Beach Vacation Part I

Wow -- I really don't know where to begin! Our vacation was fabulous. As I told MJ on our last evening, my expectations were really high coming into the week, and I kept telling myself to temper them. But I'm thrilled to say that my expectations were not only met, but exceeded!

We rented bikes for the week and pedaled everywhere. On our way to the beach the first morning, our kids -- so woefully ignorant of beaches and oceans -- kept saying, "The ocean!" every time we saw a pond. But when we walked out onto the sand, they were awestruck and a little scared. Little Man wouldn't go near the waves (which stayed true for the duration of the trip).

We went to the beach three times during the week. Short exposures to the beach worked well for both adults and kids! Here was our setup. I was very happy with the SportBrella -- it was so nice to have some shade with ventilation, and it was plenty large enough to fit a picnic blanket and provide shade for the kids to play in.

Little Man enjoyed playing in the sand most of all.

I helped them make a "river," and the girls had fun pouring water and watching it flow under the bridges.

CC was definitely the most comfortable getting wet and sandy. Thank goodness for the large tidal pools on the beach, which provided plenty of water to splash in, but no waves!

Little Man's other favorite beach activity was playing with this ball:

Sweet Pea, as usual, was happy playing by herself for long periods of time, and collecting shells.

One day we went to a different beach. Little Man spent the entire time on MJ's shoulders, inexplicably terrified of the sand and water. But Sweet Pea loved finding new shells (including some that still contained hermit crabs!). CC and I were walking along when I heard a little splash, and looked to see a dolphin swimming not 8 feet from where we were standing!

The dolphin was just in front of CC.
I had no idea they could swim in such shallow water!

Memorial Day on the beach

On our last day, I asked a fellow vacationer to take a picture of us. Naturally, Sweet Pea refused to look at him.

But Sweet Pea was the only one who felt comfortable with me holding her in the waves. Like I said to MJ, each child is brave in their own way, and does things that the other two will not.

Tomorrow I'll post more pictures of our non-beach activities. There was so much else to do!