Beach pictures I (May 21—23)

Let me see if I can guilt my children into finishing their writing assignments by leaving some passive aggressive hints in (and wide open spaces for them to add information to) this blog post...

Phoebe loved the ocean. She squealed with joy practically the whole time we were at the beach. She'd take a wave to the face, looked stunned for a second, and then get right back to splashing around and having a grand ol' time.

She even joined the big kids in boogie boarding a bit. Here's Zoë coming into shore on her boogie board while Alexander cheers her on:

And here's Phoebe getting ready to take a spin:

She found the waves to be mighty powerful.

But not in a bad way. She might still have a teensy bit of her infant aversion to rapid movements (remember when we couldn't even walk down the stairs without her hyperventilating?), but now she recovers from her shock with exhilaration rather than terror.

Miriam has always been my "pretty things" hunter at the beach. I have so many pictures of her shell hunting from when she was little and the shell hunting continues today. She really has a good eye for things.

When we got home she spent some time in our shell identification book (and online) trying to figure out the names for all the shells she found. Pretty soon she came to me instead with a list of "great insults," such as:

[insert Miriam's list here]

Melon shell.
Channeled duck clam.

Pink mouthed murex.

Wentletrap.

I can't remember what all she had on her list, but if you read them in the right tone they certainly sounded offensive.

I think Rachel must have had the camera this day. Maybe it was the day she was feeling ill. Here's Alex, Phoebe, Miriam, and me on the shore, but I can spot more family members out in the water.

I think these pictures of Andrew and Benjamin talking on the beach are sweet. I don't know what they're talking about (but I imagine it's probably Minecraft or Zelda):

Now Zoë's having a chat with Dad:

Here she is pulling her best "success kid" look:

She's just bringing me handfuls of sand to show me since, you know, I wouldn't see the sand otherwise. She really enjoys grabbing fistfuls of this beautiful earth we walk upon. I'm just glad she no longer immediately stuffs these handfuls of earth into her mouth.

Here she is running headlong into the water:

Alexander on the boogie board:

Here's Benjamin with a bunch of seaweed on his head:

When I say this girl could not stop squealing with joy at the beach, what I meant was...she could not stop squealing with joy.

This hat was so short-lived. She hated wearing it. So I just started rubbing sunscreen into her scalp, which made for some interesting hair days.

Sand castle time!

Oh, look! It's my turn to get in the water!

With Miriam and Benjamin by my side...

Switching off with Daddy because Phoebe did not approve of mommy being in the water without her:

Okay, now it's sandcastle time for real!

Here's Grandpa helping the little kids do some wave jumping:

Here's Zoë freshly washed ashore:

Maybe now it's sandcastle time? I know that at some point we really did get out of the water and create a magnificent sand castle. The question, I suppose, is...when...

Kites. We tried kites. The ocean wind eats them up like candy. Crunch. Munch. Snap. I think we went through four or five kites. But, they were each fun while they lasted.

Castle?

Kites.

Cute kid.

Andrew got this one quite high. I love how little Phoebe looks as she craning her neck up to the sky.

Miriam with a storm brewing behind her:

Flying a kite in the approaching storm (I asked them if they wanted a key to put on the string or anything like that):

Here's Phoebe reminding me, once again, that you can just pick up part of the planet (if you want to) and no one can really stop you. I mean, people might try to tell you to stop, but you absolutely don't have to listen. Just go ahead and do what you want (that's her motto):

Not that I really spent a lot of time telling her to not pick up the sand. On the contrary, it was encouraged. She was really in her element this trip!

Here's that castle I've been promising you:

And more kite stuff:

And more of this cute kid:

And this cute kid:

Andrew enjoys building sand castles as a race against the tide, a game he seems to have learned from his father. All our kids like this game as well. I am personally more of a safety builder and prefer to work without the ocean chewing away my foundation. The kids enjoy it both ways.

Here are Alexander and Phoebe sitting inside the beginnings of a chaos castle:

You have to build a wall to protect the castle from the waves, see? So I think this was the start of the wall:

Here's Rachel having a turn with the kite:

Here are some kids washing ashore:

Here's Alexander taking a turn with the kite:

I don't think I have much to say about this little visit to the beach because these pictures are from when I was sick in bed, I think.

But it looks like it was a beautiful day. Pity I missed it. Everyone had a turn flying kites this day. Even Phoebe!

And that's it! You can see from the background that everyone's packing up to head back to the beach house, where they'd find me still sick in bed, but would pull me out to sing Happy Birthday to Zoë so that they could all eat cake.

We have more pictures from our beach trip (if you can believe it) that I'll put up soon!