Fun at the Beach

This past weekend, we went to Bathtub Beach! It is a beach here on Hutchinson Island that has a reef, and when the tide is out the swim area is alike a giant bathtub - you can walk all the way out the the reef and still be no more than knee-high in water. The girls had a ball! The highlight? There was another dad with a cast net who would go out and catch a net-full of mackrel (bait fish), bring them up onto shore and then his boys would throw them back into the water - there were several large schools of these fish swimming around and it wsa fun to see huge schools jumping and swimming away from what ever was chasing them. It became the point of focus for every child on the beach, our girls included! Abi laughed and screamed, but didn't really want to touch them. Amanda bent down, talked to them and then picked one up! Once it squirmed in her hand she dropped it and shook like the fish! She did this every time one wiggled when she touched or held it. Too funny!

It took some time to get the girls to go into the water, but daddy brought their blow-up boat, so that was a god way to get them used to the water. Then they had a good time looking for fish from the boat!

Bathtub beach has since been shut down, so the girls went to our beach yesterday. It was a very flat day on the water and a super quiet day at the beach. We were the only people there! We set up semi close to the water so that we could get plenty of wet sand to build sand castles. We did that for quite some time when I noticed little fish in the water. I tried tog et the girls to come into the water, but neither one wanted to come. I continued to go back and forth to get water and sand until Amanda finally came down with a big smile on her face. Once the water hit her toes, I couldn't get her out! She would see a wave coming and say, "here it comes!" So cute! She figured out that if the outgoing wave started to pull her forward, she could just sit down and she would be fine. So then every time a wave came she sat down! So smart and fun... until the wave was bigger than she was sitting down. Surprised her, but she still laughed and waited for the next one.

Abi took a little more coaxing. What finally got her to come to the water? A man was fishing and catching some of the fish I was seeing. She wanted to see it so she finally came down to the water. She was nervous until the water "tickled her toes." As time went on she became more and more brave! She started going further out, letting the water crash up onto her legs and laughing. So sweet. Then she got nervous when the water would start to pull her. I had her watch Amanda sit and when Abi got used to how the water felt going out around her while she was sitting, that was the highlight of each wave. Then we talked about watching the water to see when the big waves were coming. She then became the big wave police! Abi would say, "here comes a big one!" and Amanda would say, "here it comes!" We saw lots of fish right where the drop-off was in the water, including one that was white and black striped! The girls also threw some seashells back into the water saying, "you go BACK in the waves!".

The girls also learned that if you have a bucket of ocean water and wash your sandy hands in it, all the sand sinks to the bottom of the bucket. That was the new excitement of the sand castle building. i get a bucket of water and bring it up. Abi washes her hands, Amanda throws in 2 handfuls of sand, someone dumps out the bucket and the cycle begins again. So much fun!

It takes such an effort to get 2 little ones to the beach by the time you get all the sunblock on, suits on, bathroom done, small cooler packed and gather all the toys, blankets, umbrella and towels, but it is totally worth it. Amanda slept for 2 hours and Abi for 4! And everyone had such a great day. Next time we will take the kite too!