Beach Day

We are enjoying every last drop of summer before school starts next week.  And here in Houston, there's nothing more summer than spending a day in Galveston at the beach. We had so much fun. The kids found crabs, gathered sea shells, made mud castles, went body surfing, had seaweed fights, watched the flying fish, hunted poisonous snakes, ate sandy watermelon, sandy chips, sandy turkey sandwiches (literally!), drank tons of sea water, and constantly chased the seagulls away from our food. The fun ended when we spotted a shark.  A real one. A big one. Just a yard or two away from Clayton.  Thankfully we'd already had a full day of fun and it was time to head home anyway.  Here are few of our favorite pictures:

  Here we are at the beach entrance. No lifeguard. Swim at your own risk. Caution: Possible undercurrents. Caution: Poisonous snakes. Nate forbade us ever to go to this beach again after seeing this picture.  And that was before I told him about the shark.  Looks like they need to post a fifth warning sign here:  

Caution: Real sharks. Big ones.

There's nothing better than beach sand.

(I just wish it would stay at the beach.)

body surfing.

teaming up for. . .

mud slinging.

Happy girl at the beach.

watering the dead seaweed.

I love this picture.

Isaac saying hello to Jess's mom in Ghana over skype.

cute cute freckles. . .

Brig sees something exciting.

The birds had quite the feast while no one was paying attention.

Lydia at the beach.  Love this face.

Love those curls.

Where Lydia loved the sand and mud. . .

Eliza loved the water.

A collection of shells.

The only picture of me at the beach.

Okay, do you see that fin sticking out of the water on the left side of this picture?  That's not a shark fin.  That's actually a jumping fish.  Believe me, I know what a shark fin looks like.  And if I hadn't been screaming at the top of my lungs for the kids to get out of the water, I would have taken a picture of it.

Good thing these kids know how to move fast! 

What a day at the beach!  What an adventure!

I'm just glad we all lived to tell about it.