That time we spent 12 hours at the beach and survived...

Last weekend we took a somewhat impromptu trip to the beach. The parents of a former student turned lifelong friend, Kadie, own a beach house in Surfside. When Kadie and Dan came by for a visit a couple of weeks ago they said that we should use it sometime. Ryan and I thought that sounded like a great idea and the Petree's were overwhelmingly gracious to open up their beautiful home to us!

So, on Friday night, we asked the kids what they wanted to do for the weekend. 

Emmy - dress up

Radley - legos, cars, and movies

Landry - indifferent

Then Ryan asked me what I wanted to do and I said, "Go to the beach..." 

the kids were so confused they didn't know how to react. Radley didn't believe us, but it was true - so we threw on their pjs, put them in the pre-packed car (bc we are sneaky like that) and headed to the beach! 

We thought this was a brilliant idea - leaving at night. They would sleep the whole way. 

HA! 

None of them fell asleep - even Miss L who is out by 7:15pm every night stayed awake. Which was ok, because then they would sleep late... 

HA!

This is where our feet were by 7:30am the next day... 

And so started our 12 hour day at the beach...

Powdered donuts are the breakfast of choice on King family vacations.

The morning was perfect - slightly overcast which provided us with cool(ish) air and an empty beach to enjoy God's creation and my favorite people.

(I feel like I should defend the AF hat - I've had it since 1999 and it's perfectly molded to my head.)

And they were ready for some fun! (Landry may have still been waking up).

Emmy wasn't sure about the water at first - but Ryan showed her it was nothing but fun.

He attempted to do the same for Miss L...

but she was good with just eating digging up sand.

Oh sweet girl, if you only knew how much you are going to LOVE having your toes in the sand. 

 Radley has been patiently waiting for "our turn" to go to the beach. So many of his friends have been this summer - I am so thankful that we got to go just so I could see this look on his face. 

The morning could not have been better. We had miles of beach to ourselves. The tide was low, the water was warm and the sand was waiting to be sculpted.

 The clouds were a saving grace and the tiny little drizzle that they brought were welcomed by these two who thought it was so fun to be at the beach "in the rain!"

Landry wasn't too sure of those drops on her head, but she managed to find other ways to stay entertained.

Ryan and I sat and watched them for what seemed like hours. I want to remember that moment forever. We were under the tent, enjoying the sound of the drops of rain above our head, holding Landry and soaking up all the love that these two were creating for this beautiful place and each other. When Emmy is really being sweet, she calls Radley "brother" as in "Hey Brother - come here!" Its her definite term of endearment for him. 

Well, the whole day Radley was "brother" and my heart was swollen. The simplicity of nothing just kept them so entertained. The sand and water and seaweed became treasure and magic and monsters - their imaginations were so hard at work and I loved just watching them create this world of make believe.

Then the sun peaked through and we realized that four hours had already gone by.

(We actually realized this when we noticed Landry had eaten all the strawberries, the rest of the donuts,  a pound of sand and was still a little grumpy. Naptime was in her future).

We took a 20 minute break to put L to bed, grab lunch, and change swim wear and then me and the bigs headed back out. 

A giant shovel had washed up on shore which meant that it was time for some serious sand castle making.

Can we pause and talk about her in this hat. 

In.Love.

And then I put the camera down and enjoyed the next five hours of just us 5 Kings. And then we realized it was 6:39pm and we should probably clean up our mess and make our way back in the house. But not before one group shot to commemorate one my all-time favorite days at the beach.

No, scratch that - this was the best day at the beach I have ever had. 

Simply because I got to share it with them...

And because we like to keep it real around here...

It wasn't all starfish and sand dollars... 

but I do think they were just crying because we had to leave. 

And, we ended the night all smiles...

and ready for day two...