Foggy Beach, Sunny Home

My mom and I took the kids to the beach today. Yes, it's still February, by the way. However, since the middle of the month, the weather abruptly decided to not act like February. It's been acting like Spring. Consistently. Highs near 80 degrees, lows in the 50's. My car is already covered in pollen.

So we decided it was time for a beach day. The forcast said, "Early fog. Afternoon high of 82, partly cloudy." Pretty good, right? It would have been, if the actual weather had behaved the way it was supposed to. Mom left her house under sunny, clear skies and arrived at my house under a dense cover of cool fog. The drive to the beach was similar--one area filled with thick fog, the next area clear and sunny. Unfortunately, St. George Island happened to be one of the areas that was covered in fog.

We got out of the car. We put on all of the clothing we could find in the van. We ate lunch under a pavilion, shivering in the breeze. Surely, the fog will burn off, we repeated to each other.  The forcast says it's going to be 82! I reassured myself.  We set up chairs on the beach.

Teegan, who was following along, eating a cookie and holding a toy, suddenly took notice of his surroundings.  This was my favorite part of the day.  As you know, Teegan was adopted in September from China and hasn't had much time to experience things. Today was his first time seeing the ocean.  He was shocked.  He stared.  He squinted.  His cookie went unnoticed.

I love seeing kids experience new things.  It makes me laugh.  It makes me appreciate the world and my life.

Sadly, it was too cold with the fog and the breeze.  All Teegan wanted to do was sit in his momma's lap and snuggle.

The rest of the gang tried to shrug off the weather conditions though.  Against our sage advice, they tossed their extra layers and ran around in the surf, getting wet and sandy.  The fun lasted about an hour.  Then came the shivering and whining.

Our day at the beach had to end. The fog never lifted. I kept saying to myself, This is so weird! It's usually sunny here even when it's cloudy at home!  We drove back to my house, where the sun was shining.  We picked a warm spot in the yard, and spread out on a blanket.  The kids ran around in the yard playing hide-and-seek and eating beach snacks.  Ahhhh....... This is what we were looking for.  Perfect.  It just wasn't at the beach.  It was at home all the time.