Beachery

Having lived my entire life in completely landlocked states, there are couple of things about visiting the ocean that always surprise me:

1) The water really is salty
2) The waves don't care if you are small
3) Creatures you can't see like to hang around you
4) Sand gets everywhere and stays there almost forever

I don't mean to paint a negative picture; the beach was amazing. It was beautiful, relaxing, fun-filled, romantic, and full of jellyfish.

We probably had 30 jellyfish incidents. I got just a teeny sting on my ankle (right after stepping on something in the water that gashed my foot). But there were lots of other people who got some major stings from sea nettles.

You don't want to mess with one of those.

OK, now seriously onto the positive stuff.

We all arrived on Saturday to get settled, then went to church Sunday morning. A few of the adults took the kids on a walk down to the beach with strict instructions to do no more than wade in the water to keep the Sabbath day holy.

I'm going to give you three guesses as to how that went.

I love seeing the progression of how much wetter and wetter Dane's clothes get. And this wasn't the only time he went down to the beach fully clothed, only to come back completely soaked. Laurie Jayne told me that seeing Dane roll around in the surf was one of the purest expressions of joy she's seen. I wish I'd been there to see it.

This trip was June's first time to ever experience the ocean, and I think she lived it up. Every day, she excitedly asked to go to the "bubbo."

She loved playing with her cousin baby Ben. They are exactly one year and 4 days apart, but you can only tell their age difference by the length of their legs and the number of their teeth. I'm pretty sure Ben outweighs June by more than a couple of pounds. 

They played happily together. 

She did occasionally take advantage the wisdom of her age. 

Sweet Mariah really doted on June.

Dane loved playing with his cousins:

And enjoying the waves:

We were also able to get some lovely portraits:

 Hilton Head is a lovely place, and not just because of the water. Stay tuned for more reasons we loved our vacation!