Ah, the beach revisited…different beach, different family, different venue, same kind of fun!

We are at the beach with the Horton’s, (Lisa and Tim) our friends whose boys are the same ages as our kids. Zach plays hockey with their oldest son, Trey. Lucas plays with their middle son, Joseph. Noah, their youngest also plays hockey, just not with Claire. (She would rather not play hockey.) Claire brought a friend here with her so she’s not overwhelmed by all of the hockey playing boys. Since we travel so much with the Horton’s, for hockey, our friendship is relaxed and easy. Stan and Tim are cut from the same cloth. Both outdoorsy. Both relaxed and easy going. Both are Pied Piper’s of kids. Makes things easy for Lisa and me! Lisa is one of my all time favorite people. She won me over, in an instant, when she and I took our first hockey trip together to Pittsburgh with three boys for a tournament. Stan and I had just put our dog to sleep the day before Zach and I were due to leave for the tournament. Lisa, God love her, kept my mind so far away from my sadness with her kindness, caring and laughter. I love hanging with the Hortons under any circumstances but it’s made even better being surrounded by sun, sand and surf.

Today, we were joined by other friends’ of Tim and Lisa who live here at the beach and they rounded out our party for the day, making our outing even more fun than it would have been with just the Horton’s. Tommy, Trish and two Steve’s rounded out our group of adults. And a great group of adults it was! The adults set up shop on the beach, putting up umbrellas, hauling out coolers, setting up chairs and grilling hotdogs. The group of adults melded together very well with the conversation coming freely and easily.

The kids will be exhausted tonight. They were out of the water maybe once to eat lunch ~ with Zach eating nine hotdogs. The sun, sand and saltwater make a good playpen for the kids ~ boys and girls. Their activity level is right on par with their activity needs…thank heavens. But I don’t think it will be just the kids who will be exhausted tonight ~ I think all of us will be a good kind of exhausted tonight.

The big boys played hard in the water. They stopped occassionally to come out and play horseshoes. Then they were right back in the water. Their activity level is also right on par with their activity needs.

Lisa, Trish and I enjoyed the surf, sun and sand. Our activity level is right where we needed it to be. We sat in our chairs and soaked up every moment of our time on the pristine beaches of Cape Hatteras. It doesn’t get much better than this.

All of the kids, big and small are exhausted as we sit here tonight. It will be an early night for all of us so we can be up and at ’em early tomorrow ~ making it another day of sun, sand, surf and tired kids.

Oh, for the love of our children…