Marshall Family: Beach Part 1

Oh goodness! I should have been doing this the whole time we were at the beach. As I sit down now and start to look through the over 800 pictures I have...I don't know where to begin.
We got to the shore on July 3rd. Brian was with us for the first week and we had a lot of fun with him...going to the beach, the bay, riding bikes, going for ice cream...basically relaxing!
We celebrated the 4th of July by going to the fireworks in Beach Haven. The finale was our favorite part of course!

Bridget had a new bike this year, it was a tag-along bike. She loved going for rides as the 3rd wheel and felt like she was really riding a bike. I hope that it gives her more confidence to start riding her bike here in NC. Dillon is still under the 40lb weight limit on the child bike seat, so he had fun riding back there.

Waiting for a bike ride!

The beach is the highlight of being at the shore of course. Nothing can really beat the fresh air (and sometimes wind), ocean, and fun in the sand. Both kids love being at the beach - and have been more adventurous about going in the water this year. I'm loving that! They love lowtide. Bridget is especially pleased b/c she can jump the waves by herself. When it is calmer at higher tide she comes in the water with us too. A few times they have been in the water when it was rough and we had to go under - it was necessary - that was not met with a good reaction. I think I'm going to have to do swim lessons in the winter...they have to get comfortable with going under the water sometime! Brian and I both tried to get some reading time in...it wasn't easy. I did manage to read 3 books over the summer, I think that's more books than I've read all year!

Bridget's favorite pastime is getting sand everywhere possible. She sits, lays and rolls in the sand. Often she is building some small castle with her imagination going wild about mermaids or princesses. Her other love has been jumping in the low waves. She is so outgoing she made several friends while we were there. It's unfortunate that none of them were there all summer. However, there are a couple of friends that come for a week every summer...so we know we'll see them again next year. Summer friends are fun!

Dillon's favorite question on the beach is "Will you play paddle with me?!" Well, I should say questions because these 2 were often heard too: "Will you play football with me? Will you play baseball with me?" Instead of the child who wants you to build endless sand castles or dig to China, I have the child who can't get enough of sports...no matter where we are! I see lots of evenings spent at little league practice in our future. We did manage to get to 6 hits of the paddleball and I think that's pretty good for a 2 1/2 year old!!

Can't have a summer at the beach without jumping off the lifeguard stand everyday!! Bridget liked to put on "shows" up there. Dillon liked to pretend he was the lifeguard telling people to swim in the flag area. Bridget jumped by herself for the first time this year.

Airplane!

Who knew goggles from the $1 store could be so fun?!

We like to go to sunset at the bay...but miss it a lot b/c we're either eating dinner at that time, or getting ready to eat. We did make it a couple of times. This time we missed the actual sunset for pictures, but took some pics by the bay.