January Beach Day

We finally became brave enough to take Cayden to the beach today.  Now this has taken us well over a year to take the plunge and expose Cayden to the sand, water, seagulls, and did I mention sand?  I am one of those mom's who likes their child to remain clean as much as possible and so the thought of him being in a huge sandbox was a little bit overwhelming.  I just don't like the thought of Cayden eating sand (which he did).  Our friends, Matt and Robyn, finally talked us into going and it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day (lower 80s . . . is it really January?)!  When we first arrived, Cayden began playing on one of the surf boards and of course managed to bang up his face pretty good (great start to our first beach day, strike 1).  So after a little blood and sand, we lathered him up with sunscreen and had him go dip his feet in the Pacific Ocean.  He cried as the water was quite cold (strike two). 

Here he is crying after he felt the water. 
Here is the cleaned up version of the cut on his nose.
Cayden liked to sit in this little beach chair, I guess it was easy for him to get up and down, so he felt cool to have a chair :)!
Matt and Robyn had some sand toys that Cayden enjoyed playing with . . . mostly the rake as pictured numerous times.
The white surf board was where Cayden injured himself.
A family picture right before Matthew learned how to surf :)!
Surfing lessons 101 with Matt Hoekstra . . . Matthew stretching in his super studly wet suit
Off to the water
Paddling out to catch some waves
They caught one and we have a picture to prove it (at least body surfing)
Cayden wanted to be like the boys and was loving playing on the surf board (fins down this time so no more injuries)
Wow he is surfing!
He had so much fun on that surf board . . . Robyn and I wish we had that earlier as it was difficult to entertain him while the boys were out in the water.
Food time with Matt . . . loves the chex mix!
What a gorgeous day being out in God's beautiful creation, it was nice to be out in the fresh air away from the busyness.  All in all we had a good day and there was no 3rd strike, so I guess we can attempt to go back to the beach some other time!  One bonus was that since Cayden only slept for a total of 45 minutes all day he went to bed by 6:45 tonight!  This gave us a chance to take a breath and then enjoy a late supper and a game of Ticket to Ride (European Style) with our friends Janna and Troy (the girls each won a game :) )!!