Super day at the beach

What a super day! The whole day was just perfect. I woke up to the music from the Where the hell is Matt vimeo video (which I love and which Steve put on loud in the living room) and opened the curtains on a bright sunny day. Our friends Cheyanne and Grace called early to see what we were up to and we decided to head for the beach with a picnic. They joined us in our car and we finally set off with lots of blankets, kites, a wind break, a fairly elaborate picnic, some baby carrying equipment and lots of warm clothes.
We set up the windbreak on the beach- a little too hastily as it turned out, without judging the speed and direction of the tide movement- and had to up sticks and move ourselves and the picnic only minutes after starting to eat as the rising tide threatened to wash us away. We were also joined by Jackie and co and all the two year olds had a ball on the beach. It's fun trying to see it through their eyes- so much to explore and learn!

Yes, Steve is barefoot, and yes, it was freezing! This is why I love him though! On one of our first dates he swam in a freezing river in the lake district in early winter when there was snow on the ground. If he didn't go in the water I'd worry that there was something wrong with him.
After playing on the beach and eating we went for a walk along a boardwalk into the salt marsh and on the way back Brendan wanted to explore in the woods a bit. So we went in and looked at tree bark, listened for birds, climbed over branches and Gracie wanted to make a house so Cheyanne and I tried to lean some branches against the fallen tree in the background to make a den but they both ignored us! Grace and Cheyanne saw a bug so Brendan got down and started looking in the leaves for bugs too.
I love this photo of the two of them!

The drive back took a while as we kept stopping to comfort Tadhg but it meant Gracie and Brendan had a decent nap. We also saw two moose by the road- my first in New Brunswick. Cheyanne came back for supper and we cooked a yummy maple chicken curry pasta that she blogged about here and then Steve made his hasty pudding to completely fill our tummies.
We had started the day with Matt and ended it with him too- Cheyanne and I were dancing away Matt style in the bay windows along with the video. Lots of fun. And good exercise!
All in all it was a perfect day and we were all pleasantly tired at the end of it. A great start to the long weekend!