Sometime plans just don't work out

Saturday marked Day 1 of our three day holiday weekend. Because we had plans for Sunday and Monday, we decided to visit Grammy and Papa at the beach house on Saturday afternoon. High tide was scheduled to occur during the 12:15 to 12:45 time frame. Because there is not a sandy beach (only rocks) during high tide, we figured we could take care of some errands and housework that morning and then drive down after lunch.

Em told me that she didn't want to go because 1. it's a really long drive and 2. she doesn't like getting sand in her bum. She eagerly climbed into the van without complaint though. Go figure.

(Em & Allie being silly before we pulled out of the driveway.)

Here are the girls on the drive to the beach.

(Yes, Emily is wearing pajamas. I am still not fighting that battle.)

We allowed them to nap because it worked with our plans for the reminder of the day.

After a quick stop at Grammy's house to gather up family and change into beach attire, we finally arrived at the beach. It had been hot at our house but was noticeably cooler near the water. I was a little concerned with the plan for that evening because of the weather. Rich and I had brought the girls' pajamas and since low tide was scheduled for approximately 7:00 that night, we were going to bring the girls back down to the beach for a photo shoot.

Best laid plans.

I hadn't worn my bathing suit because the girls just kind of play in the waves and I can stand there near them and not get wet. Rich is the designated ocean swimmer. I always bring a change of clothes though because I know better.

Well, Allie and Em were a bit adventuresome on this beach outing. So much so that an adult needed to be very close by and watching. The water was extremely warm as well - around 68 degrees. Allie waded out to where the water was almost to her waist and then, bam, got knocked over by a wave. I was there to grab her and she was seemingly unfazed by the incident. As you can imagine though, my shorts, underwear and shirt were soaking wet.

A bit after 4:00, clouds started to appear and without the sun, the air was brisk. At that point, I was concerned for the evening photo shoot because the outfits that I had packed were summer outfits. I always bring hoodies with us but those did not match any of the clothing and I wanted to try to get a picture of the girls to have printed and framed. I know not every photo can be staged but if you were going to have a photographer take pictures of your kids, you wouldn't have them dressed in completely mismatched outfits.

Anna had been a bit afraid to venture into the water (probably because of the wave incident with Allie) so we went for a walk to look for shells and rocks.

When we returned from our walk, the lighting was perfect. Absolutely perfect.

But getting three munchkins to cooperate is not so easy and with the clouds rolling in, I feared that my window of good light was going to end much sooner than I had originally anticipated.

***

To be continued...

I need to get to bed at a decent time tonight and since I still need to eat dessert (there's a mini cupcake and bowl of ice cream with my name on it), pack my lunch for tomorrow and decide what to wear tomorrow, I'm going to have to break up this blog post.

Does the weather cooperate?

Do the girls cooperate?

Do I get that lobster roll? (Oh, we hadn't reached that part of the story yet.)

Stay tuned. (Oh, the anticipation!)