sand in the shorts

Yesterday, we went to the beach.  Nothing unusual in that.  Logan wore swim trunks; Ryan wore a pair of reversible Adidas shorts.  This pair, in fact:   

Again, nothing unusual.  Ry doesn’t love wearing swim trunks.  After yesterday, though, he may change his tune.

As is their pattern, when we got to the beach, the boys immediately grabbed up their football and headed for the water and a game of catch.  They love trying to time it with the incoming waves.  After playing catch for a bit, they tried some bodysurfing.  It was fun, so they did it for a bit.  Ryan’s reversible shorts have a mesh side…and the waves forced sand between the layers!   We all laughed at the sand, and they settled back into playing on the shore.  This time, it included digging holes at the water’s edge, so every time a wave came in, it spread their piles of sand everywhere.  By the time they were ready to call it a day, it was apparent we had a minor problem: how to keep skinny Ryan IN his shorts for the walk home!

We managed.  Barely.  His normally confident stride was reduced to a step-step-hitch walk.  And, sand kept running down his legs, spreading lovely brownish colored streaks down the backs of both legs.  I’m sure we were quite a sight to behold.  Once we got into our neighborhood and into the alley behind the garage (I don’t let them come in the front door after the beach), he quit hitching up his shorts.  It’s probably a block from the end of the alley to our garage door, so by the time we got there he looked like one of those high school kids with shorts hanging down.  His shorts were barely hanging on, tucked neatly under his little butt cheeks. 

We left the shorts on the patio to dry, hoping than when they were dry we’d be able to get the sand out.  This morning I went out to see what we could do, but not before I put those suckers on my kitchen scale!    Weighed them, shook them out, then weighed them again.  There was ONE POUND of sand in between the layers of his shorts!  And that’s DRY sand.  Wet?  I can’t even begin to guess how much it weighed.  The pile is pretty good sized:

His comment this morning? “ I think I’ll wear my swim trunks from now on, Mom.” 

Good plan, little man.  Good plan.