the beach

today was an official beach day. 

since we weren't at a house that was right by the water we had to plan to go there.

never again.

it worked out fine but all the spontaneity of being at the ocean was lost.

anyhoo...

it would, of course, be super windy today.

i think it usually is here but it was super windy.

perfect kite flying weather so emily got hers out immediately.

we were out shopping one day and i saw skim boards for $20.

i thought it was a steal so we picked up two for us and one for rich.

this super windy day was the day to try them out.

the youtube videos made it look easy enough.

throw the board across the teeniest amount of water, run, jump on your board and skim across the receding waves.

ha ha!

if only.

bless their hearts, they tried for a good hour in the freezing cold water to figure it out.

occasionally they sort of made it happen and i could get pictures like this.

but mostly they looked like this...

meanwhile, the kids were playing in the sand.

my beach lover...

and my other beach lover.

my fabulous in laws

i spent the afternoon walking the coast line in search of rocks and shells to bring home.

it's so relaxing, to me, to stroll along the sand and listen to the waves.

at this point it was decided that the afternoon would be spent crabbing.

we were hoping to bring enough in to feed us that night.

licenses were bought, crab pots rented and away they went.

rob's first cast.

it's a slow process.

throw the basket out, wait a few minutes and haul it up.

nothing?

throw it back out and do it over again.

it didn't take too long til rodger pulled one up.

we could only keep males that were a certain size.

male? yes!

right size? no.

bummer but at least we were doing something right.

rob brought up a couple small ones that had to be thrown back and then...

he caught this monster!

it was huge!

after four hours we had lots of throw backs but only three keepers.

certainly not enough to feed 12 people so the boys decided to come back tomorrow.

not me!

it was out last day and i was going to make the most of it.

antiquing and more beach time!