A Summer Day at the Beach

One of the most joyful moments I've had this summer was watching my four sweet kids playing at the beach.  Having only been out of diapers for the past 6 months, this was the first time I'd taken the kids for a beach day in over a year....sans diapers!  It was like a brand new experience.  

My children are all so different, and that became more apparent at our beach day.  

My oldest, Emma, loves creating and collecting.  She spent the majority of her time building beautiful sand castles and decorating them with seaweed.  Gathering shells was another favorite activity.  She combed the beaches for the most colorful and unique shells.  No shard was too simple or jagged for inspection, every piece of God's beautiful beach creation was worth a peek.  Check out pictures from Emma's beach day:

Now five-year-old Cubby is totally different from he big sis.  After flipping off her sandals, she made a bee-line for the water.  Leaping over the surf like a gazelle, she squealed and jumped, splashed and screamed her way over waves and surf for about an hour.  She loved the water, only leaving the fun for sand castle building with her siblings and cousin.  Here are a few snapshots of Cubby's fun day at the beach.

My spunky three-year-old, Gigi is afraid of the ocean, so she pretty much spends her entire day playing in the sand with her cousin.  She rolled in it, was buried in it, and dug around in the sand for hours.  Gigi was lucky enough to borrow a beautiful, matching swim ensemble from her always fashionable cousin, so she was awfully proud of the look....as you can see from her photos:

Gigi's twin brother, J.D., didn't care about the waves, sun, surf, birds, other people, food, or sandcastles. His beach day was all about the shovel, and therefore all about digging holes.  He wore his sun shirt faithfully and avoided a sunburn.  That boy is so fair, poor thing.  Right when we got there, while J.D. was busy digging a tiny hole with his little blue plastic shovel, a man showed up with a giant, adult sized shovel and started scooping out sand to make a gigantic hole.  When he had finished the hole, the man actually dug out little steps for kids to walk down into it.  That guy was serious about this awesome beach hole! Anyway, while all that was going on, J.D. watched intently, holding his shovel as if saying, "Whenever you need me, I'm ready to help in any way.  You just let me know."  It was adorable.  Here are a few of my favorite J.D. beach day pics:

Something truly magical happens at the beach with little children.  There seems to be no end to the joy and excitement experienced in one of God's most pure and beautiful creations.  

I attempted a family shot of my four love-bugs, but Gigi refused, citing a fear of the oncoming surf.  No problem.  I'll get a shot of the fantastic four on our next fun day of vacation.  Until then!!