a little bit of sand.  Gobs and gobs of sand feels like such a luxury.

 We've been to White Rock beach two times before - both on cold, windy days and I wasn't too impressed.  But today was an entirely different story.  I love this beach!  The kids dug and dug and dug.

 We went with my friend Melinda, and her kids, Guyan and Owen.  From the second we hit the beach, Guyan and Henry started digging.  And, basically, they didn't stop digging for about two hours.

 

 Alice enjoyed digging too, but she mostly loved running in the shallow water.

 I walked through the water, chatted with Melinda, read my book, and squished my toes in the sand.

 All of us were happy.

 The boys managed to cover their feet, their knees, and their legs with mounds of sand.

 And when it got too heavy, they broke free.

 Both of them needed a little help from Alice and Owen.

 

 Like I said, the sand occupied them for a full two hours.  It was only then that they looked up and realized there was water nearby.   Wow!   Water!

 Even with a high low tide (low tide was 4.5 which isn't very low in my book), it was an amazing beach.   The shallow water only went up to an adult's knees and it went on like that forever.  See the breakwater?  I think that's what it's called... the line of rocks.  It was shallow all the way out to there.   Kids of all ages were running and playing everywhere.

While our four kids waded out in the water, Melinda and I took a stroll on the pier.

 Henry found gobs of seaweed.

 And he shared it with his friends.

 

 It was about this time that the boys started slinging wet sand at eachother.

 Seemed like a good time to call the kids back in.  I think this is one of my favorite photos of the afternoon.

 

 The kids were filthy and they rinsed off near the shore before heading to the car.

Happy, happy day!   Man, we had a great time.