Day at the Beach

We headed out for a day at the beach yesterday. It was sunny and the kids get tired quickly so we had a water stop not far from the house. I loved how they lined up the take a drink from Ben's backpack. I wouldn't let them take the water bottle out because I thought it would save a bit of time. Then againk, we could have walked while they drank but that never seems to work well.

These trees are in bloom now and they are really pretty with all the red blossoms. I need to get a close up of them some time because they are a bit different and really pretty. They have mostly red pettals but one of them is speckeled with white. It really is neat.

It was supposed to be an RSO activity at the beach as well so I figured why try to have conflicting activites. Maybe it was the rain clouds in the sky that made people stay away. I was late and when I got there, two of our friends were there, and that was it. I was really expecting to have a bit of a crowd but that was not the case. I was sort of glad - but missed some of our friends who usually come hang out with us.

There was a distinct line of something on the beach, from high tide. The sand changed color too but as we looked closer we saw that it was a bunch of tiny shrimp washed up on the sand.

I guess the shrimp explained why there were so many of these guys crawling around. They stayed out of the way, mostly. I did find one by accident. I was just standing at the edge of the water and I felt a rock under my foot. I reached down to pull it out so we could look at it and it was a crab. It was a flat water crab and it wanted nothing to do with me so I let out a bit of a scream and then recovered quickly as it swam away.

Here are the more welcome friends that we really enjoy hanging out with. Thanks guys, for playing with us!

My kids enjoy playing in the sand, snorkeling, riding the waves, searching for creatures, and everything the beach has to offer. It is fun for all of us - except for the whole clean up process but we are even getting better at that too.

I meant to take my snorkel gear but forgot it and didn't want to turn back because we were late. When we arrived our friends said it was amazing and they let me borrow their gear. I took Ben out with me and it truly was amazing. It was clear and there were tons of fish. The thing that brought me the most joy was seeing 5 or 6 little squid swimming together. I do not have a camera that can go in the water (although I am looking at the Canon PowerShot d10) so I don't have any pictures to share with you, of our underwater sightings. It was really neat and I could stay out there forever. Okay, maybe for a long time. I wasn't able to take the girls out this time but I will next time. Maybe I'll even try Xiomara, if I can get the mask to stay on well enough. Or she can just use goggles. I bet she'd love to see all the fish.