By The Beautiful Sea

Haven't offloaded the pictures from today yet, so here are a couple more pictures from our day trip to the beach earlier in the week -- hopefully these will tide you over. (Get it? "Tide" you over? Snerk.)

Here we are, showing off the world's smallest seashell. Shae found this one all by herself, assuming that you allow "stepped on" as an acceptable definition of "find." We wanted to bring some shells home for the various assorted grandparents, but we sort of forgot. Guess it's a good thing we're going to shore later this month, huh?

I don't remember if Shae dug this sand pit by herself, or if G helped, or if it was left over from another family's misadventures, or what, but anyway: there it was. And Shae loved it. If we had let her, she would have sat in that sand pit all day long, moving sand from one side of the pile to the other with her shovel, singing her ABC's to herself.

And I wonder: when we finally let her watch the Star Wars movies, and we get to Return of the Jedi and the bit with Jabba the Hutt and the space yacht and the fight over the sarlacc pit, will she still like the sand that much?

Oh, man. It was such a sweltering day, and it was so awesome to sit still for a minute and gulp down a cold drink. Shae is little (relatively speaking) so she could fit under umbrella and sip her juice. My personal favorite part of the day was sitting in the hot sun eating ice cold grapes. My lips to God's ears: those were THE BEST grapes I have ever eaten in my life.

Incidentally: she is enjoying a Capri Sun 100% juice pouch here, because they're easy to keep cold, and it is virtually impossible to find a "flavored water beverage" that does not contain acesulfame or some other kind of artificial sweetener. And I don't get it -- isn't it cheaper and easier to just mix juice and spring water? Why do they add extra crap? She drinks watered-down fruit juice at home.

If you look carefully (not recommended) you will see a half-chewed grape in Shae's mouth here. We'll ignore that part, OK? And just focus on the smile in her whole face. We loved being at the beach, and Shae is already asking to go back. Probably we should have gone earlier this summer, but with everything else going on, it was too much. This day was definitely a great cap to a fantastic (if terribly, terribly busy) weekend.