just beachy

I have had Thursday afternoons off all summer long, and I've barely used them to do anything fun! They've been filled with doctor visits and errands and things that just need to get done. But today we finally busted free of that and met Erin, her mom, and the kids at Warren Dunes State Park in Michigan. We had a few challenges, though, notably that Max broke his toe in the most ridiculous way possible and now has extremely restricted activity. Ridiculous toe breaking, you say? Yes indeed. He was opening the door to his bedroom, not in a hurry or with excessive force or anything, and managed to get his toe stuck between the floor and the bottom of the door and hit it exactly right to cause a fracture on the growth plate. So now his summer has basically come to a screeching halt. Running and swimming and having fun have been replaced by visits to the orthopedic doctor and constant splinting. Boo! The doctor has also warned us that because of the break, his toe might grow at a different rate than the one on the other foot, meaning he might eventually need two different size shoes. I know they say that when one door closes, a window opens ... but what about when one door opens and breaks your toe?

Anyway, once we got to the dunes and had a little picnic, everyone went to climb the dunes. Well, everyone except me and Max, who just hung out and waited. Liam came back all cranky because his feet got burned on the hot sand (memo to self: bring socks next time!), but then we all headed down to the lake to cool off. It was a gorgeous day, and Richie was working hard building a sand blob castle, and the other kids carried some driftwood logs over to make a water break for it. Eventually they found one pretty far down the beach, and it was too heavy to carry, but some people had rope (like you do when you go to the beach ... I guess), so Erin helped them drag it all the way back. But then Richie decided to destroy the blob castle in the end anyway. Ah, kids!