When we got to the condo, Ava started in right away, about wanting to go to the Ocean. She was so excited she couldn't contain herself. Finally, my dad told her he would walk her down to the water while we finished unpacking and then we could meet them on the boardwalk. This was a great idea in her eyes. She smiled and in a very excited voice said, "come on Paps, we got to go." He said that on the way, she was telling him she knew how to get there and he could just follow her. When they got to the water, she was squealing and screaming, like she does lots of, and she wanted to run into the waves. My dad told her she was not to get wet, he didn't want her daddy to get mad. She was still in her clothes. She smiled and said to Pappy, "My daddy won't get mad, he is a nice daddy."
Dad bought a pair of sandals and the first time he put them on, three out of four of the tabs broke off. They did end up making it through the week, but we laughed pretty hard as he was putting them on.
The first day on the beach, we got all settled and then we built little man a huge 'mountain' with a moat around it. He loved it. We started referring to him as our little "sandy" because he loved the sand so much. He would sit down and just pile sand on his hair and pack it down, on his legs and arms and then he would pack sand behind his ears and in his ears and on his chest. He loved to be covered in sand. At one point, about three other little boys joined Christian at his mountain of sand and they played for a long time. They didn't really communicate but they were having a blast. He was so happy to have friends to hang out with. It was funny though because they were typical boys, just living life in silence, quietly enjoying one another. Woman do not usually know how to do this. :)
We took pancakes that were left over from the morning breakfast out and fed the sea gulls. The kids loved this. They had tried it one day earlier in the week and the sea gulls were all eating as they usually do. WE made the kids stop feeding them, so they wouldn't poop on the people around us and the kids were not happy with us. Ava and Christian and Titus were explaining to us that the birds needed them to feed them cause they were hungry. Sure enough, when we took pancakes later on to the beach, the birds swarmed around and the kids had so much fun feeding the birds. I was singing the "feed the birds song" from Mary Poppins movie. :) Ava said she would stay and feed them through the winter months when she heard that they sometimes starve to death in the winter due to the lack of food supply they were used to in the summer. This really concerned her. Daddy told her they really just flew south.
One of the days, while on the beach, a few ladies behind us were watching Christian. They came up to us after awhile and asked if they could take their pictures with him. We said that they could and before we knew it, there were six young teenagers around him, posing and smiling and taking pics with him. He acted kind of shy, but I think he really loved it. They were having him pose and show his muscles and smile. He liked the attention, though I am not sure he knew exactly what to do.
On Wednesday, the storms came in and it rained most of the day and it was cold. We didn't get to go to the beach that day but the storms really brought up some sea shells. Ava realized that we could have all these sea shells and started picking up the broken pieces of the shells for her Grandma Bumbaugh. She spent forever that afternoon picking them up, so the next morning , Pappy and I promised to get her up early and take her out to hunt sea shells. She was in amazement at all the "perfect ones" on the beach. Before long her bucket was so full and she was trying to convince me to go back and get her another bucket. She was so slow and we were trying to get her to walk faster and only pick up the special ones but she wanted to pick up all of them. At one point she told me, "mommy, I am trying so hard to hurry for you and pappy, but I can't stop looking at these sea shells." another time she said, "mommy, you are a great sea shell finder. Am I?" This is actually how she got her Pappy given name of "sea shell." :) She would have searched for hours if we would have allowed it. One last Ava quote - "Mama, I just can't believe all these sea shells!! They are so Perfect!!"
Christian kept calling the ocean the big pool. He didn't really want to get in, he just wanted to run down to the waters edge and then run away as the wave was crashing in. He was so sweet as he watched in amazement at the waves. He found a friend in a woman sitting on a blanket near ours. He went and sat beside her and she helped burry him in the sand. He sat and talked to her for about 20 minutes. He is such a people person. He knows no strangers.
Many more beach moments to come. . . .
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