Beach Day | August Self Portrait

My last wedding-free weekend before school landed on some of the hottest days of the summer.  Looking ahead at the forecast and my calendar last week, I penciled out Friday and made mental plans to ditch life and escape to the lake with the girls. Snacks, sunscreen, swimsuits, sunglasses, sand toys. Oh, our sand toys. Our motley collection dates back to a Dollar Tree purchase in 2009 while on vacation in Duluth. The brightly colored plastic boats and buckets have held up marvelously to years of bath time but were definitely unfit for the sand castles we were already building in our minds. Whatever.

Friday morning we were up early and on the road by 9 a.m., making a spontaneous pit stop at Wal-Mart to look for new sand toys. I guess the middle of August is too late to shop for castle building supplies, so we opted for a pack of blue tumblers in the WeFest section instead. Whatever.

For six hot, beautiful hours we sat on the beach, swam and dug around in the warm sand and cool water. We packed sand into our tumblers and dug a river. I got to catch up with a couple dear friends who stopped by to visit. The girls tried to catch fish by baiting them with chocolate bunny grahams. They made friends with other kids on the beach who had better beach supplies than us. (I have smart kids.) We skipped lunch, snacked instead. Whatever.

My best memory might be taking off my floppy hat and sunglasses, lying on the waters edge and closing my eyes. A moment of peace. The sun blazed through my eyelids and I think I almost fell asleep. “WAKE UP, MOMMY!” When I opened my eyes the world looked whiter and brighter and a little red face was peering down into mine.  Eden was reciting quotes from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and I guess I wasn’t listening. I smiled. Whatever.

Now it’s back-to-school and back-to-shooting-and-editing. The”whatever” beach day is a happy summer memory. I kind of want to do it again tomorrow, but… responsibility and all that. 🙂

***

Many thanks to my friend Brittney for taking this photo! It was so nice not to have to set up a tripod in the sand.
This is the continuation of my monthly self portrait series.
See other posts from the series here!