My friend Laura invited us to a new beach I'd never been to. She said it was about an hour away. I thought it was high time I tried something new, and past time to go to the beach, although I wasn't thrilled to have to drive so far. But I signed on for the adventure. It was over an hour to drive the beach, and the weather turned yucky and I was getting a bit cranky about it all. Although the sun was shining when we headed out, it was raining when we got to the beach, but we set up anyway. I was thinking it was going to be a quick beach stop, but the rain moved on and the weather became rather lovely.
Unfortunately, since it was raining when we arrived, and we were all wet, I did not sunscreen anyone. And that ended badly- mostly for me. We had a marvelous time! I was planning to sit on the beach and chat with my friends, but the girls wanted me to come in and I decided I'd rather be the mom who hung out with her kids. So I exposed the world to my swim-suit-clad mom-body and braved the freezing waters and had a fabulous time!
Callie discovered there were sand dollars. I LOVE sand dollars. So the girls and I cruised around, faces in the water, looking for circles on the bottom. When we spotted one, we'd dive down, 8-10 feet to get them. It was a blast! Rylee got cold and joined the other kids on the beach, playing in the sand, but the rest of us stayed in the water for nearly 2 hours (hence the sunburn for me!). We hung out till 3pm and then packed it in. The wind was really kicking up and tummies were growling.
It was a really good day!
Me and the ladies, heading out on a grand Beach Adventure!
Joshua wasn't sure he wanted to come, and since it was our first foray, I let him stay home.
We crossed this bridge from our main island, to another little island. Ha ha. "Little" it may have been, but we still drove another 20 kilometers to get to the perfect beach! Yep, it was raining already.
Callie thought this was so funny, that it says "Aloha", but we are in Japan.
So pretty with the lush green foliage everywhere.
And, having recently seen the Jurassic World movie, it was kind of creepily like that.
Delaney discovered that salt water is nasty. She was not pleased, but finally figured out how to keep her mouth closed enough to enjoy the ocean.
Riley had a great time bobbing along.
I do love to see this girl smile!
Making a mad dash for the towel and a drink.
This group was a hoot. Can you see the head by the blue float? She was totally buried. And they are working on burying the other 2 kids as well.
I really enjoyed playing with these girls. And the boogie-boards were worth every penny of the $7 I spent on them at the MCX this morning!
Check this out!! Marian found a starfish! She also caught a little fish. We did let them go. But it was pretty cool.
A picture of the beautiful beach. It was gravel sand, so not very soft on the tootsies.
But the sand extended far enough out into the water that you didn't step on any gross stuff.
This was our haul of sand dollars! Even Rylee found one! One of the pink ones was hers. I modestly claim bragging rights for the biggest one and the black one. Marian got most of the gorgeous ones though.
Did I mention it was a fun day?!
