Beach Babes

The girls were reluctant about going to the beach, but did they ever have a good time. Lillie kept saying, "This is awesome." She also told me that when we got home and we go to the pool we should pretend it is the beach. Lillie liked running along the shore and rolling in the sand just where the waves would crash onto the shore. Emma loved holding my hand and going into the water. If she wasn't holding a hand she would run away yelling from the waves all the way up to where our stuff was. Abby was content to be held the entire time and only let the waves crash onto her when she was securely fastened to me. When I would stand her up on the wet sand she would dig her little toes in. She didn't like her first fist full of sand much but by the last day she went, she thought it tasted pretty good and would pick up a finger full whenever I wasn't looking (she only ate one shell).
We did have quite the mishap on the first beach day. I took the girls by myself while Brent was at work. I told the girls it was time to go and gave them a couple minutes while I packed up our stuff. Lillie was running along the shoreline and went a little far away from us. Looking up and not seeing us straight ahead of her she ran back the other way. She again looked up and not seeing us thought she needed to continue running to find us. Here I was holding Abby with Emma in tow watching Lillie run farther and farther away. I knew I couldn't catch her with the other two so I quickly looked around and ran over to some random lady sitting on the beach and asked her to watch my kids so I could run after Lillie knowing I would never see her again if I didn't catch up to her (most of you know how fast Lillie is AND how busy a beach can be). I must have run 100 yards which seemed like an eternity to this out-of-shape (frightened) mom before I finally caught up. It was scary, but luckily everything turned out okay. Something I have learned about people from this trip is that most people are good and they are quite helpful when they see you struggle. I am grateful for the small acts of kindness I received while doing so many things with the girls alone.