Day trip to the beach

We did it! We finally made a day trip to the beach. We asked all of our friends for recommendations, we researched beach umbrellas/tents/shelters. We checked the tide charts. We planned, we packed. I took a day off work so we could go when it was not so crowded. I wish I could say it was fabulous and wonderful. But at least I can say we did it!

These are the only 2 pictures I took. Above Ally and Becky are walking down to the water. The tide was out, which is when everyone told us to go, so Ally could walk out a long way and explore tide pools and such. But it was so far to get to the water.

For some time Ally and Becky sat in their beach chairs in a dried up tide pool, while I sat at the beach tent, acting as dead weight so it would not blow away in the wind.
I knew it was not going to be so much fun when as soon as we reached sand in the parking lot, Ally asked to be picked up. We changed her shoes - to the Tinkerbell beach flip flops - but even the sparkly purple flip flops did not help. Her skinny little foot does not stay in the shoes well enough to walk. So there we were, 2 bags of stuff, the tent, 3 beach chairs and now I am carrying Ally as well. Once we got set up Becky asked if I brought any adult beverages in the cooler. As you can see - I only had diet coke, which was not what she had in mind at the time!
After a while Ally got into it some - she refused to walk on any seaweed, but she would patiently fill up her sand bucket with water by scooping water out of a puddle into the bucket. Her patience is amazing. When she finally drained the puddle she asked to go to the big water. After about 30 minute there, and 2 hours total at the beach Ally was done - she asked to go home. Frankly, we were ready too.
Then Ally proceeded to fall sound asleep in the car on the way home, which made for a quiet drive but it was so late in the day, she did not fall asleep at night until midnight. We were 2 tired mothers.
We decided we'd try again sometime, but that maybe we weren't beach day-trip people.