Beach Day!

 Every summer I hear friends talking about heading to one of the beaches of Lake Washington.  I've never stopped to think "WE should go to a beach on Lake Washington.  It's close.  There is sand.  There is water.  It would be fun."  This year I finally got whacked over the head with the idea to go to the beach.  Guess what?  Lake Washington is warm and wonderful.  Especially during an amazingly warm summer like we just had.  There are several beaches to choose from and they are all pretty kid friendly.  The one closest to us has a lot of sand.  The one a little farther away has a deeper swimming area (this is a big deal to Nora who is part fish).  They both have roped off swimming areas and life guards.  They both have docks to jump off of (if you pass the swim test) and play structures on the beach for the kids to play on.  I can't believe it has taken me so long to get to either of these beaches.  I feel that I have wasted a lot of time! 

 One evening when it was upper 90s outside and lower 90s inside we headed out to have a picnic dinner on the grass and then spent as much time in the water as we could.  It felt heavenly.  The kids were just recovering from round one of hand-foot-mouth disease at this time and were so happy to be leaving the house.

 

 The sunset that evening was beyond what words or pictures can describe.  After it came out the bottom of those clouds it looked like blood.  The wild fires on the east side of the state always make for beautiful sunsets over here. 

The week before school started back up we met a bunch of friends for a beach day.

 Henry sat in his chair getting a tan and texting friends.

 We have some seriously cute friends.

 Seriously!

 May they always be this sweet and pure!

 This particular day Ezra was very sad because he had stitches on his knee and was not allowed to go swimming.  He thought he would be bored and sad all day as he watched his friends frolic in the water.  Turns out they didn't want to swim as much as they wanted to be sand engineers.  Four hours after we arrived he still had not complained of boredom a single time.

From now on--I plan to be spending some serious time at these beaches in the summer.  Next year will probably rain for all of June, July and August--but that's okay--I think Nora would still get in the water and swim.  She really is part fish.