Beachin' It!

Last Sunday was a beautiful (though windy) day, so after making Tommy suffer through a short shopping trip to the Carter's outlet store (FOR HIM, mind you!), I treated him to a day at the beach.  Although his mama is a huge beach bum, we only went to the beach ONE day last summer, and that was while we were on vacation in the Outer Banks of North Carolina - and it was barely 2 hours that we spent on the beach.  Tommy was not that thrilled with the ocean that trip.  So just like not going to anyone's pool last summer, Mama only went to the beach a few times by herself last summer.

The Tomster wanted no part of walking from the car to the beach, so I ended up carrying him, and once on the beach, he wasn't too thrilled when I put him down.  We stayed pretty far back from the ocean.  I couldn't even interest him in searching for shells or rocks.  But we just sat and people watched, though there weren't a ton of people, just some surfers, some photographers, and a few folks fishing on the jetty.  Tommy finally did relax and had some fun tackling and jumping on me, and pointed out every seagull that we saw saying, "Bird!" 

Keeping one eye on that noisy ocean

Checking out the surfers on the waves

Keeping and eye on Mama to make sure she doesn't try any funny stuff

Watching the birds

Finally a smile when Tommy caught his Mama off guard by jumping on her while she was snapping some ocean pics

Love how Tommy's got his hand on me - he was really hugging me here!

A ticklish kid means you can usually get a smile

Not a bad self portrait...hair courtesy of the wind, however.

 A kiss for my cutie

Tommy was excited to sit on the bench, which he identified for me thanks to us always pointing it out in one of his books we read every night

Snacking on some goldfish while we made friends with several dogs walking by

Windblown

There were tons of dogs being walked by their owners, and Tommy made friends with several of them on our walk back to the car. And he actually WALKED all the way back to the car with me. It took a while, but we were in no rush, and we passed an older gentleman on a bench who commented on how handsome Tommy was, and how he loved seeing the kids. Tommy seemed to really make his day with his smile and laugh. He told me he lived in a retirement/assisted living community that is well known near the shore area, and that it's a treat to see the little ones because they don't see too many where he lives. He also said it was the first time he'd been up to the beach in five years. Made me truly appreciate the day even more.