seconds, re-runs, repeats

This should have been part of yesterday post. I saw this photo this morning and realised it was excluded and I don't know how since it is probably one of my all time favourites of Rosie.


The sun was was bright that I couldn't actually see what, if anything, I was taking photos of hence the missing arm but I love her great big smile. I also know that her face is saying brr, it's a bit cold Mummy.

Waves

Yesterday on Facebook a friend posted that they went to the beach for the first time this year. It inspired me and so this morning I threw that very idea out to the girls and they dashed to get ready. I was concerned that the water would still be much to cold.....for me. I was sure that I would be at the waters edge begging them to be careful and come a little closer to the shore. I was wrong, the water was a still freezing a smidge to cold for me but I was brave and went in with them anyway.

This is the time of year when our water is the clearest and the bluest. The closer we get to summer the scummier our water gets. The tropical storms and hurricanes churn it up and fill it with weed and stuff. Now it is a beautiful colour and quite clear. Today we even had waves which are rare here.

Stunning, no?

Manic swimmer on the beach

Oh dear lord there are 2 of them

After you. No, after you.

It's cold

Run for the land

fooled you, I'm not going in, ha ha ha 

Eventually they both went in

and then they both got out and Lily started to dig to China

and Rosie played with the sand

Can I have a do over?

Normally do overs are requested when things haven't gone quite right but I would like a do over of today so that I can repeat it again and again because it was just quite lovely.

After I dropped the girls at school my sister, Andy and I headed off to the beach. We stopped on the way for breakfast and then headed straight for Bill Baggs State Park. You really won't believe me I'm sure but there was no one there. It was perfect. It was still quite early and there was a nip in the air and the water positively frigid but we didn't go to swim we went to walk and meander.


Sadly, very sadly, I forgot to take my camera and my daft sister didn't bring her camera wires so we are stuck with phone pictures.

Andy trying to prove to me that the water wasn't cold. 

Sally agreeing with me and staying far far away from it

Somebodies art work. It scared my sister half to death which made Andy and I giiggle....alot.

Yes, the sky really was that colour and cloudless. When it gets cool down here we have the most incredible blue skies.

THe entrance to the lighthouse

View from halfway up the lighthouse steps 

The light at the top.

We climbed the 109 steps to the top and it was gorgeous. I took a fabulous photo of the stairs and managed to delete instead of sending it to myself! I have seen the lighthouse countless times but this isi the first time I have ever gone into it and it was stunning. We left the beach walked through South Miami and then picked the kiddos up from school. Rosie had part deux of her swim meet this evening but more on that tomorrow. I need to get to bed I have to be up at 5.30 tomorrow as Lily has a swim meet in another county and has to be in the water at 7.30. Oh and guess what? Sally and Andy opted out of the fun?? How rude!

Remember that beach I found?

Do you remember about a month ago when I raved about a beach I had found here that was gorgeous? We went back again today and about the gorgeous bit, uh, not so much. As we approached the sand I was happy to see that not to many people were there again at least not to the North side. (shocking isn't it that I am using north and south but when standing slap dab in the ocean even I can figure it out!) We trekked along the sand and marked our turf, so to speak. With great haste the kiddies gobbled some lunch and headed straight for the water and before I could catch them up they were heading back to the towels shouting, "ewwwwwww".

I marched down to the water, in my Mummy knows best stance, only to find this:

yuck.

The ocean looked more like a skank filled river bed and was really disgusting. I scanned as far as I could see and noted certain areas were clear of the scummy weed but there were a kazillion people smooshed into the tiny pockets. ARGHHH.

I was not about to be outdone by a few million people and an ocean full of yuck. We walked along the beach for freaking miles a little way until we found nice crystal clear water and we played there. We ended up having so much fun that we had no idea we had spent nearly 6 hours at the beach today. It was gorgeous and this is coming from a person who thinks the beach would be a great place if it didn't have any sand.

Just as we were ready to leave, the tide was washing in loads and loads of seaweed so I showed the girls how the tiny little fish and shrimp live in it. Before long there was a large crowd of kids all washing the seaweed in the girls buckets and looking at the tiny marine life. They found all kinds of fish etc and loved it. Since I hate touching any life form my job was water girl. They touched and I just made sure they had buckets of water to put everything in. It was a perfect plan. Once we were done everything got placed back in the ocean. I was amazed at my bravery.

Rosie eating her lunch: a butter sandwich.

Lily with not to many people behind her....that's cos they have already noticed the skank.

ewww, see what they are standing near. That is nasty.

it's nice here and we had hours of blissful fun

oddball kid

Rosie wanted to take a photo and apparently also wanted to be in it.

Then of course Lily wanted to take a photo also....with some "dude"in the background

The girls washing the seaweed

Teaching a boy how to do it and what to look for. Moments later about 6 more showed up.

The kids swam for hours they really should be tired but as I write this at 10 pm they are in bed laughing and carrying on.

Life's a beach

Go figure, the one time I actually let the frustrations of the cable company actually get to me they show up a day early to fix it and the cause of the problem was actually something that I find to be quite comical. Comcast cut our lines. Yep, they sure did. Their auditors were out here on Thursday sniffing around looking for naughty little blighters who are stealing cable and internet services and it turns out that the wires leading to our house for our phone and internet were not tagged so they cut us off. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that they do actually have auditors going around looking for people who steal so I found it all reasonably comical. It still doesn't answer the question why can't use my landline at night because of all the static on it but what the heck. So here I am back on line and one day a head of schedule. Hubs still doesn't find it funny. THe girls and I knew that we would have to be home for a few hours this afternoon while we waited for the cable guy so we hightailed it out of here first thing this morning and went tot he beach. I have lived here for ever and have yet to find a decent beach. I was under the impression that in order to find a decent beach we had to head to the west coast of Florida. WRONG. My friend Jenny told me to go to Crandon Park so we did today. Wow. It was gorgeous. Loads of sand, concession stands, clean-ish facilities, miles of empty spaces, it was fabulous. The girls and I had an absolutly wonderful time.

A beach without a million people on it, here in Miami. AWESOME

2 happy girls

Seriously nutty child

floating and having fun

hmmm, I think that face says, enough photos!

I can't wait to go back to this beach again. I am now going to go and catch up on blogs. Reading them from a 2 inch phone is murderous.

Trip to the beach

The girls didn't have school today. I decided yesterday that it would be a perfect day to head to the beach. I didn't even think of checking the weather, why would I? We live in Miami, the temperatures have been in the 80's for the past couple of weeks and are just creeping higher each day and the summer rains haven't started yet. Shortly after I awoke I checked the local weather: 60% chance of rain. Oh dear. I wasn't going to be deterred. I packed everything up and off we went. I have no idea where the 60% chance of rain happened but it didn't happen on us. We had some clouds but that was a good thing for our first trip to the beach of the year. My skin is as white as four so I really didn't want glaring sun. The water was still a little to cold for us. I was able to go in up to my knees. Lily went in completely and loved it and Rosie went in but went blue but she was having so much fun she wouldn't come out. We spent hours there. The girls were having so much fun I couldn't bring myself to drag them away. They came out for lunch and after about 3 bites Rose begged to go back in the pool. It didn't matter how many times I told her it wasn't the pool she kept calling that. daft child! All in all it was a great day. I can feel a shift in our activities happening, we are definitely gearing up for summer and that wonderful long vacation.
 

Looks a bit chilly doesn't she

Happy girl

Making sandcastles

Lily spent ages chasing Rosie with this nasty looking sponge finger

Still chasing her but Rosie finally wised up and started batting it away with her belly board

I'm not much of a beach person because I really detest sand but with the girls I love it and I can't wait for it to get warm enough for me to go in the water to.

Sand Angels

We buried Lily in the sand and then Rosie had a turn but she thought that laying in Lily's indentation was being buried.

heh, get out of that if you can!

Sometimes she is so daft.

And they (and I) just had fun.

She was trying to empty the ocean. Well she must have been she did the same thing over and over again.

Woohoo
building a sandcastle with a moat
Cute, isn't she?
Getting ready to take a dip

Their finished sandcastle was turned into a watering hole...I mean private pool.

Names in the sand

I don't know what they were doing here.



The temperature was supposed to hit 88 for today but it didn't. Oh no it surpassed 88 and headed for 90 instead. This can only mean one thing, summer is here. I don't care for summer at all, not one bit. It is just much to hot. I know that is hard for you who are still digging out from under the snow to grasp but it's true.

Today we went to the beach for the first time this year. This is early for a beach day. It was glorious. We made our home under the shade of a Palm tree and only returned to our spot to eat lunch. The rest of the day was spent at the waters edge, building sandcastles, making wading pools and just frolicking.

Both girls made sand angels, our version of the beautiful snow angel.

I will be able to deal with the heat just as soon as the water gets warm enough to actually get in. Submersion is the key.