We were supposed to spend today with friends, but our plans fell through. When I told Annalie yesterday she said, “Oh, that’s too bad. I was really looking forward to it.” I suggested that maybe we could go to the beach instead. Annalie’s face brightened and she said, “We can do that? REALLY!?”

I said, “Of course we can! We live in Southern California now, in a beach town!” Suffice it to say, she was very excited and pretty much forgot we ever had plans to do anything else. She immediately started gathering up her beach toys and planning which swimsuit to wear and which towel to take.

Annalie has always liked playing in the sand at the beach but never wanted to go near the water. We lived by Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and frequented a beach that had plenty of sand and very gentle waves. We used to try to get Annalie to wade with us, but she preferred to stay up close to the grass, far away from the scary water. We never pushed her, figuring she’d be ready in her own time.

Considering her recent nonchalance towards the skyride and the petting zoo, I shouldn’t have been surprised when she was willing to walk into the water with me. I was rather surprised, especially that she didn’t have to be coaxed. She happily said, “Sure!” when I suggested getting our feet wet.

She continued to surprise me by being willing to go a bit further out, where the tide came rushing up past our ankles. Then she even let go of my hand!

Of course, immediately after I took those photos she was reaching out to grab my swimsuit, but still. It’s a first step! I guess I don’t really want her to be too fearless at this point. I just want her to enjoy the beach. And she certainly did that today.

As a matter of fact, we both enjoyed it! I had forgotten how much I love the beach in summer. Walking along the hot sand and wading in the ocean today was familiar in a really wonderful way. When we lived here a decade ago we didn’t go to the beach often, but we went often enough that it wove itself into the fabric of our lives and memories here. It felt so good to be at the beach today, in the sun, in the salt water, in the sand, showing my daughter the sand dollars and the kelp.

When we lived in Virginia Beach six years ago, we started a tradition of going to the beach with friends every Sunday for dinner. They’d bring the Taco Bell tacos, we’d bring dessert and the pop, and we’d swim and talk and play. Their kids were 4 and 6 at the time, and we’d fly kites with them or draw pictures in the sand or build castles with moats. On those warm summer evenings we usually had the beach to ourselves and didn’t have to worry about getting sunburned. Sometimes we’d go to Krispy Kreme afterwards and share a box of hot glazed donuts before going home. I have such good memories of those times on the beach. I want Annalie to have memories like that. So I think we might start a beach tradition of our own here. I think we’re off to a good start.

Yesterday we went to the zoo with my friend Stephanie. It was such a fun day!

Annalie was super excited to be going to a new zoo. I hadn’t been to this zoo in a decade so I was pretty excited myself, mainly because of the skyride. I love skyrides.

Stephanie, her parents, and her sister, brother-in-law and nephews were all here for a family vacation, and they invited us to join them at the zoo the last day they were here.

One of the nice things about living in a place where other people spend their vacations is that you get to see more out-of-town friends that way! And when people do come visit, you get to do all kinds of fun touristy things with them.

Since I fully expect we will want to visit the zoo often, I bought a dual membership for Annalie and me. (Troy never has to pay to get into the zoo; he just has to show his active-duty military ID and his admission is free.) If we visit the zoo twice in the next year, the membership will have paid for itself and then some. I think it’s safe to say we will get our money’s worth.

I had not seen Stephanie since we left Tempe, and it was really good to catch up with her in between checking out the koalas and the pandas and all the other animals. The kids had fun doing a little coloring and riding the skyride and petting the goats.

In fact, I was rather amazed at how nonchalant Annalie was about the goats. The last time we went to a petting zoo she was very hesitant about going near the animals but this time she charged right in and darted around petting any animal that was standing still. She even picked up some hay and fed it to one of the goats. Once a large goat hopped down off a wall right behind her and she jumped a foot in the air but immediately laughed and said, “Wow, that goat really scared me!” Then she chased it around with a handful of hay.

As for the skyride, I half expected her to tell me she was too scared to go on it, but she didn’t show even a hint of nervousness as we waited in line and watched the gondolas arrive at the station and leave with new passengers. When it was our turn, she climbed right in, sat down, and immediately starting exclaiming over how high we were and how much we could see. When our ride ended, Annalie skipped down the ramp and announced that her favorite part of the zoo was the skyride.

I told her I was really happy she had enjoyed it, and explained that since we bought a membership and wouldn’t have to buy tickets to the zoo or the skyride for a whole year, we could just drop by the zoo, ride the skyride, and then go home if we wanted to! She thought that was a great idea.

After I took the previous photo Annalie said, “Oh! I’d better take my sunglasses off so you can see me better,” and let me take another picture. Cracked me up.

After a fun afternoon, we decided we had better head home before traffic got too bad. We said good-bye to our friends. Annalie took a couple of photos before we made the trek to the far end of the parking lot. We headed home, tired but happy.

Photo by Annalie, age 4.

About five minutes into our 20-minute drive home, I glanced over my shoulder and saw that Annalie had fallen asleep, the bag of goldfish crackers she’d asked for sitting unopened in her lap. Nothing says “good day” like a kid needing a nap on the way home.

For more photos see the set Zoo day! in my Flickr photostream.

Hmmmm, what WAS it? I know there was something I wanted to do today. Oh, right—I wanted to unpack some more boxes. But here’s the thing: Annalie thinks unpacking is boring. She’s excited about helping for a minute or two and then she wants to move on to the next thing.

And I freely admit that Annalie is not the only one who was spoiled by Gramaw over the past couple of months. Sure, Annalie got used to always having an adult paying attention to her and it might take her a little while before she is happy to play on her own more often. But I got used to always having another adult around too!

I did open a box and try to arrange some stuff in the kitchen but I kept having to interrupt what I was doing to make breakfast, find a coloring book, pour a glass of milk, go upstairs and turn on Zoboomafoo, make a snack, etc. Sometime before lunch I gave up and asked Annalie if she wanted to play outside.

We found the blue wading pool in the garage. It was a little squashed, a little dirty, with a couple of cracks in it. We scrubbed it down and plastered packing tape over the cracks on the bottom and it worked just fine.

I sat in the shade with my Diet Coke and read my book while Annalie splashed and messed with the hose. I felt a bit guilty at first for not being inside industriously unwrapping and organizing all our stuff. But as I watched Annalie play and giggle, I let my guilt evaporate in the summer sun. She won’t be four and carefree forever, easily pleased by an hour in a cheap wading pool with an old plastic cup. We might as well make the most of it while we can.

And anyway I have a friend coming to visit this weekend and she’s going to help us unpack! Do I win hostess of the year for that, or what? At least I can offer her fresh-squeezed lemonade while she works.

Or maybe we’ll just sit around and let the kids play in the wading pool. That would be fine by me too.