At the Beach

Last Thursday was Eve's 3rd birthday. More on that later, but I'll have to mention part of it now. I told them Wednesday we were going to leave early in the morning to go to the beach for her birthday. Thursday morning when I heard them stirring I went into their room (they were all camping out together in Ellie's room for the week). I looked around with a surprised look and asked, "where is my 2-year-old?" Eve looked confused for just a second, then jumped up and said, "It's me! I'm three!" She was so excited. We played "Three is a Magic Number" a few times, had a quick breakfast, and loaded up to head for Charleston. We spend Thursday afternoon and Friday morning at the beach and it was FABULOUS! The weather was great, and the water was warm...enough.

In years past John has been a bit afraid of the waves. In Florida, nearly 2 months ago, he enjoyed the water but the waves weren't really "waves". He's certainly turned over a new leaf. We couldn't get him out of the waves! At first I even had to take him out a bit further to help him appreciate how powerful they were because he was feeling a little too independent and refused to stay close once. After that he did a good job staying close enough, but was still pretty fearless.

The girls were very diligent building their castles.

Ellie spent quite some time enjoying herself in the beach chair.

Eve was also pretty fearless in the waves, but that's nothing new. She's been that way since her first trip to the beach when she crawled like a sea turtle straight into them and never turned back. She was a little more timid than John, but not much.

Ellie wasn't a big fan at first, but enjoyed the water on her own terms, and eventually came to like it in her own timing.

Eve is 3!

Our best attempt at a family picture.

Now that's sweet!

John wanted to be buried...honest!

John and I really did spend a lot of time together in the waves, and Eve joined us for quite a bit of that time. We had a blast! They completely exhausted me!

On Guard!

There she goes...crawling in further

It was fun to share these days at the beach with Grandma and Grandpa Bucky. Not quite the beach trip they're used to.

To give credit where credit is due, I quickly realized that with Judy's good pictures I could put my camera down and enjoy myself. Most of these (and the ones from the rest of their trip) are hers.