A Beach Trip to Remember

My lovely brother-in-law generously let us tag along on a beach trip to Sanibel for Memorial Day weekend. We actually went down first and he met us down there later. Boy did we have fun!

Connor is a bonafied conchologist (real word). We checked out a book from the library before we left entitled Beachcombing Exploring the Seashore. All week long he said I want to be a "beachcomber." There was a picture in the book describing a beachcomber - "To be a beachcomber, all you need is sunblock, a hat to shade your head, sunglasses to protect your eyes, and a bucket to carry shells and other treasures you find."

He collected gobs and gobs of shells. He knows the name of every shell and so much more than I ever did. I even learned a lot about shells and other treasures this year. I learned how whelk shells are created. Have you ever seen those snake skin looking chains on the beach? Well if you burst one open you'll find tons of little baby whelk shells. It is the neatest thing.

He has quite the collection now. Scallops, shark's eye, worm shells, cockleshells, slipper shells, cat's paw, pen's, tulips, mussels, olive shells, banded tulips, conch's, mottled cockleshells, and so on and so on and so on.

Although nothing compares to the beach Connor did enjoy some pool time too. Towards the end of our stay we played more at the pool and he even got his nerve up to go under the water. I think once he saw his brave, little sister do it so he wasn't as scared.

Connor also loved being buried in the sand.

Speaking of sand we saw some really neat sandcastles. There was a couple who came out each morning and made huge sandcastles. It look hours but they were beautiful!

My second born LOVED the pool! She tolerated the beach for the rest of us but she adored the pool. She was so brave. She even let Uncle Brant throw her up in the air and she went under water with eyes wide open. (I can't believe I got as many pictures of her as I did where she is looking at the camera and smiling, that never happens!)

In order to get her in the ocean we had to tell her that she could pretend to be Dora the Mermaid and help clean up the beach. For some reason it worked! She sang and sang and sang, "Clean up Clean up everybody clean up!"

This was Cooper's first extended beach trip. He is old enough now to get around and eat some sand. Boy did he! He must have pooped a good 4 to 5 times a day due to all that sand. We'd find all kinds of treasures in his mouth.

We took a little trip to the Sanibel Community Park one afternoon and Cooper loved the swings. After the park we stopped off at Jerry's and picked up Connor some soy ice cream so he would have something to enjoy while we ate a treat at the DQ. Some old ladies sat next to us and giggled because Connor had a spoon and a quart full of chocolate soy ice cream all to himself.

Happy Summer time to all!!