The Most Amazing Beach EVER!

I know that we seem to post a lot of stories about the Beach House, but it really is a big part of lives here so we want to share it with everyone. We are really blessed to have my grandparents so close (and with them the Beach House) which allows us to escape from home for awhile and enjoy God's creation.

On Thursday I was speaking with Gramps and he told me how hot it was (so much for our cooler weather clothes, read more below) and how low the low-tide was, so we decided to go visit on the Friday afternoon. Rich then suggested that he come up after work and we all spend the night, so we did.

We've taken John down on the beach previously, but mainly just at the base of the sea wall and dug around. This time Gramps and I took him with us on the entire walk and let him crawl most of the way. He was really like a crab on the sand and kept pace with us walking. He LOVED it!

The low tide was incredible - the waves were hundreds of metres out and all these sandbars were exposed and pools of water were everywhere. The sand level was extremely low, so all the rocks were exposed, which made for great tide pools. We saw hundred, if not thousands, of little squirts of water shooting u p through the sand. It turned out they were these sea worms that were burrowed in the sand and shooting up water. We tried to dig one out so we could see it (we had never seen this before) but couldn't get to them.

Sydney ran through all the puddles, splashing around and even trying to "swim". It was so hot that we eventually let her take all her clothes off and just play in her diaper. Here she is in a deeper puddle splashing around. The people in the background were digging for clams.

John got in on the splashing as well. He figured out very quickly that the puddles were different to the solid sand, and he was extremely careful about going too far into the puddles. We had no "oops" falls into the too-deep water - it continues to amaze me how children are so perceptive and how they learn. 
Here you can see how far out the waves are and how the puddles and sandbars were spread across the way. Gramps and I were incredibly impressed with Sydney's new braveness. When we first moved here she wouldn't go near the water and certainly wouldn't touch the sea anenomes. Now she runs into the water so quickly we have to warn her to wait for us. And she's progressed from using a shoed foot, to her toe to now her finger to touch the sea anenomes and get them to close up. It's so cool.
I love how I was able to catch the above moment on camera. His too little teeth are even showing - such joy!