Let's Celebrate The Beach!

It's time to CELEBRATE This Week with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.  Every week Ruth invites us to share our celebrations from the week and link up at her blog. What a fun way to reflect on everything there is to be thankful for. 

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This week I'm celebrating the beach!

*throws confetti*

Last weekend, I went for my second stand up paddleboard yoga class with my friend, Lauren. She was adventurous to consider going with me. I bought a Groupon last year and we had to get in five classes so I enlisted her to come with me. The first time we went we both fell in love so she was ready to come with me the second time around. 

The class we took was with Royal Pigeon Yoga at 31st Street Harbor in Chicago. This harbor is just south of McCormick place and it is beautiful. I grew up north of Chicago in the suburb of Lake Forest. We had a beach, free to Lake Forest residents, so we were always there. Because of that, I've never been to a Chicago beach. I was so impressed with 31st Street Harbor and I told my husband he had to come down with the kids the next time I went for a class. 

Not only did my husband and the kids come down to the beach, my mom came, too. She's usually up for adventures, too...and because she was with us, she offered to stay with the kids when my husband decided he would join in on the yoga class with us. 

I'll share the paddleboard yoga pictures in another Celebration post because today I really wanted to celebrate the beach and how much fun my kids had there. I have so many fond memories of spending time at the beach but we haven't taken our kids much. I can count the number of times we have been on my fingers actually. 

I'm so glad we brought them down to the beach and I'm planning to take them again because they had a great time. They played in the water even though it was freezing, they built sandcastles and decorated them with sticks and feathers they found, they buried each other in the sand. It was an overcast day and the fog made it hard to see the city skyline but there weren't many people at the beach and it was a perfect morning to spend there. Here are a few pictures to celebrate our beach fun!

When was the last time you visited the beach?

Do you have a favorite beach?

What do you love the most - or dislike, maybe? - about the beach?

What are you celebrating this week?