The day began with our arms loaded down with boogie boards, buckets, shovels, a multi colored umbrella, towels hanging around the kids necks, bottles of water, snacks, and sunscreen.

It was a crystal clear day. The long walk to the beach down the board walk was magical. The trees hung overhead as squirrels scampered across bent limbs which made the walk all the more fun.

We arrived before most of the other beach goers and found the perfect spot straight off of the board walk. We managed to wrestle our umbrella into the the thick sand and began digging to create sand castles that would wind around our marked spot for the day.

I was watching the children wade into the ocean while I helped Theodore catch a busy sand crab when I heard, “Excuse me, ma’am.” I looked and saw a young guy who appeared to work for the umbrella rental company. He continued, “I hope you are having a good day. I wanted to let you know about the beach situation. I am so sorry but you can’t sit here.” He explained about how the neighborhood that we were staying in had a different place on the beach that we were allowed to sit in…… “past the American flag.”

The young man was so kind and even offered to move our things for us including our multi- colored piddly umbrella we brought. His umbrellas I noticed ran $300 for the week.

As we packed up our things and began the journey eastward towards our new section of beach I was disappointed. I loved our first place.

We got settled into our new section of beach. We wiggled the umbrella into the sand once again and unpacked the beach toys. Before long, I looked out from where we were sitting and realized there was a beautiful sand bar about 10 feet into the ocean. All of the children loved it! I also noticed by the afternoon how it was much less crowded than the original spot. AND now I loved our second place!

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As we gathered up our sandy toys and sun kissed faces from the day I realized two things:

• 1. BAD news doesn’t mean it has to be delivered in a BAD way. The umbrella worker guy had such a kind and generous tone. It impacted me.

As a mom, how often do I deliver bad news to the kids in a way that could be said more cheerfully like the umbrella guy.

For example, “I need you to come in from playing and help me with dinner right now!”

Or

“ I know you are having a fun time playing. After you help me with dinner you can go back and play some more until it’s time to eat.”

• . 2. What appears to be BAD news is often a BLESSING instead. (If the worker hadn’t kicked us out we would have never known the joy of the other beach area. )

Here’s to The Umbrella Guy for teaching me a few lessons today! 🏖