Beach Blunder

We had minimal amounts of fun this summer because of Ben's job situation and my with-child situation so we decided to go to the beach the weekend after Ruby was born in attempt to squeeze in some fun at the tail end of summer, and to prove to ourselves that we could totally do this 7 kids thing.  When we woke up in the morning to get ready for the day we noticed that Liam had a huge rash all over his legs.  It was an omen.  We ignored it.  I called the doctor and made him an appointment for 11:30 which derailed our plans a bit but rather than give up on our beach outing all together we plugged along, packing the extreme amounts of stuff necessary for a family day trip.  We were ready to leave just in time for Liam's appointment so he and I went to Kaiser while the rest of the troops hit a drive through for lunch.  We then made our way to Santa Cruz.  It was a really long drive.  It was a Friday so the traffic was a little heavier than normal.  We got there, unloaded and played for a little bit.  It was super windy so I couldn't really take Ruby out of her seat.  She still managed to get covered in sand, however, because Seth and Ammon continually dumped shovels of sand into the air near her.  Ben and the kids had fun but in my postnatal hormonal state I was wishing I'd stayed home with the baby.  I was seriously on the verge of tears the whole time we were there and wondered if we'd ever reach a state of normalcy again.  It's funny now because the pictures don't show it at all but most of the kids were fairly whiney and after just an hour and a half there we had to pack it up to head home because the girls were insistent that they didn't want to miss our ward's daddy/daughter campout which was that evening.  We got loaded back into the van and made the nearly 3 hour drive home in rush hour traffic.  It was miserable.  Everyone was hungry.  Everyone was thirsty.  Everyone was tired.  Everyone had to pee.  You get the idea.  Bottom line...don't take a day trip if you spend more time traveling than you do playing.  Lesson learned.