our new favorite beach

I know I've really beat the beach post horse dead and it's not even June BUT on the outside (OUTSIDE) chance that anyone is in the market for the best gulf coast beach in central Florida ... I've got your beach. Okay, fine! Maybe not the best but we were really impressed and we've been to several beaches.

Phoebe is definitely saying, "off-ee!!!" in her high pitched voice reserved for talking to him. I don't know why she calls him coffee minus the c but ... she does what she wants. 

We'd gone to Fort Desoto back in November but I think we picked a dumb spot and it was a little chilly but this time we went with beach veteran friends and they told us to park directly after the actual Fort (which looks really cool and we'll definitely have to give that a little tour to give Simon his placard fix) and even though the beach was the most crowded I've ever seen any beach (fancy that! on a three day weekend!) it was such a blast and it was tough dragging the kids away even after several hours of fun.

B loves to sit right near the water and nosh on sand. To each their own.

Parking is ample-ish (which is key!) and the walk to the actual beach isn't long (even more key when you bring a lot of not really necessary "necessities") and other than the bathrooms and the Fort there aren't any commercial buildings around so it's very picturesque (not important but just a bonus).

The water is really shallow and graduated for a long time and clear enough that you can see little clear fish swimming all over which I won't ever not think is crazy after growing up in New Mexico and then living in Midwest.

All of the kids love the water but Theo is perfectly content to play in the sand and make "dump truck soup" and reserve his water activity for recipe tweaking. Simon and I sound like scratched compact discs commenting to each other every trip about how it's kind of nice to have one kid semi landlocked because he's the easiest to keep track of. Parents-are-us.

I'll see if he'll share the complicated two ingredient recipe with you fine folks.

When Phoebe realized that she wasn't able to pull her only willing passenger she decided to load up some toys for a bit of fun ...

she got her problem solving skills from her mama.

Bosco is pretty good about napping in the carrier if I walk along the beach (so we don't have to bring one of our beloved sound machines - don't put it past me though) for a few minutes which really frees up our morning since he turns into a completely different child/monster without his morning nap. 

 He's breathing. I promise.

The only casualty of the day was the bottom of Simon's foot because his sandal had a hole in it and the sand is h-o-t. I think he's going to live.

Burnt foot and all.

Anyway, five stars for Fort Desoto.

I trust your Tuesday has just gotten so much better with this bit of information stored away for a later date or later never.

happy unofficial start of summer!