LIFE IS LOVELY: Making the most of family days in the sun

There's no denying the weather has been incredible lately and it's not very often we can say that in England so when it is hot you have to make the most of it before it's cold and wet again.

At the weekend we made the most of the sunshine and living by the coast the best way to spend it is with a visit to the beach.

Elijah was excited about a trip to the beach clutching onto his bucket and spade full of smiles ready to dig up the sand and build some sandcastles.

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However Elijah's first port of call was to hit the arcades and win some tickets and get some ice cream before sinking his feet into the sand.

Elijah wasted no time shovelling away on the beach as he began digging for pirate treasure but sadly didn't find any so resorted to piling sand on my feet instead.

Whilst Elijah has been to the beach several times it was Layla's first trip so we were keen to see what she'd make of it.

As we sat down Layla began kicking her legs in the sand and feeling it with her hands. She's never felt anything quite like it before so looked intrigued to what it was.

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Again she too was set on getting as much sand on my legs as possible. I guess she was learning from her big brother.

Whilst she isn't quite old enough to run free on the sand and build sandcastles with Elijah yet she did seem to enjoy her time on the beach even if we did bring half the sand back to the car with us.

We don't realise how lucky we are to have a lovely coastline right on our doorstep and we aim to make a lot of memories down at the beach with the kids over the years.