Beach Babies

We went to the beach the last two Saturdays and we all really enjoyed it. I had only seen the ocean twice in my life and that was on the west coast and the water was really cold there. But here the water is warm. Irelyn was so fearless the first time we went but the second time she was more timid. Ty is my little water baby. He just walks out into the water like its no big deal, he just loves to sit in it all the way past his shoulders.

Hayes just sat on the beach with Paw Paw and watched everyone. He really loved the breeze blowing his hair.

We caught some Hermit Crabs and decided to take these four home. We kept them in a plastic storage tub in the kitchen for a week. But I didn't want them to die so we brought them back.

Poor Hayes was so tired when we got back. He didn't even make it through dinner. Poor guy.

Ok i tried and tried to make this picture turn the right way but it refused. Irelyn tried to catch things in the water. but all she got was sand.

The second trip Hayes just layed around and watched everything through the openings of his little pen.

Ty was Daddy's shadow on the second trip. Here my men are being Manley and hunting blue crabs.

It was time to say good-bye to our four little friends and release them back into the wild where they belong. Ty grabbed the first one and hucked it into the ocean with all his might while yelling "good-bye crabs!!!!!!!!!!!!" so we explained about being gentle and released the other three in a not so cruel of manner.

And they scurried off. every now and then while we were there we would come across one of them still trudgeing along in the water hundreds of feet away from the freedom zone.

then we filled up the tub with more animals. up above you will see two blue crabs. By the time we got home we had caught three red jelly fish (they don't sting), two clear shrimp, and ten blue crabs. We let the jelly fish and shrimp go. It was really fun and I hope we can go at least one more time before it gets to cold. I am so glad that so much interesting and fun stuff is so near.

Perfect ending to a perfect day.

Swamp Things

A few weeks ago the weather was nice and we were bored and the kids were climbing up the walls bursting with energy. Someone Joe knows from work told him there was a nature preserve not far from our house. They weren't kidding! It took us about ten minutes to drive to this place. If I remember right it is the Big Branch Marsh. It was so beautiful. I don't know how deep the swamp was but the board walk went right out to the middle and then cut to the right and curved back. We saw some egrets which are birds with really long legs like a crane, a turtle sunbathing on a log, and some minnows. We didn't see any alligators but we did hear some baby ones chirping in the tall swamp grass. The kids had a blast. Ty would get a little to close to the edge sometimes and my heart would jump in my throat. I was being paranoid of course. All I could think of though was him looking over the edge and falling in or a giant hungry alligator leaping out of the water and biting him in two. But thank goodness Ty is still in one piece.

Ty being a little adventuring explorer. I especially Love the monkey backpack he insisted on wearing.

Lily pads are so pretty. Honestly I had never seen these in real life. Well there's one more thing to cross off on my bucket list. Yayyyyy.