Here comes the sun / beach

Finally summer has arrived after what seems like two months of solid rain. Josh and Brandon absolutely adore spending time at the beach and to date this year I think we have only been once. Sometimes I feel we get a bit complacent about how close we live to the coast and do not make full use of just how accessible it is. There are so many people in the UK and in Europe who are land locked and do not have an option to just jump in the car and head down to the beach for a few hours, so its something we need to start doing more often. Its great for the boys to get out in the sea air and to play in the sand and sea. So with near 30 degree weather then it was an easy decision to make to spend Sunday having a nice picnic and a swim in Shoeberry.

Brandon heads into the water with his new yellow spade in hand.

Joshua brings suppliers by carrying the buckets down to the sea.

The great thing about Shoeberry is that they have a concrete pool area so that even when the tide is out the children can still swim and play in the water. However on Sunday this was not an issue for long as the tide came in extremely rapidly and within about 20 mins we were retreating up the beach to higher ground. 

Brandon posing on the concrete pool wall.

Joshua posing on the concrete wall.

The tide is in and Joshua decided to take to the sea in his inflatable boat.

Brandon enjoying simply squirting sea water as high as he can in the air...........

..........that is until he realises he can shoot his big brother in his boat!

Just chillin'

Brandon racing back to get more water to fill his sand hole.

Joshua was a bit braver than Brandon and pretty much got himself fully submerged and had a little swim. Brandon only went into the water waist height. Although it has to be said the sea was surprisingly warm.

Action shot of Joshua launching a Frisbee at me.

Get ready to duck, his aim is getting pretty good now.

As always Brandon starts to get cold like his Mummy and retreats the the shore for a towel and a warm up cuddle from Mummy. Joshua just keeps going until you drag him from the sea or bribe him with an ice cream.

Warm up time.

Just a cute picture of Brandon enjoying the beach.

All good beach trips end with the compulsory ice cream!

We also made a quick stop off in Southend en route home to pick up some fresh donuts. The bad news is that Joshua now likes my cinnamon donuts and was pinching them as well as Tina's sugar donuts.

After our donut stop we made one more detour to stop by Uncle Michael's and Auntie Lea's where we took this really nice picture of Brandon giving "Lady" a little cuddle. He so loves dogs now......