After a week and a half of cold and rain, we started to guess that summer was closing up shop early this year.  So on Monday evening, when the sun finally came out, we decided to make a mad dash for the beach, considering I hadn't been once this summer, and this would probably be my only chance until next summer (or until we take that trip to lie on a beach in Egypt in the middle of winter... mmmm, my annual unattainable dream...).  It was well worth it.  I had forgotten that all-sense encompassing thrill that is the seaside - and this beach in particular, a small town on the coast of the Baltic sea called Jurkalne.  Well known for its steep sandy cliffs, and general isolation from anywhere in particular. What I had ALSO forgotten, is the fact that any trip to the beach with my boys requires two full changes of clothes, and at least 3 towels per child.  I figure I could substitute the aforementioned with a "sensible mum" talk before we hit the beach, and a bit of forethought/taking off clothes before we touch sand.  Sadly, I am not that kind of mother.
Before I knew it, my two marauders had thrown themselves into the task of scaling the steep reddish sand embankment and rolling back down.  Climb it, roll down.  Climb it, roll down.  Climb it, dig yourself into the sand, chuck some at your brother, try to catch the footy that your dad has booted up to you, lose your balance, roll down.  (Ok Fiona and other responsible eco-nature-lovers, I did have a big moment of erosion angst, but who can stop a kid scaling a huge 20 metre high sand dune?  Ever tried? Huh?).  Meanwhile I wandered down and became lost in the drifts of pebbles - purple pebbles with green bits, rounded grey pebbles with little fossil plants, orange pebbles that look just like amber, and the Jurkalne specialty - rounded pebbles with holes in them, so that you can make necklaces), and by the time I got back, the boys were looking like this:

Lookin' pretty proud of themselves, aren't they.  And what do you do, when your legs and clothes are getting too sandy?  Throw yourself into the sea fully clothed, of course.  Ai, ai, ai. I should've pre-empted this.  It's definitely not the first time they've done it....
Anyhow, whatever.  No harm done except those clothes will never be the same again, and the sandy sludge in the pockets was nasty. I'll take a warm evening at the beach instead of clean clothes any day.