Beach!

Did you know Chicago is right on a huge lake? With lots of beaches? I forget this fact, even though I drive along the lake front every morning. After Nick's excitement with the water/beach on July 4th, I decided to take him to the beach last weekend. So Sunday morning we packed up our gear and headed to the beach. As we walked to the shore, Nick was running and yelling "I have energy!". 15 minutes later we were setting up the umbrella and Nick was anxious to get in the chilly water. Man, that kid could have stayed there all day. We went early and didn't expect to stay past noon, so I had brought an apple and bottle of water. Think if I'd brought lunch (or money) we would have been there all day. He was just so happy. Might just spend the summer there under our umbrella ;)

Nick had a huge bucket that he was using to fill with water for the river he was making. He talked me into "taking turns" in filling up the bucket. After hefting my belly off of my towel 10 times, I finally told him that I was going to rest for a while and he was in charge of water. I went to get lip balm out of my bag and heard a crazy racket. Seriously - can I not look away for one minute?! Looked up to find Nick with his chest all poufed out, walking towards me and trying to hold back the tears. He brought his bucket over and the top of it was cracked. Then he pointed to his sandy neck to tell me it had hurt him. The handle was broken off so I started swinging it around and saying "Holy Smokes! What kind of a bucket is this?" It was enough to make him laugh and forget about his troubles. And then enough to make me cry when I noticed that the bucket had actually cut his little neck. Nothing major, but still hate to see my little guy bleeding. Photos are from after the fall, so all was well.