I love the ocean. Have I mentioned that? The waves, the salt water, the excitement and calmness all rolled up together. We went to York Beach again this week with our neighbors. Despite the traffic and construction that delayed our arrival, we persisted and claimed our square on the beach. The three kids were awesome and played so well together. Parrish rocked his boogey board, while Lex practiced body surfing and wild cavorting in the waves. Eve gave it her best then decided she preferred the beach to the water. The air was chilly (low 70’s and cloudy, though much warmer than the first time we went to York Beach), the waves were high, and she was tired. She had the most fun when I put her on my back and brought her out so she could feel the waves crash against her feet but not worry about getting knocked over.

It was tough to find parking, so we found our spot and then stood in an empty spot (avoiding eye contact with cars passing by) while Robina brough her car over. It was lunch time so I doled out sandwiches to the kids while we waited.

Here is one patient little boy.

We spent a lot of time with this spread. Eve on the shore, Lex in the middle, and Parrish hitting the big waves!

Boogey boy!

This guy was pretty ambitious with his beach creation. The kid gave me the evil eye as we approached.

Some beach time for the beach babes.

She's so zen.

Funny thing, they look the same as they did last year.

When we were all tired and cold (well, all except Parrish, I think he would have boogeyed (that can’t be a word!?) all night if we’d let him!) we walked in to the little touristy town of York and went to an awesome candy store. We dragged those poor patient kids through the candy store over and over (bathrooms, buy taffy, restaurant, etc) and they were troopers. We watched the taffy making process from the street. That was cool. Then we went in an bought some saltwater taffy. The kids loved it, of course! :) Then we decided to stick around and have dinner at the little restaurant there. Grilled cheese, mac and cheese, hot tea… yum! Comfort foods all around.

Watching the taffy pulling machine.

Watching the cutter/wrapper machine pop out wrapped taffies by the second.

Then back in the car for the long drive home. The return trip had no construction and traffic so it went much smoother (for us, our poor neighbors had car trouble) and we made it home around 9:00pm. Both kids still awake, which was nice because I really wanted to bathe them before bed. Especially blue-face Eve who decided to EAT a colored pencil. I think she’s cutting teeth or something. I fed them a huge container of carrots (to keep the pencils out of her mouth), but eventually the carrots ran out and it got dark and the sneaky (tired, oblivious girl) went back to her pencils. No more unmonitored coloring for that girl!

Look at that mug!

The poor defenseless pencil.