Life's A Beach ▌Padre Island National Seashore, Texas

My journal entry from Friday, March 27, 2009:
Beware the "Ides of March" my husband tells me. We are driving away from the beach, our tent under about 3 inches of rain water. This whole camping adventure was my idea and has been nothing but a series of eco-challenges, sort of like a marriage retreat with complex problem solving and trust-falls, minus the Chaplain's encouraging words and delicious catered menu.
Challenge #1: Let's erect a tent we've never seen before with an audience! No, The Baby and The Boy are jubilantly digging in the sand dune and are for the first time in their lives as brothers, entertaining themselves! No, the audience to which I refer would be a couple in their 50's, enjoying the view from behind a little Weber grill where they have presumably just finished their hot steak and lobster. They have practically repositioned their lawn chairs to better view the charming young couple with the sweet babies and the absolutely enormous two cabin tent. Fortunately for us, the howling wind from the surf masked any smart remarks we might have overheard regarding our positioning of the tent with the door facing the ocean (so the 30MPH wind off the surf would inflate the tent!) or the impending arrival of Yuki's harem, because good Lord, that tent is huge! Lucky for my adorable husband, these onlookers were in my mind as I bit my tongue, followed orders sweetly and stifled the urge to ask why the heck someone would rent a tent without a rain fly?...
Challenge #2: Being right on the beach is grand when it comes to sand castles and sunsets, but when it's time to eat, bathe, or sleep, just how do you make all that sand go away?! How do you stop The Baby from grabbing fistfuls of sand and how DOES one extract sand from The Baby's eyes, in the dark, with the wind blowing at 30MPH, while changing a poopy diaper; are we having fun yet?!
Challenge #3: Now that the tent is up and everyone is inside, how do we get to sleep? Never mind the chaos that was bath time and finding jammies and dinner, my that sun did set quickly, but the wind is pummeling our tent and the surf is deafening, I can't even hear my husband who lays next to me a mere 6 inches away. Whoever said that ocean waves was soothing white noise was obviously listening to their sound machine somewhere in Denver. We both dream that the tide comes too high and threatens to carry the car and the tent into the Gulf. It was the longest night of our lives, beating out the births of both our children by a narrow margin.
By now I have probably scared you all off from camping with children. Glad to have talked some sense into anyone considering the idea! Seriously though, we had a blast. We made some fantastic natural discoveries, sand dollars, jelly fish, herons, Bic pens, and there were far more smiles than tears. This blog is really just the tip of the iceberg; it would take me weeks to process all the "memories" and write about them in such a way that would be interesting. Alas, we are back home and that means back to work, and I'm happy to report that I am working a lot these days and just loving the excitement of having the best of both worlds, Mom & Photographer!