Guys, no one tell Wingaersheek, but we went to Crane Beach yesterday with our awesome friends, Lesley, Nora and Eliza. I love Lesley because we have very similar parenting styles. For example, we were a little late meeting up and I texted her to say so, and she wrote back, “Me too! Shit show.” It’s like she took the words out of my mouth.

For a beach day, where we normally just alternate between playing in the water and building sand castles, today was quite active. Activities included pulling two wagons (one with kids riding on it) across the parking lot and then the beach, riding some waves which George qualified as “huge,” arming ourselves to the gills against some seagulls that went all Rambo on us, and just barely eking out a victory against the Shade Shack (more on that later).

When it was time to go, I had to face down my old nemesis, the Shade Shack. After about 20 attempts to fold it up and several supportive comments from onlookers, Lesley had the great idea to look up a how-to video on YouTube. I watched it several times and then had Lesley hold my phone to advise me while I went through the steps.

I finally managed to jam it into the ripped circle bag it came in and got a round of applause from my audience. Thank you, Lesley, for your only slightly wavering support, and thank you, fellow beachgoers, for your appreciation.

To celebrate, we went for some awesome ice cream. Ignore the fact that Nora’s wearing Eliza’s flip flops and Eliza’s wearing slippers.

Always a pleasure, Steinhausers. Give our love to Slowpoke!