We decided to try (for the first time with Graham) Goleta Beach, where Nick and I took our engagement photos, and ended up really loving the spot. There was ample parking, a sandy hill leading to the beach (for easy access), a freshwater lagoon enclosing the sand (making it a perfect place for Graham to explore without fear of him heading into the parking lot or an unsafe area), and, best of all, lots of airplanes flying overhead for Graham to point out to Daddy. (If you look carefully, you can see that Graham is pointing at an airplane over Nick's head):
Graham and Daddy had fun exploring the entire beach (making sure to keep out of the way of the bulldozer making nice flat paths and patterns in the sand):
After finding a large red and white fishing float (bobber), they had a blast playing catch. Graham thought it was great fun to throw the float into the ocean and watch it come back (carried by the waves) but it turns out our little boy is a bit afraid of the noise from the waves, so he needed Daddy to fish the bobber out of the water each time so they could keep playing:
Mark and Alethea met up with us and Alethea and Graham worked on a sandcastle:
We would have been happy to spend the morning as described above, but everything changed when Graham caught sight of a little boy heading to the beach with his toy dump truck in tow. The family was kind enough to let Graham borrow the truck and to say he was obsessed would be an understatement! Every time I suggested giving the truck back, Graham screamed and cried until he had it in his possession again. He spent the entire rest of the morning pushing the truck. Sometimes he pushed with joy and laughter (running at full speed behind the truck); sometimes he pushed with frustration (trying to get through tricky patches of sand and seaweed); sometimes he pushed with fear (when he had to step into the ocean to keep pushing); but all he wanted to do was to keep pushing that truck:
He was so exhausted when we finally tore him away from it to go home that he was asleep before we even made it out of the parking lot.
We made a quick stop at the grocery store to get baby oil to clean off the annoying Santa Barbara beach tar that came home with us, but all in all we had a wonderful day, relaxing and appreciating Daddy (as a laborer on Labor Day) for working so hard for our family <3
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