A Day with the Cousins

Thing 1 is still not in the mood for the beach.  How do I FORCE someone to have fun?  She says the beach just makes her sad because her daddy's not there to play with her.  Don't know if that's just an excuse or not...
So I let her stay at the house while Thing 2 and I took the dog to the beach to run around a little. 
Low tide was around 2:00, and if we were going to go tide pooling, we couldn't take the dog and I wanted him run out a little. 
Hubby is also supposed to be working a half day today and tomorrow, so we're hopefully going to see him.

- Later -

My aunt and cousin's wife and her daughters came, and it was fabulous. Unfortunately we didn't have quite the spectacular weather that we had the day before, but it was still very nice. I didn't take pictures, darnit.
My cousin's daughters are about 10, 6, 4, and 2, or so. They are charming little girls and got along great with Thing 1 and 2.

When Thing 2 and I had been out earlier I had seen a couple of guys "skimboarding." It looked cool so I texted Hubby that he should stop on his way back to town and pick one up. He did, and when he came to the beach around 3:00 pm he was carrying a skim board and a boogie board. Unfortunately I hadn't brought the wetsuits down from the beach house, so it took just one try to convince each of my girls that it was too cold to boogie board, my cousin's girls didn't want to try it. For the skim board I tried to sort of run alongside them but it kept running into my feet (OUCH!). Hubby figured out how to help them, I'll have to ask his secret.

It was great catching up with my cousin's wife and my aunt, and the girls had a fabulous time with my cousin's kids. They didn't seem to mind that we were at the dog beach, it helps when you practically have a beautiful beach to yourselves, and of course Kelso did great. I saw my cousin's little girls patting him when he'd pass by or collapse momentarily near where they were playing in the sand. A good day for everyone, I just wish it could have lasted longer. They drove back to have dinner with their daddy, my cousin.
Tomorrow is our last day here.