an afternoon in the sand

Shawn was texting me pictures from Busch Gardens this morning (because the same job that drops him off in Middle Eastern deserts sometimes drops him off at amusement parks -it does have it's perks now and then.) So I thought I should get out on this pretty Saturday and do something fun with the kids as well.
Also that would make much easier to keep ignoring the laundry that had taken over the living room.
Off to the beach we went.

We tried out another new kite. We dug holes in the sand. Tristan and Kenna built castles and Katie stomped on them, laughing. When I noticed sand castle building was only leading to trouble I started walking down the beach, calling them to follow.

And that's when we saw it. The Crater.

Someone had dug an invitingly huge and very deep pit. The kids ran to it, excited, but stopped short at the edge when they realized the hole had inhabitants and they were still there. An older couple and their picnic were situated on a blanket at the bottom.
Awkward.
I gently led the kids a ways away where they could run around on a flat area of packed sand. The sky was blank gray and the beach empty of people (except for the two hidden in the hole.) It looked as if they were running on the surface of the moon.

As we played, the girls making "sand angels" and Tristan giving me jump shots, Crater Couple left the beach and the kids happily invaded their space. Up and down like puppies they ran and climbed and jumped and slid in the cold sand. Kenna asked if we could camp out there tonight. I wasn't exactly prepared for camping in a sand pit so I let them play until we were all shivering in the setting sun and then dragged them back down the beach for home.

This morning, before our beach excursion, the kids had played with buddies down the street while I went on a nice long neighborhood walk with a friend. And before that we had lounged around in our pjs until 10am, eating cinnamon toast and reading books (well, I read books, they played Wii and watched movies.) We came home, used up all the hot water, ate macaroni and green beans and scrambled eggs and spinach...I didn't mind playing short-order cook tonight, I guess the fresh air got to me.
The laundry still hasn't been touched.
I'd say it was a Saturday well-spent for all of us and I think I'm going to make it a point to have a lot of Saturdays like this one over the next few months (except for the out-of-town husband part. We'd rather he join us next time.)