Just a Tuesday evening at the beach

There are a few things I will miss about our little apartment when we do finally buy a house and move. Having one closet will not be on that list. The foremost will be proximity to the ocean and the unlimited beach access. Some people may find that if they live near the beach, they take it for granted and end up going less frequently than if they had to drive there, but I find this is not so for us.

I like taking a blanket and a book over to the benches on the sea wall when I have free time on a day off or if I am working a late shift. Shandiz has started body boarding after he gets home from work some days. We frequently take walks on the weekend or weeknights on the sea wall or sand, and then of course now that it is getting to be summer, we will be spending time sunning and swimming.
Recently, we have found the best part about living so close to the beach is having a staging area for week night beach dinners with friends.

The other night Victor, Janine, Anthony, Robin, Christine, Victor's parents, Shandiz and I had a picnic dinner at the beach of hot dogs, grilled veggies, et cetera. Flaming Hot Cheetos (eew) were consumed as an appetizer (Anthony, Robin), main course (Robin) and condiment (Shandiz, Robin). Also, we had delicious, if somewhat tricky to make, s'mores crafted on the portable gas grill. Only Shandiz and Christine were brave enough to go in the water before we ate. Christine was surfing and Shandiz was body boarding, neither of them wearing wetsuits, and it was not that warm out or in the water!

Here is a picture of Anthony (wearing his Duluth teeshirt under the SLO sweatshirt) eating a marshmallow :)
He's really a funny kid, I think part of that has to do with his pronunciation and vocabulary (which is pretty extensive for someone who is only almost two), but he also has some good jokes he likes (making burping noises) that are hard not to laugh at, even knowing it's best not to... In the past few weeks he has become comfortable with mine and Shandiz's names and I just love it when he says "Saw-knees, Saw-knees!". Toady I called Janine to wish them a fun weekend trip to SLO for Peter's graduation and she had him answer the phone. "HI CAWIE!" Then he launched into what I think was a description of everyone in the car (grandpa, grandma, daddy, mom) and what he was looking at outside the car (Semi-trucks) and some other things I didn't understand but were described with great enthusiasm.
I find it hard to create in writing the amazement I felt at being on the receiving end of that conversation. Here is Anthony, this little creature that I first met when he was one day old, describing to me what's going on around him in great detail. It is really a fascinating thing to watch a nice baby develop into a cool little person that you can communicate with and has his own sense of humor.