Beach Babes

I'm not a beach person and Rob's not a beach person, yet somehow our children drag us to the beach just about every day we are at the shore. In fact, they are SO excited about the beach, that one of the first things we do when we get there is visit the beach and the girls run in the surf fully clothed. You'd think we'd learn after a couple years of this same behavior even though we tell them NOT to get wet, but THIS year, even I got in (to take photos, of course -- anything for my blog readers!) and the water was really warm. Very unusual for June at the shore. Anyway, here are my girls frolicking in the waves our first evening at the shore:

The waves were really good the week we were there, so we bought the girls boogie boards and sent them out into the ocean to see what they could do. I was there of course (taking pictures of course) but they didn't really need my help as they both caught on pretty quickly. Which was good because there was no way I was getting on one of those things:

 Lizzie in particular really loved it and could ride the waves all the way into shore. Hannah got bored after a few rides, but Lizzie rode that thing for at least an hour with this very same expression on her face every single time:

Here they both are. It took me a LOOOOOONG time to get this shot, so I hope you all appreciate it. They had very few rides where they were both on the boards, facing me and in some sort of active wave. A nanosecond after I took this picture Hannah wiped out and was DONE with her board:

 Now THIS part of the beach I can get into -- spending $40,000 for a couple of ice creams. Luckily you can see Grandma Connie in the background there and she paid for these ice creams. The day before, Lizzie had to give the ice cream guy $5 and she couldn't do it. She eventually threw the money at her sister and Hannah paid the guy. I think she takes after Rob, who hates to part with money more than anything in the world:

There was plenty of time to play in the sand. And plenty of sand to play in. Stone Harbor is replenishing their beaches so there was a lot more beach than the last couple of years we were there. Now there is about 20 pounds less, as that is about the amount that Rob vacuumed out of the back seat of our car:

Thanks to thunderstorms in the area (we had very little actual rain) the waves were fairly strong and plentiful. This next sequence of pictures shows Rob and Hannah jumping in and over the waves while Lizzie tries to get to them -- the undertow was pretty strong, too. Here's Lizzie on the left trying to get to Rob and Hannah on the right:

Here she's getting a little closer, but got hit by a wave. You'll notice how "helpful" Hannah is being:

Success!! Hannah cheers her sister's accomplishment. Lizzie hangs on to Rob for dear life:

All three of them hold hands and start jumping around in the waves. They had such a great time, I joined them, too. And spent most of my time sitting on the floor of the ocean because the waves kept knocking me over. That's how strong they were:

Lizzie at the beach (here with her ice cream face):

Hannah at the beach (here showing me what she'd do if we didn't buy her ice cream):

 And, of course, I do have to share some artsy beach photos, too. Here's the sunset at Reed's Beach:

The lifeguard boat at Stone Harbor:

Hannah and Rob discussing something very important (I'm guessing it had something to do with Justin Bieber or what was for dinner) as they walked together on the shoreline: