Tony was so glad that they had made beach days a regular thing even after having kids. It had kind of become his and Ziva's thing and now it was a family thing. Which was pretty cool. Having a family thing. Who would have thought that either of them would have managed that? And together? It really was amazing. They were just a normal family when they did things like this. He and Ziva could actually do normal things. He would have never believed that. Sometimes he still wouldn't believe it but here they were. In the beach, having fun, getting sandy and wet. Trying to dry and clean everyone off at the end of the day wasn't fun but that wasn't a now problem. Right now, he was just going to take deep breaths of the salty, sea air and enjoy himself. And maybe try and throw Ziva into the surf, that was always fun even though he was the one who normally ended up all wet. That particular trick never failed to entertain.

They had even managed beach visits when each of the kids were babies though Ziva still hadn't quite forgiven him for getting her pregnant at a time that ensured that she would spend the last months of her pregnancy firmly in the summer. Pointing out that she was half at fault did not help. And it had been three years now. To be fair, she really had been miserable for that last month. They had had a heatwave then because of course they had. She hadn't even enjoyed the beach that summer.

But that was in the past and the now was, well, now. And now was pretty damn good. Everyone was happy and cheerful and no fights had broken out (yet, he was sure they were coming).

His youngest, determined to keep up with her older siblings was running as fast as she could. Which wasn't that fast considering she was in the sand and wasn't really sure how to walk never mind run in it. It always amazed him just how a year made such a difference when it came to kids. There was his son, just a year older than her and much steadier on his feet and could run much faster. And then, of course, there being a three-year gap between him and his oldest, she was already playing in the seaweed. A new favourite pastime of hers for some reason. She always came back from the beach reeking of the stuff and it tangled in her hair. How that always happened, he wasn't sure because neither he or Ziva ever saw her put it in her hair but it always ended up there.

His two oldest were soon calling to her, urging her to hurry up, they wanted to play.

"Coming! Coming!"

She tried to pump her little legs more which just made her wave her hands about in an effort to balance. And oof, Tony winced as she lost her footing and took a tumble into the sand, getting a mouthful of it. A good, big mouthful too, he could actually see it fall out of her mouth when she opened it in disgust. Both he and Ziva braced themselves, waiting for tears (and their youngest could be loud) but thankfully it was big sister to the rescue who did something to make her laugh and then taught offered her her water bottle and taught her how to swirl her mouth out and spit. Unfortunately, little kids didn't really follow instructions properly and both girls ended up soaked. He was just thankful there was a lot of laughter going on.

"Me too! Me too!" went their brother, running over to them when he realised, he'd run ahead.

He also joined in the fun of repeatedly spitting out water. Tony felt like this was maybe something he should be stopping but they were all having so much fun and there were no tears or fighting so there was really no point. This way he and Ziva got some time to themselves as well. They would run out of water soon enough and move onto something else.

It turned out he was half right. They did quickly run out of water, as you would when you were taking big gulps of it and spitting it back out, but they didn't move onto something else. Oh no. Instead, the two oldest, allegedly the smartest two, decided that they could continue because they had a plentiful supply of water. And no, he was not talking about his and Ziva's water bottles. That would actually be sensible. No, why deal with half-drunk water bottles when you had the sea all around you?

"No!" Both he and Ziva shouted when they realised what was happening.

They were too late though and all three of their idiotic children had scooped up seawater into their water bottles, that's right- seawater, and proceeded to take big gulps.

Thankfully the game had never been to swallow the water but still, that was definitely not a good thing to do. All three of them quickly made the most alarming choking noises and spat it all out.

"Why would you do that?" Ziva asked in exasperation, pushing her water bottle into the nearest child's hand.

Tony quickly did the same with his and took the backpack of his back to grab another. Her never heard that amount of gagging and gulping before. And the tears, so many tears. It took them a while but they got everyone settled down and the salt water mostly out of their mouths. The oldest two swore they could feel the salt on their back teeth. Though he was pretty sure the middle one was just copying his older sister.

"It was meant to be fun!"

Tony and Ziva looked at each other and had to hide smiles. Something they did a lot these days, who knew children could be so amusing? You couldn't let them know it, however, or else they would get mad.