Gooseberry beach

Today Ken got out of class early and we headed out to do a little poking around the south side of the island and found a fun beach near our house.

Nathan and I mostly watched and Ken and the kiddos braved the chilly waters.  Today, however, it felt great since we're in the middle of a heat wave.  

This beach was nice and sandy, although it took us a little while to find one.  Most of them are rocky, which is great from climbing and tide pools, but not so great for digging and sand castles.  The older girls led the charge, jumping right in.

Jake had a blast in the surf

Grace hunted for shells, crabs and anything else she could find...and she saved them as a "special treasure."

We took a picnic dinner with us and Jake gave whole new meaning to the word "sandwiches".  About 3 times I took him to the water and washed off his hands before trying to feed him, but somehow he found it utterly impossible to keep his hands out of the sand.  I finally gave up and figured maybe a little extra roughage wouldn't hurt.

The seagulls wanted to join us for dinner and the kids enjoyed feeding them pretzels.

Even little man had fun. (Special note to my family: Does he look like a Phillips in this picture or what?!)

Grace tried turning herself into a sugar cookie.  Well, actually, they all did.

Discovered some fun holes to jump in.

It was a beautiful day.  Pretty enough to paint.  You know, if you could paint.

Hope your day was this good.