The beach is one of the few places where I feel most at peace. When I’m sitting in the sand, with the sun at my back, staring at the vastness of the ocean before me, and listening to the steady pulse of the waves coming ashore, I can let all my worries, all my fears, all my stress melt away in the awe of what the Lord created. I’m thankful that the Lord provides us these spaces, and thankful that I am fortunate enough to live so close to this outlet in my life. I had literally been counting the days until Spring Break so that Hal and I could take Malachi there. Now, I realize that Chi may not have the same feeling about the beach (as he gets older), but I was certainly hoping that he would at least get a kick out of it!
So, we packed up our car with towels, an umbrella, and all the baby essentials and made the short trek to the beach. We picked the morning time, just hoping that the crowds would wait until later to show up. As we walked, or in my case stumbled, through the sand I knew that we had timed it right. There were very few people out and most seemed to be locals walking along the wet sand. I took my first deep breath in a long time. Then I turned to the second most precious guy in my life and introduced him to one of my favorite places.
It was so wonderful to watch his expressions as he experienced the beach for himself. He loved rubbing his feet in the sand…he’s big on figuring out how things feel. He wasn’t so excited about the sand on his hands. 
He loved the waves, but wasn’t sure about the fact that his feet kept sinking. He flapped his arms and yelled with delight as we played in the cool water. When he was ready for a change of scenery we put him on the beach towel (under the shade of the umbrella) and he got to play with his new sand toys (shovels, rakes, etc.). Watching my little boy enjoy his first beach trip brought me such happiness. I really hope that we’ll get many more chances to enjoy this special place while we’re still living here. Anyway, here are some pictures of us from his first time at the beach.
We’ve gone back to the beach a few more times since this one and Chi has enjoyed it more and more. We bought him a beach tent so that he can play or nap out of the sun and sand. I’ve noticed that he gets very chill at the beach now. I’m wondering if he might just take after me….
