Beach Day in January

It was over 80 today! We took advantage of the weather, and the fact that we had no plans for the weekend, with a big beach trip today. To say the kids both had a blast is an enormous understatement. Here's Matilda modeling her funny posing and funny beachwear. (Pardon the lens crud on these pics; it makes me wish I had thrown our new-ish camera in the ocean as this is an ongoing problem.)At first, Matilda was totally freaking out about her phobia of going out to the tide pools. She developed some irrational fear. She won't really tell us what the source if it all is, but if I tried to set her down she would climb my body like a cat. Eventually we settled on a piggyback ride. This allowed her to see the sea life (anemones, hermit crabs, regular crab, snails, seaweed, etc.), and yet still remain "safe." By the end she got a bit bolder to walk around once we lured her out with some sea stars in a sandy tide pool area.

The beach was, inexplicably, teaming with ladybugs today. Her Matilda passes yet another to Porter for him to harass. Sharing so nicely.

Incoming!Inspecting her prized find of the day, a pinchy crab leg.

Happy, happy kids.

For living so close to the beach we don't go nearly enough.