The nice thing about living within a short drive of the lake is that when we decide it's time to go swimming, we can hop in the car and go. We did the low-stress beach visit last night at dinnertime, bringing nothing but our towels and a couple of sand pails and shovels. We didn't even bring snacks or drinks, which made a much lighter load of stuff to schlep down the cliff from the parking lot.
You can tell we had a lot of company on the beach at 6pm ...
We dug a low-stress hole for Liza to stand in ...
... and let the wall-shaped sand toy do most of the work on our low-stress castles ...
... and we waded out so far the water was lapping at my crotch (you're welcome for that mental picture), and not only was the kid not freaking out about being up to her neck in the lake, she was swimming. Without me holding on. Like, swimming toward shore for 20 feet before she put her feet down, giggling hysterically every time she bobbed with the waves.
Yep, she's ready for her visit with Jason to Mom-Mom and the real beach next weekend.
The water was unseasonably warm, and Liza and her friends had a good time jumping in the waves. I went in with Liza, and she held onto my hands and jumped every time a big wave came in ... which meant that I did the equivalent of about 400 bicep curls with a 40-pound kid. She also was willing to try swimming back into shore (so she didn't get a face full of waves), as long as I kept an arm around her waist to help support her in the water. She's got all the swimming stuff down except the part where your butt stays up near the top of the water. If you could swim while positioned vertically in the water, she'd be golden.
