Summer Bucket List - Check!!

My littles decided they had one Summer Bucket List Item this summer, and it was to visit South Shore Beach in Little Compton, RI.  We call this beach the "Big Wave Beach" because compared to the beaches near our house, it does indeed have big waves.  

It's about a 40 minute drive and you have to get there really early to park.  We left at 8 am and the parking lot was over halfway filled at 8:45.  Crazy!  Of course, when you are going to be out for a few hours with my crew, you need to pack lots of food and drinks or they will riot.  I set up a make-your-own-sub bar and everybody did just that!

We were able to take all of the kids (except JP who had to hold down The Cottage for us, but who is also going to Hawaii this month so we didn't feel tooooo badly) plus Andrew's girlfriend, Darian, and Eamon's girlfriend, Ellie.

A + D

E + E

The thing with beaches (around here anyway) is that you never know what you are going to get.  Sometimes it's rocky, sometimes it seaweedy and sometimes there's... no beach.  Well, I suppose if we had focused on the tide schedule instead of the wave schedule we may have known that it was high tide and the "beach" would be under water while we were there.  It was a lot of walking across rocks to get to the water, but then the sand was so smooth.

Summer Martins, Summer Not

I sunscreened, put on a cover-up and floppy hat, and sat under a shaded chair...in case my dermatologist sister is reading this :)

Everybody was in the ocean from 9am -1pm with the few exceptions of coming out to eat something and rest.  It was practically perfect!

Vitamin D and Vitamin Sea.

Always lifeguarding.

Declan said catching a wave was "THE BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD!"

I say practically perfect because two naughty things happened on our summer bucket list day.

First of all, a seagull literally swooped in from behind Darian's head and pulled the top layer of bread off her sub!  I watched it happen as I was sitting behind her and I just could not believe that seagull's nerve!  Look at these guys just snooping around:

Later on, a seagull flew dangerously close to Eamon and Ellie's food as they were holding it in their hands and I screamed again.  Their food was safe but they ate the rest under a towel for protection:

The second bad thing was that when I went in the waves for about ten minutes mostly to please the kids and say I did it, I emerged without my Apple watch :(  I guess the waves knocked it off my wrist and I've felt so naked since.  And this is why mama doesn't go in the ocean.  Well that, plus sharks.  And jellyfish.  

The kids are already asking when we can go back and I don't blame them, it was a lot of fun on a beautiful day with a great crew.  This morning, Brendan took out the marker to check off our goal:

I hope your goals are just as easy to check off :)