First time at the BEACH

Woo-hoo! We finally made it! It only took us TWO YEARS, but we finally went to visit the gorgeous Florida coast. We chose Crescent Beach, which is a mere 74 miles from our front door. So hopefully this was the first of many such trips. :)

This is our van filled with excited beach-goers. You'll recognize these friends from our Easter Egg Hunt pictures.



Not only was this our first beach trip since we moved to Florida, but it was also Lincoln and Anndra's first time at the beach EVER. Of course Lincoln is super excited any time we put his swim-suit on him, but this cute little girl has NO idea what an adventure lies ahead of her!




I have to thank my friend Michelle for helping in countless ways to make this a successful outing. For example, chatting with her on the way made the drive go by in a snap. She had been there numerous times with her husband, so she knew all the important info like where to park, what the bathrooms and other facilities are like, and just how to be a smart mommy... like putting sunscreen on the kids in the shade of the pic-nic area before taking the path to the beach. Oh yes, children are much less likely to squirm and pull away from you when they can't SEE the waves yet.

We marched out into the crazy hot sun and were soon stepping across the most lovely powder-soft white sand. The BEST. You can see it here on the fingers and toes of our sweet 2-year-olds.




Our two oldest headed immediately into the water and we weren't sure if they were ever going to come back!





This brings me back to the countless ways that Michelle is awesome. You may notice that these 2 water pictures look a little different. That's because they were taken by me. I think ALL the rest of the photos in this post were taken by her - thanks to her superior skills and free hands she was basically the designated photographer for the day.

In addition, having another grown-up around allowed us to keep all the kids safe without too much effort. Michelle took water duty: supervising the swimmers. And I took sand duty: supervising the kids who stayed on the beach and all the STUFF (it always amazes me how many things someone with small children has to bring on a trip like this).


Lincoln enjoyed the water too, just not quite as far out as the big boys.



However, in this shot you can kind of see him heading out to deeper water with Z while Parker digs in the sand - quite a switch.



After a little while he figured out that his life-vest could work kind of like a boogie board... he would walk out until the water was above his waist and then lay tummy-down on the water and ride the little waves all the way in until he got "beached" on the sand like a little whale. Everyone who saw him thought it was great. One lady just kept laughing and shaking her head, saying: "He has NO fear!"


Anndra was not all that impressed by the ocean and not too thrilled to be at the beach in general, but that is probably because she's about to get her second tooth and isn't feeling quite herself this week. She stayed under the umbrella nearly the entire time.



Mostly she slept:





Eventually the boys came back from their wave-jumping and switched to the bury-parts-of-ourselves-in-the-sand game.




Lincoln just continued to wander back and forth between me and the water, taking it all in and loving every minute. I think this is the look he gave me when I told him we might have to leave soon: