This year's seashore books

On our first family vacation at the beach I started a tradition; instead of picking up a cheap souvenir to commemorate our trip, I picked a book to help us remember our time at the beach. At the time we had one 18-month old child and I was pregnant with baby #2. Our then 18-month old discovered the joy of collecting seashells - so I chose this book.

At every trip to the shore since then, I have added another seashore book to our collection. Our collection has grown to include these favorite books:

The Seashore Book

The Burgess Seashore Book for Children and Pagoo

This year I had a hard time choosing just one book to take home, so I had to settle for two :)

Underwater Counting is a book that combines counting by twos and fun facts about fish - a great book for my k'er and 2nd grader

and Over in the Ocean in a Coral Reef which I knew my almost 3-year old would love.

On the way home

One last picture of our pathway to the ocean.One final family picture before leaving the beach.But the fun wasn't over yet.

Digger's Dungeon (home of the famous monster truck Grave Digger) is on the road that we travel home on - and we have made a tradition of stopping to grab some pictures ~ the boys (dad included) especially enjoy this tradition.

After a quick stopover, we continued our trek home.

At the Beach - Days Five and Six

Our trip to the beach ended on a rainy note. Days five and six were cloudy and rainy ~ so most of our time was spent indoors. But, that doesn't mean we didn't have fun...

We played with cars,

worked on crafts (thanks to Daddy's shopping trip),

and did puzzles together...

We did venture out a few times - and braved the windy, rainy conditions.

The hot chocolate that we purchased at the end of this morning out warmed us up quite quickly.

At the Beach - Day Four

Day four was windy and chilly with lots of clouds in the sky. The red flag was flying on the beach - not that we planned to enjoy a beach day with this kind of weather. We thought it would be a great day to spend at our favorite aquarium.

It was a great choice. We spent a few enjoyable hours spotting alligators,

observing the HUGE lobsters,

petting sea stars and sea urchins,

and locating our continent on the cool earth exhibit.

After exploring inside the aquarium, we headed outside to dig for shark teeth.

And we attempted to get a good picture of most of us before we left...

the pictures weren't perfect, but they were perfectly us :)

At the Beach - Day Three

Day three was a definite beach day - warm and sunny with light winds -

we spent most of the day jumping in the waves,

exploring the tide pools,

and playing in the sand...

At the Beach - Camera Shy

Sometimes he likes the camera, and sometimes he doesn't - this time he did not want to pose for any pictures.

I followed him down the walkway - waiting for him to turn around - but he refused.

So I ran ahead of him so I could catch a glimpse of his little face.

He quickly caught on...

But thankfully I didn't give up...

At the Beach - Day Two

Day two at the beach began with a beautiful sunrise. After a hearty breakfast, Daddy and the kids hit the beach. The wind was pretty fierce and so were the waves, so most of their time was spent playing in the sand.

Papa and Abby took a walk down the beach.

This little guy did NOT like the wind, so as soon as mama came out I followed him back in.

At the Beach - Day One

We've been looking forward to this week for a LONG time - at least ever since we reserved our beach house back in February.

We spent yesterday driving and then settling in - getting pizza from our favorite pizza place and then making the grocery-shopping trip.

The weather forecast is a bit iffy for this week - some sun, some clouds, some rain - so we plan to take advantage of the sunny weather when we can.

On our first full day at the beach we spent most of our time just relaxing. The sun was out but the wind cooled the temperatures down. We explored the beach, explored the neighborhood, and just enjoyed spending time winding down.