Life Is A Beach

There is no better exercise than taking Seb to the beach. He runs like a puppy that has been crated all night. 

We leave by 10am and arrive home tired out and ready for calm. He loves to make "letters" in the sand by imitating letters that I write. I can't think of a better pre-school classroom than the beach. 

Moring Walk

May I never take this for granted. 

Guincho Mornings

Christmas Day At The Beach

The weather has been beautiful beyond expectations. 

For three years in a row, we have done this Guincho walk at Christmas which seals it as a traditon, I think. It's the best way to work off the abundance of yummy food we've been eating. 

The Summer That Wouldn't Quit

2014 will be remembered as the year without Fall. We are still feeling Summery, with Water Babies smells wafting from bags in the car, towels folded in every corner, and swimsuits hanging on every hook. It's simply the best.

Here's a photo round-up of our Sunday.

 I didn't get pictures, but we were in hysterics with a family rock scissors paper tournament.

 We didn't have Seb's floatie with us so Zita acted as his floatie.

 On the less glamorous front, Pai and I cleaned out the garden shed. The high from a good clean out rivals the beach for me. The kids would beg to differ.

Mooji got a BBQ going and fed us all lunch when we got home. Probably to avoid said garden shed clean out, but it is a gift from heaven when someone else takes the lead on getting a meal on the table. Someone could seriously put a bowl of corn on the table and call it dinner and I would throw my arms up in praise.

 

More Beach Time with Sebby

It seemed too good to be true that the beach was empty, the weather was perfect, and I had all the gear for a successful morning at the beach.

 This action man is known as "the man." The man has been keeping us company on a ot of our outings lately.

 Just when we thought the day couldnt get any better, this tractor showed up.  When it started to drive away, Seb went running after it saying "wait for me tractor!"

It was time to get to the car when I wound up running after him in the water, with soaking wet jeans rolled up passed my knees. He was getting more and more insistent that it was swimming time. Guincho is for toe dipping, and wading on a calm day. It is NOT a swimming beach for toddlers. 

The beach is always a schlep, and it takes serious strength the carry a heavy and kicking Seb up the dunes and back to the car, but it is so worth it. 

Everyone loves praising the change of seasons, but I'm like "heck no! Give me the beach and room temperature until November, thank you very much." 

I can always get a pumpkin spice latte if I feel like getting in the mood for Fall. 

Seb Takes Guincho by Storm

 

Right after we dropped Freddy at school on Monday morning, we drove another 2 minutes up the road to the Guincho dunes walk. I wasn't sure if Seb could resist temptaion and stick to the path so my expectations were for a short walk followed by loading a resistent Seb back into the car. 

 

 He did okay until about half way through when he saw the beach in the distance and was like "lady, why are we on a long hot walk when there is a beach right there?"

Moment of realization that we were close to the beach. 

Planting himself in the middle of the path meant every single dog walker was obliged to stop and socialize with Seb. He's never one to pass on stating the obvious and will stand up and say "that's a man. It's a man and a dog. It's a big dog. That's a man." He'll continue like this until I affirm what he's just said, so I stand there and respond "yes. A man and a dog." 

 I had two chestnuts in my purse that Freddy gave me over the weekend and those worked as distractions for a while.

It turned into a semi-play date when I met another mother with a two year old doing the same walk. Turns out her little girl was her sixth child (!!!)  and boy was she a cutie pie! Seb loves babies and he loves older kids, but toddlers are not his favorite. He kept saying "that menina is so scary" because she kept trying to hug him. 

With perfect Summer weather going strong, we went back for proper beach time today. Photos to come.

Final Stretch

With school starting in a few days, we're squeezing in all the beach time we can. Last Friday, we set out for the park and mid-drive unanimously decided to divert to the beach. 

I have at least 4 beach bags in the back of my car so I can always pull together just enough for a few hours. 

The kids are not wild about taking pictures, but they don't mind doing a few jumping shots. 

Shortly after this was taken, a bigger wave came and soaked me up to my waist. 

We got the last of the school supplies yesterday, and we still need to swing by the school today to pick up their books for the year. 

I'm going old-school this year with a small hardback calendar/agenda. I needed somewhere to jot down all of Sebby's hilarious sayings, and there's just something nice about real paper and pen. 

Happy week! 

Happy New Year!

Big Brother, Little Brother

Guincho Again

I posted about how much we love our Guincho walks here and here, so I didn't want my mom's trip to pass us by without sharing one of our new favorite spots. 

 Freddy's face already looks much better.

 Sebby did great in the Baby Bjorn, but my shoulders started to get a little sore by the end.

I could start every day with this walk and never tire of it. It's simply beyond me why so few people take advantage of the many amazing walking trails we have in the Cascais area.

Another Perfect Fall Day at Guincho

Do I say this about every season? I might, but Fall in Portugal is my favorite! We went to Guincho on a whim late Saturday afternoon  and it did not disappoint one bit.  It was so clear towards the Sintra mountains that one could see both the Convento da Peninha and the Cabo da Rocha, and there was plenty of space to mess around and expend every last drop of energy.

Rugby always turns into the little boys trying to take down Moojie.

 It never works, but they have a lot of fun trying.

 

Miss Zita is still holding on to her golden Summer tan. 

 

I took my job of guarding the beach blanket very seriously while these two went for a walk to the other end of the beach and back. 

 She's still in tennis clothes in case anyone is wondering what's going on.

 

 There was a family behind us (just to the right of Moojie) doing a photo shoot with the outdated jeans and white shirt uniform. The inner critic in me could not be quieted and I was just dying to tell them that they were a good decade behind the times, but I thought better of it. I hate to think what I'll be like as an old lady with no filters. 

The boys had a little javelin competition using the base of our umbrella

 and then it was back to ball games.  

We stayed until the sun set, feeling so grateful for another Fall beach day and our first weekend in a while with Pai.