WHY DO BEACHES HAVE TO HAVE SAND?

Hilary and I decided that if you could get rid of the sand, we'd love the beach. We were sanded out today. We spent our last full day in Coronado at the beach and my kids would have had it no other way. It started out overcast which made for a cold morning at the beach. I was bundled up in a towel. And the water was freezing but apparantly the water from the Pacific is always cold (I didn't know that but I'm sure everyone else did). The kids spent the first 3 hours finding dead jelly fish and collecting them. We had a jelly fish museum and they liked inviting everyone to come and see it. Hilary says they never have had jellyfish before but this year has been different.

In case you can't tell, this is 4 buckets filled with jelly fish

There was also a little dolphin watching which was cool. We saw Hilary's friends husband (the father of the boys in the above picture) disapear into the horizon on his Navy ship that was being deployed for 8 months. I really can't imagine that feeling. I tried to empathize but it was difficult. I can't imagine how hard it will be for the wife and these two boys as their dad is away and in harms way at that. There is no break for her. She plays mom and dad for the next 8 months by herself. And her husband fights off the bad guys while his wife keeps telling herself he's on a cruise so as not to be fearful of his safety. I felt so indebted to her and her husband. Rome leaves in January for 8 months and let me say that Hilary will then be SUPERMOM! Well she already is but come January, I'll make sure I call her one.

By the afternoon the sun came out and I have the sunburn to prove it. I think I forgot to put sunscreen on my chest. Uh Oh! At least my kids didn't get burned. While I was still bundled up in a towel some of the time and the water was still cold, we managed to build a sand castle, wrestle up some more jelly fish and surf the waves in. Colson did this for about 2 hours straight.

Sarah spent a great deal of time bossing Calli around and Calli was gracious enough to follow her orders. That Sarah Jane is something else. She's adorable! And so are the rest of Hilary's kids.

All 6 were covered in sand and I mean COVERED! We tried to wash off in the foot shower at the base of the Del but it was difficult. We then ate dinner at The Del around a fire pit. It was definately vacationlike and yet Hilary could easily do this every night. Super fun!

Our day was terrific and our evening was picturesque.