Life's a Beach

We all took a hike through the park this weekend. This will be the last day to use the park this year as it's closing tomorrow for construction as they remodel some of the outdated buildings, then bow hunting for deer later this fall.

We couldn't resist taking advantage of the perfect weather. Not too hot for Angela, and the only person whining was Dean. (maybe because he was wearing slip-on sandals? And he didn't want to go in the first place?) Angela set the pace: fast. Axel kept running to get in front of her, which would cause her to trip on him because he wasn't fast enough. Then he'd come back by me for a bit. It was a bit circus-like.

Angela, wait up! We've lost Dean. She didn't want to. This is the "talk to the hand" pose we see a lot of around here. 

I see him! She said! Then took off again.

Axel couldn't see him. He was worried we were gonna loose the papa.

This park is pretty big, with many forks in the trail. Last year a woman and her son got lost in the park and she called the police on her cell phone to get them out. Ok, we kind of laughed about this because it's not THAT big and if you walk in one direction for a mile or two you're going to run into a neighborhood. But it IS big enough for someone like Angela to easily become lost. That's when it occurred to me to have quick talk with her. "It's really important to always stay were you can see us. If ever you can't see us you STOP and DON'T MOVE. I mean it, you DON'T MOVE and eventually someone will find you. So tell me the new rule?" Which she repeated to me.

Ten minutes later I wanted to get some pictures of flowers. Angela did not want to be taking pictures of flowers because she was on a mission to loose us. And she did. She was WELL out of sight, and several turns of the trail ahead of us. And there was a fork...one leading back to the parking area and the other is the one we usually take home, which is how we usually get to the park!  I could hear her laughing hysterically "Ha ha! You're lost! HA HA!" (she sounds like "Roz" the secretary from Monsters Inc. when she says this.) We will have to work on this "keep us in sight" rule because clearly it's just a joke to her.

At the end of the trail is the beach. We decided to put our feet in. I had Axel here a couple weeks ago but he was barely able get his toes wet before we had to leave. (I was connected to an electronic thingy for some medical tests.) So this was Axel's first REAL time at the beach, and he LOVED IT!!!!!

Getting his feet wet.

Took about 2 seconds for me to get rid of his shirt, which later became his towel. 

Dean was in charge of the camera, otherwise there wouldn't be something on the lens AND you'd be able to see Axel laughing hysterically as I swung him in the air and plopped him back in the water with a big splash.

When it was time to leave Axel didn't really want to get out of the water. It was pretty cool outside! The water felt great compared to the 60 degree air. Anyway, this is how Axel came out of the water. Walking backward splashing the entire way.

Getting a little closer to getting out. LOL

and now he's cold. LOL

Since the mom didn't plan for swimming, we didn't have towels, and it was chilly! But we'd taken the car over (we usually walk) so it only took us a minute to get home. Good thing we had shirts to dry off with.

Wish I'd had my other camera with video. Axel had the little old man walk going on, and he was NOT happy with the wet sand on his feet!