But that's not even an adventure

Well, we just enjoyed our first day on our beach weekend. Nada is busy in the kitchen making her most yummiest chicken pockets. It will be accompanied by her famous salad with goat cheese and candied pecans, and macaroni and cheese.

We have our beach weekend down to such a science. We have an excel spreadsheet that contains a tab that has our menu, a tab that has our packing list, and a tab that has our shopping list. We use the same one every year. We have the same menu, the same rituals. It is 'comfort' to us.

We rent a house that is on the beach (second row, actually, but still walking distance). We can drive the car on the beach. We have the whole setup: canopy, chairs, tables, sand toys. So all the beach stuff stays in the car...we unload and setup at the beginning of the day, and the we tear down and throw it in the van at the end of the day. And do it all again the next day.

This year, we took the plunge and extended our holiday weekend by an extra day. Of course, that may all change based on what Gustav decides to do.

We had perfect weather today. Not a cloud in the sky. There was very little seaweed. The water was a clear as it could be for this part of the gulf coast. And the water was as warm as bath water.

Towards the end of our day, I posed the question: "What was your favorite thing today?" And here is everyone's answer:

• Henry: The ice cream (because indeed, the ice cream truck drives by about every 45 minutes)
• Mama: The walk Henry and I took looking for shells for our art project
• Leslie: Playing with Henry on his new boogie board
• Nada: Sitting and reading her book (to which Henry responded: "What? But that's not even an adventure!")

And while dinner is being prepared, Henry is laying in bed watching pre-season football. In deciding who to root for, Henry has no problem. He simply chooses the team that is already winning. In this case, it was the New York Giants...or according to Henry, the You Nork Giants.

Tomorrow is another day, stay tuned...

Oh, and I can't add pictures from the beach. So look for a post next week with a recap of our photos. Oooh, another opportunity to scrapblog!