Mini Guards at Salt Creek

Posted by Chandra August 13, 2021

Mini Guards at Salt Creek

It’s the MOST WONDERFUL tiiime of.the.YEARRRRR!!!

We love our 2 weeks of Junior Lifeguards! This week was Mini Guards at Salt Creek and it was epic! Rayleigh and Jack were so excited and perfectly prepared. Monday was ALSO Ella’s first day of preschool. So Tanner took her and Haley brought her home. Parker stayed home to be there for Ella and also teach swimming lessons. So that left me ALONE on the beach for 4 glorious hours! I was close to where Rayleigh and Jack were enjoying all that Mini Guards has to offer while relaxing and taking in the beautiful ocean and sky. I went for a long walk, I read, I talked to my mom, I took care of some business…. And it went by all too quickly! When we got home, I made dinner and took Rayleigh to gymnastics and then prepared for day 2!

On Tuesday, Ella came with me and we played on the beach together. But Wednesday, she was back at school again and I was able to sit and relax again! Woo hoo! Thursday both Ella and Parker came with me because Parker had made plans to hang out with Lily for her birthday- but he was NOT feeling well after his second covid shot. I left him at my parent’s house to rest after we ran to Target and dropped off a gift to Lily. He spent the night at my mom’s (which had always been the plan) but was SO sick! He even threw up! Luckily, these symptoms were to be expected and my mom did a great job taking care of him. He felt much better on Friday.

Friday was a HUGE day at the beach- and it was amazing. Ella played with me on the beach while Rayleigh and Jack rounded off their last day of Mini Guards and then, after we grabbed La Sirena Grill for lunch, met my family down at 3 Arch!
Our cousins from Illinois(Rich, Christa, Ron, and Rob- as well as their families) all came to SoCal for a Ziegler family reunion and ended the week with a beach day with US! My mom brought Parker down and we had a big set up. Matt grilled hot dogs and hamburgers and the kids had a blast all together! It was so fun catching up with cousins we hadn’t seen in years! And to gather on the beach that means so much to all of us, connected by our amazing grandparents forever, was truly magnificent. AND, it was Papa’s 105th birthday! My mom wrote a little tribute to her dad which I’ll share below.
We didn’t get home until 10pm and everyone was the best kind of exhausted. It was a very fun week at the beach!

Rayleigh and Jack did SO well at Mini Guards! They loved free swim in the ocean, sand castle building contests, and making new friends. Rayleigh really clicked with this boy named Maka- he even gave her a flower one day. And Jack became good buddies with a kid named Ryder and they would not let us mom’s depart without exchanged Roblox info. Ha ha Hello Alpha Gen!
I absolutely treasure these weeks spent on the beach with my children. We have evolved and this year is a new kind of complicated/busy with Ella in preschool and Parker starting seminary and school in the middle of it all. But I’m so thankful to live close to the beach, to have the means to enrich my children’s lives with these camps, and for the privilege of staying home with them so I can spend these wonderful days on the beach with them.
Life is pretty grand!