Ocean City

I'm finally getting back to reality. We had a great time at the beach. Daniel seemed to enjoy his first beach vacation. As always I was prepared to see him really excited. And once again, he was very calm seeming to say, "ok, yeah, it's a lot of water, so what." He had fun in the ocean, although he was very cautious. He would not go near the water without a death grip on an adult's hand. You could hear him screaming "Help Me!" which meant someone please come hold onto me before I get swept into the great abyss. As we walked along the shoreline he appeared like a sand piper. He walked along and as soon as the wave came he's run the other direction. It was pretty comical. Watching him maneuver on the sand was even funnier. I have some video that I'll have to post. He was walking with his hands in the air trying to balance himself. I would have loved to know what he was thinking.

The kids didn't enjoy the beach as much as they did the past years. The ocean was pretty rough for a few days due to the storms and I think I freaked Leah out a little. I kept telling her to to stay close so the waves didn't knock her over and carry her out to sea. I'm not sure why she didn't enjoy herself more..
They did, however, LOVE the pool. Leah and her cousin Ryan are learning how to swim. They were doing flips and jumping in and having a blast! We couldn't get them out of the water. Daniel had fun too. We put 2 different floatation devices on him in order to keep him afloat. He is very independent and was thrilled to be able to "swim" on his own.

We dressed the kids up and took them down to the beach for some portraits. We tried to get them all to hold hands and walk down to the ocean together. Daniel only made it so far. He went willingly until he saw where they were heading. He was pulling away from Leah and Ryan with all his might and looking for an adult again screaming "help me!". You'd think we were torturing the child. Leah and Ryan walked right down to the ocean and proceeded to get soaked in their nice clothes. All day when we wanted them to swim in the ocean in their bathing suits they wanted no parts of it. Go figure.

Here's a slide show of some of the pictures. I still have a lot of photos from the pool and amusements that I have to go through. Beach part II will follow in a few days. Stay tuned!