Sand, strawberries and sun

P seems to really love the beach access here.  I mean, he always talked about going to Coney Island back in Brooklyn (and we did go quite a bit), but when push came to shove, he often didn't "feel like it."  I'm not sure what it is here that is making the difference, but he pretty much always feels like it these days.  And after a loooong first trimester of hibernating and a looong, cold Spring, all of this activity is a welcome reprieve!  I just need to do better with remembering to sit down during the day to keep all of this swelling down.  I think I'm a little nervous that learning a new city with a new baby will be overwhelming to me, so I'm trying to get it all figured out in the next two months :)

Sauvie Island is definitely something I want to be able to do, sleep deprived or whatnot.  Its close and lovely and a real afternoon getaway.  P and I hit the organic strawberry U-pick for an afternoon of harvesting last week en route to the beach.

Walking the fields

Down to business

The kid picked a couple pounds of berries.  By the time they made it home that night, I figured they'd probably had a little more rough treatment than most store bought berries ;), so we washed and worked them into a bunch of jam.  Yu-u-um.

But before heading home, we headed around the corner to the beach.  It was the official first day of summer and people were definitely out to celebrate.  We're used to empty Oregon beaches and I was startled to see someone else :)  But it was still a pretty calm scene compared to Coney Island, and the little New Yorker didn't bat an eye.

The water felt amazing 

Silly Mama forgot the sand toys, so the kid busied himself with a plastic sack.  He was really tickled that he could cart water with it.

Then things turned serious and he started his sand collecting.  He had big plans on biggering his crab abode with more sand...

Where we parked, the beach was over a tall embankment... with no stairs down one side.  After climbing up and then sliding down (yah, a lot of people got a good show - look at the idiot pregnant lady sliding down the concrete embankment...) to cart sand to the car a couple times, I told him I was all out.  Last trip.  He decided he better make it a good one. Hohohohoh!  That plastic bag was so full I thought it would burst!  But the kid carried it up the hill, down the stairs and to the car...  Determined :)  He just needed a couple breaks....

He was quite pleased with himself.  In fact, he figures we should go back and get some more :)