Summer's Last Hurrah

When I was a little girl, my grandmother lived in an oceanfront community. I have really fond memories of spending many days of my childhood there enjoying the pool, diving board, cabanas (she owned one facing the pool and my great uncle had one facing the beach), beach, snack bar (they had the best cheeseburgers!), and even the adult-only pool at times!
 But some of my favorite memories are of spending nights there on the beach.  We would pick up sandwiches from Taste Unlimited (a popular sandwich shop/restaurant) and play well into the dark.  Even the lifeguards were off duty so we could climb onto their stands, play up there, jump off, etc.  Summertime at its best.
So when I made our summer to-do list this year, I was very excited to add "dinner on the beach" to our list of must do's.  But somehow, summer came and went much too quickly and we hadn't made it to the beach for dinner...yet.  So when Josh mentioned that he had a work dinner to go to last week, I seized the opportunity, packed the boys up, picked up some Taste Unlimited, and had our very own beach picnic dinner/play time.

Colton entered the summer as a true beach boy.  Levi, on the other hand, was not necessarily a fan last year.  Over the course of the summer, though, my boy has grown to love the sand, sea, and salty air just as his genes dictated (well the ones I passed on...his daddy's are pretty anti-beach!).  

And he and his brother became really good at cleaning up the dunes...don't know how that falls in line with the dune preservation people, but oh well...

Another big development for us this summer was that Colton's swimming really took off.  He still can't quite figure out how to take a breath, but he loves putting his face in, kicking, and even using his arms for as long as he can!  So as long as he is in water that he can stand in, he can swim independently (obviously with very close supervision!).  And if we thought he loved the beach before, he is even more of a fan now...or more accurately a huge fan of anything water.  

Oh, and since our big boy doesn't wear a diaper like last summer, he has another new favorite activity (*warning: don't look if you're offended by white little tushies)

                                         

Knowing it was probably our last beach trip of the summer, I would have stayed all night (or at least until sunset to catch some cute photos..).  But Colton had school the next morning...and the sand fleas were out like crazy...so we packed up our stuff and headed home.  So long summer; you've been good to us!