Tuesday, August 1, 2017

Beach Part I


We're back from our vacation, and what a blast it was! This was the first time the kids haven't been terrified of waves, so we spent considerably more time at the beach than we ever have before. Sweet Pea, especially, loved jumping in the waves -- even when they were over her head! I can't get over the change in her attitude towards water this summer.





We collected shells, practiced handstands, made a sand mermaid, and hunted tiny crabs. The largest one we caught was about the size of a silver dollar. Did you know crabs fight? We put all our captured ones into a bucket, and they immediately attacked each other. The kids were fascinated yet terrified by the crabs, even the ones the size of sesame seeds.But by the end of the week, the girls could chase them down on the beach, scoop them up quickly with a shovel, and dump them in the bucket.





Little Man wore his sneakers the whole first day at the beach -- even in the water -- because he was concerned about his blister (left over from gymnastics camp). Eventually he consented to wearing just a sock on that one foot. And by mid-week, he was running around barefoot like everyone else. 





 


Once again, we rented bikes and rode them everywhere, even on the beach early one morning! But this time we had two kids in a trailer, and the third kid on a "tagalong bike" attached to an adult bike. The kids loved the tagalong bike and took turns religiously to make sure it was fair for everyone. By the end of the week, they had figured out they could ride with no hands, especially Sweet Pea, who would do it for long periods of time. 



The weather was warm but unfortunately it rained at least a little bit each day. But on our last day, we were granted a perfectly sunny summer beach day. It was a great ending to our vacation, except that CC got tangled up pretty badly with a jellyfish. It turns out that late July is jellyfish season. I'm so glad that we didn't know that at the beginning of our trip! We were blissfully naive the whole week, thank goodness. But note to self: go to the beach in June from now on!

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