Edisto Island, Day 6

 After getting back from Botany Bay, we headed right back out to sit on our "own" beach.

Don't ask me why Phoebe looks so grumpy in this picture because the truth of the matter is that she loved being buried.

She called it her "crib" and sat there for ages, ordering people to cover her toes again, or to fetch more decorative shells, or to pat this or that area down, or to bring her a sip of water. She loved it. 

She sat and she sang songs to herself while patting her sand for a long, long time.

Rachel made a cute little sand turtle:

...and you can see that Phoebe is still back there in her "crib," being catered to by Zoë.

On this particular day the Shabumis were back. It was almost funny how many there were.  

Maybe one day they'll be featured in paintings of the beach—like Frederick McDuff's "Cove with Tents" only instead of old-timey changing tents it there will be a row of Shabumis.

Here's Grandpa and the girls engaging in a game of paddle ball (with Alexander acting as the de facto ball fetcher):

And here's a picture of Phoebe, me and Benjamin (and Alexander, if you can spot him behind Benjamin) working on some sand castles:

I feel like this particular day a lot of our crew retired from the beach early, but Rachel and I stayed out with the boys and Phoebe.

Phoebe's method of building castles is to fill the bucket with sand. That is the castle. If you dump it out then your castle (and your life, probably) is ruined. So just fill the bucket up with sand and enjoy it!

Here's Benjamin and I working away, creating a little army of sand people:

And here's Phoebe again:

It was kind of fun (for me) to have Rachel behind the camera for a while:

My camera is often filled with pictures of others and none of me. Here's Rachel (no longer behind the camera) giggling about something:

Here's Benjamin:

And his cool castle:

And here's Alexander with his cool castle:

And here's Phoebe playing by her sand-filled bucket:

I think I mentioned the pelicans earlier. They were flying up and down the beach all day.

We went back to the beach house for dinner and to relax a bit before heading back to the beach for an evening stroll. In the evenings the kids enjoyed having the cell phone/camera wielders screencast the pictures of the day on the big screen. Here's Benjamin watching:

It was about at this point (after six days of swimming in the salty ocean and burying himself in sand time and again) that we realized we neglected to enforce shower time. His hair couldn't lie down flat if he tried to make it! So we made him take a shower.

Here are the kids on our sunset walk:

Benjamin was pleased that his castle was still standing.

As spectacular as the sunsets are, I appreciate the subtle beauty of the eastern sky as the sun is setting—the way the pinks and blues of the sky reflect on the sandy shore.

Our walk took us to a beautifully engineered castle: 

Everyone was so impressed by it—the planning, the execution, the seemingly impenetrable sea wall protecting it—that they determined they would do a similar thing in the morning. The years I spent suggesting they build a grander castle a little farther up the shore did nothing to convince anyone of anything, but seeing this castle did. And I'm really okay with that.

Here's everyone walking along the beach (you can see the fun glow sticks Darla picked up while we were in Charleston):

And here's a ghost crab that Benjamin managed to catch (which, of course, Phoebe had to touch as well):