Glutton for punishment

I'm taking the kids to the beach tomorrow.  My purpose in doing so is two fold.  Firstly, I'm trying to avoid the portrait studio for Ellie's 5th birthday pictures (The kid is going to be 5 in two weeks.  Where did all that time go?).  As soon as we get to the beach I'll be taking some pictures of her hamming it up in front of the dunes.  The second reason for our trip is to get the requisite trip to the beach out of the way.  Despite having grown up literally two blocks from the ocean I am not a beach person.  I like the beach but only to go for a walk, run, or to take pictures.  The girls, however, love going to the beach.  They'll get an hour to an hour and a half of play time on the beach tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to this trip tomorrow, but at the same time I'm dreading it.  I know I'm going to get grief once I share pictures of the kids on the beach on Facebook.  My in laws who think I dislike them (I do not.) are going to have a fit when they realize that I brought the kids down to the beach and didn't visit them. (My father in law and his girlfriend moved to a town that is 15 minutes from my parents' house at the shore. Fifteen minutes doesn't seem like much, but when you factor in that it makes my ride home over an hour and a half after hitting the beach in the heat and being drained of all energy, that additional time, not to mention the visit itself will take a toll on me.)  I'd be happy to visit them another time with Bryan in tow.  When it's just me and the girls I really can't handle visits to two sets of grandparents in one day.

Here's hoping tomorrow's trip will go smoothly.