Beach Day

My friend Jaime gave me a call last Friday asking if we wanted to meet at the beach Saturday morning, miraculously it all worked out and we had three families with a total of 9 kids spending the day in Kill Devil Hills. We left earlier than we needed to so we didn't get stuck in the usual beach traffic, but there wasn't much so we were early. Bubba didn't like the sand at first and wouldn't walk on it but he got over that pretty fast.

That is an actual smile! He had fun throwing sand thanks to some lessons from family members not to be named.

My first job was blowing up the raft, which Silly put right to work. There were several hurricanes brewing all over the Atlantic so the water was a bit rough but that didn't stop anyone from getting in, even when the lifeguard put up a "No Swimming" flag.

I call this his "gimme" face, he wrinkles up his nose like that whenever he wants something.

Bubbs made us fill that watering can over and over. He would come stick it in my hand and wait, well clear of the water, signing MORE until I brought it back. Then he just dumped it out where ever he was standing and wanted it filled again.

His almost-birthday-buddy ate lots of our Cheetos, so he took a big pile of her cookies to get even.

All the girls played together non-stop. I actually can't recall hearing a single complaint or disagreement. Amazing. And they all spent a lot of time in the water with dads nearby to rescue them from all their many wipeouts. I made a comment to Jaime that we were all going to have some well exfoliated kids.

Silly post wipe-out. Scott eventually took his lifejacket off because it was actually getting him pulled farther away.

Even Bubbs started to like the water eventually. I took him in and held his arm with both hands. After a few tries he would see a "wave" coming and hold out his arm so I could help him. He figured out how to plant his feet pretty quickly. And even took a few big ones.

The babies didn't interact much once the finished stealing each other's food.

After several failed attempts, Bubba actually fell asleep and had a nice comfy nap on the raft under the umbrella.

We had a great day together and Krisanne and I were so glad Jaime called and everything worked out. I volunteered to be in charge of my family's stay at the beach next year so I invited them to come along too. We also talked about taking our girls to Lion King together when if comes this fall.

Hurricane Earl was headed our way all last week. Luckily, he didn't do any serious damage around here, but Al Roker just happened to be broadcasting from Kill devil Hills several mornings last week. I had the Today show on during breakfast, Scott looked at it and told Silly he could see his footprints behind Al Roker. Silly said, That's because I left them there."