Tybee Island, GA

We spent all day Wednesday at North Beach on Tybee Island. It was a lot less windy than it had been on Tuesday evening (which we spent at a more southerly beach on Tybee) and we heard on the news over breakfast that it was because of the big storm that rolled in that evening. I was glad the wind really was atrocious on Tuesday because...it had been a while since we'd made it to the beach...and I couldn't remember if it was always that miserable and I had just been remembering things wrong or what. The sand was stinging our legs as it hit and it was really quite uncomfortable. 

But on Wednesday all we had was a lovely sea breeze and the day was perfectly beautiful.

I took a million pictures because (a) we haven't been to the beach in forever and (b) I'm a lot less adventurous when I go to the beach pregnant than when I go to the beach when I'm not so while everyone else was enjoying boogie boarding out in the waves I took a gentler approach...

That's not to say I never got in the water (because I definitely did) and it's not to say that I didn't take a few modest turns on the boogie board (because...I definitely did), but I largely tried to avoid the "extreme" side of beach sports. Instead I spent my time divvying out snacks, fixing peanut butter and jam sandwiches, and taking pictures. As you can see, I wasn't exactly lonely. Alexander was often more than happy to keep my lap company. But he also loves the ocean. 

Like I said, I took about a million pictures and I'm not quite sure how to use them to tell a story. We went to the beach. The kids played in the ocean. All day. The end.

So...perhaps I'll just start with pictures highlighting the youngest and work our way up...

Alexander, as I said, loved the ocean. He was so adorable on his boogie board that people would stop to watch him catch wave after wave. He had some gnarly wipe outs and would come up choking and sputtering, but when he was "rescued" would start yelling, "Put me back! Put me down! Do it again!"

An older gentleman who'd stopped to watch said to me, "I keep waiting for him to cry..."

But he never did. He just kept picking himself up (or...kept being picked up by Andrew) and then would beg to go again. He only took a break when we forced him to. He was so reluctant to get out of the water and kept paddling deeper and deeper so whoever was in the water with him had a big job keeping him on this side of the Atlantic. It was like he was determined to swim to Morocco. He'd hit the ocean and just...head out to the open sea!

Alexander also had a blast playing in the sand. In fact, when we asked him what his favourite part of the trip was he said it was building sand castles.

I guess I'll break my age-order organization to include a picture of the big sand castle everyone worked on...

Alexander noticed the tide was starting to come in so he diligently packed up his tools and trekked them to higher ground. You can tell he's rather displeased with how the ocean keeps moving the goalposts...

Here he is taking a rest with Daddy (these rests were enforced every so often, to make sure the kids ate, reapplied sunscreen, and caught their breath...they also lasted about 2.5 seconds before every last one of them was back in the ocean):

And...here's Alexander back at it:

Zoë was an absolute fish. With the waves being a little less rough today, she did convince me to let her take off her puddle jumper so she could boogie board more easily (her arms were starting to chafe because I don't think puddle jumpers are designed for...this much physical activity). Sometimes she wanted it on, sometimes she wanted it off, but always she wanted to be in the water.

She was another kid I was afraid would swim straight to Morocco if we didn't stop her. 

Benjamin enjoyed boogie boarding to an extent, but he preferred simply body surfing and frolicking in the waves. 

So while he hung out with his older sisters a lot, they usually had boogie boards and he usually did not...

He loved letting the waves crash into him...

He did so much running and leaping...

He was a very busy kid and could hardly decide what he wanted to do at any given moment so mostly ended up trying to do everything at all times. Fill this bucket with water (once), catch a wave (once), deposit board on shore, run and jump over a wave (once), pick up a handful of sand and mindlessly drop it as he runs to jump over another wave (once), return to shore for boogie board...

I don't know how he wasn't more exhausted than he was at the end of the day!

Benjamin wiping out, with Alexander, Zoë, and Andrew in the background

I feel like I have fewer pictures of the older girls (that and they're featured in a few pictures with the little kids already), but here are some good shots of Miriam:

This poor girl sunburned across her nose quite badly. I'm not even sure how! Like, she had a bit of a pink glow all over after this day at the beach, but her poor little nose and cheeks were simply ravaged by the sun. She was a very sad girl when she realized how badly she'd burned (and she'd been quite diligent about sunscreen, too).

Here she is working on the big sand castle with everyone:

Their castle was modeled after the Ocmulgee Indian Mounds:

For some reason I have more pictures of Rachel. I think because she was being a big helper in the water, sticking close to Zoë (it's always good to swim with a buddy).

This time she's with Benjamin...

She and Miriam were out there together as well:

Maybe she was just entertaining to watch...

Here's a few of Andrew boogie boarding:

I still have more pictures. We really were at the beach all day long, just...doing beach stuff. But then—somehow—we found enough energy to go walking in historic Savannah after dinner. I'm really not sure how we managed that because we were all sunburnt and wave-weary.

Alexander scooping the ocean into a pail with a shovel (very effective):

Everyone working on the sand castle:

The four big kids enjoying the water (it was so warm!):

Rachel and Andrew coming in on boogie boards (Benjamin behind them):

Miriam, Rachel, and Andrew coming to shore:

Benjamin, Miriam, Rachel, and Andrew:

Miriam, Zoë, Rachel, Benjamin, and Andrew:

Zoë, Benjamin, Rachel, and Miriam (and a boat in the background):

Benjamin coming in, front and center:

This time Miriam is in the center (with Zoë on the left, and Rachel, Alexander, and Andrew on the right):

The kids didn't even want to leave the beach when we told them it was time to pack up (after we'd been there for six hours) so it's a good thing we still had more beach time to look forward to!