To the Beach

After watching the shuttle blast off into space at 6:21 a.m. (no more than 10 minutes of our life and almost an hour to get back on the interstate), we headed to the hotel to change the kids out of their pjs and eat a free breakfast (which felt really weird since we had been up for several hours at this point).  We checked out and drove about halfway towards home and then made a pit stop.  As we were driving the kids asked where we were going.  Mark just casually mentioned that he thought they would enjoy a day at the beach.  Four resounding "YES!" were yelled from the back of the van.  So to the beach we went.

I've been to Jekyll Island, GA several times now.  I love it there.  It's small, peaceful, and full of some rich history.  And it's beautiful.  Now, I'm not talking white sand, Gulf of Mexico beautiful but Spanish moss hanging from every oak tree, waves crashing up against the rocks beautiful.  The whole island is virtually flat which makes it a great place to go on casual bike rides (and you can bike the whole island in one day easy).  We didn't bike but I so wish we had had the time to do it.

However, we did hit the beach...

This was the last day of Josiah's bug and just didn't want much to do with the ocean.

Ceili Rain was about three months old the first time she went to the beach.  Having no recollection and not being the daredevil of the bunch...

She didn't much care for it.  And as for the crashing waves...

she preferred mommy's secure arms.

I can already imagine how much this therapy session is going to cost her!

She did manage a smile when she saw daddy had the camera.

And when she watched her brothers and sister in the water.

You can only imagine how much fun these three had in those waves.  Liam tried to talk Mark into going in so they could get deeper.  He, respectfully, declined (honestly, playing in the ocean in April in Georgia...it's a little frigid).