Sleepy Hollow Beach

This weekend, on a whim, I suggested that we take the kids to Sleepy Hollow -- a state park located about 15 minutes from our house.  We have a recreation sticker on our license plate, which gets us into the park for free ... and we just really haven't taken advantage of that like we should.

We sprang into action, getting the kids into their swimsuits, gathering the beach toys and towels (those things we keep ready to go at all times lately), packing a picnic lunch with water bottles and applying copious amounts of sunscreen.  With the van loaded, we made the quick trip over to the park and headed straight to the beach.  It wasn't too busy (a little windy) and we found a picnic table that would be perfect for our lunch after a little fun in the sun.

Both of the girls have really taken to swimming this summer.  Look at Samantha go in the background!

All smiles without a life jacket!

These girls love each other so much ...

You can never have too many buckets at the beach.

Steve and "his shadow" taking in the beautiful lake:

This boy could scoop sand for hours.

Sophia (and Sam, too) usually choose to spend their time exclusively in the lake ... even if it means taking the buckets and shovels into the water to play with them.

And then, just before lunch, the girls finally opted to come dry off in the sun on the beach.

A bucket of water can be so heavy ...

Hard at work, getting ready to make sand castles:

It was the perfect little outing for us and a nice change in scenery from our usual neighborhood beach.  In fact, we had so much fun that we are planning to head back again this week with Aunt Minnie, Louie and Grammy!