Ocean Waves.....

Waaaay back this summer, after our days spent at Disneyland, we took the kids to the beach.  They had never seen the ocean before.  So sad.  We drove an hour and found the perfect spot to dip our feet in the water.  Originally, remembering from experience how cold the ocean water was, we were just going to take the kids down to the beach in their clothes.  But.  When we started walking down the cement sidewalk I felt strongly that we should have them put on their swimsuits.  Luckily I had placed them strategically in our overloaded vehicle that we had easy access.  Best.  Decision.  Ever.  Who wants to go to the beach and not get a chance to experience the waves? 
The four older kids jumped right in.

Small hesitation at first.  But then nothing but joy.

I had to pull them out after watching them for a few minutes because they didn't understand the ocean.  Every time the water would roll out, they'd walk out further to greet it, only to get smashed by bigger and bigger waves.  I didn't stop their enjoyment, just wanted to educate them a bit.  Teach them how to respect the glorious body of water.  Presley, however, wasn't too big of a fan of the waves. 

She watched for a bit.  Then found some other family's shovel to dig with.   Landon joined her for a few minutes before he went back to the water.

Being the social butterfly that she is, Presley met a few new families.  And conned food and drink off of them both.  Silly girl.  But she knows with her little smile she can pretty much get what she wants if she says please.

The father of one of the families was super nice and offered to take a family picture for us to document the event.

While I was keeping Presley from eating all of the strangers food, Shawn was taking pictures of the other kids exploring.

I dragged Presley over to distract her from the free food she was collecting.

We all loved the visit to the ocean so much.  In the midst of this afternoon I decided we should have skipped Disneyland and spent the week playing in the ocean waves.  It was soothing and invigorating to be in such a beautiful place.  Peaceful.  Even with Presley.  I hope that in the future one of our family vacations involves waves to play in surrounded by sand and sunshine.  These last two pictures sum up how our entire family felt about the afternoon.

After we played in the water, which wasn't planned well, we had no towels to dry off.  We stripped the kids by the outdoor spigot and used a discarded cup found to rinse off best we could.  Then they just ran around naked to dry off.  Ethan and Kennedy wanted none of our ideas and opted to dress and rinse in one of the bathroom stalls.  Party poopers. What an amazing day!