Crabby day...

Happy 4th of July!

We spent all of yesterday at the beach on Dam Neck Naval Base. (our favourite beach because it is almost all families) Lots of photos below. The day was a ton of fun for everyone but it was HOT...95F...the kids cried when they had to walk across the sand to get to the water. Delaney played non-stop. She is such the social being and makes new friends everywhere she goes. I got a little reading done but not as much as I would have liked. Tinna cut her foot in the pool on Wednesday so she spent quite a long time sitting under the tent with me. We took a long walk and saw different types of crabs (hence the post title "Crabby day") and some jellyfish. We picked up shells and driftwood for in the garden. We had the luck of watching a pod of dolphins that hung around the area for almost an hour. Steven and I are always appalled at how fat kids are these days and the more we see, the more we realize we need to continue taking our kids outside for active play. We were talking on the ride home about how fascinating nature is and how our kids never say "I'm bored" when they are outside playing...but bring them inside with all of the tvs, and electronic games and such and they are bored as hell. Amazing, isn't it?

Today: we are going to the movies this afternoon to see Kung Fu Panda and then to see fireworks in Portsmouth tonight. Tomorrow is going to be a quiet day at home and dinner at Ashley's.

Photos:
William examines the tail of a horseshoe crab

Closer view of horseshoe crab tail...see the sharp barbs...OUCH!

Delaney with horseshoe crab...my dad took a similar photo of me doing this when I was just about Delaney's age

There were quite a few horseshoe crabs washed up on the shore

Look how big this one is!

We saw three or four of these blue crabs washed up on the beach

A small little crab scuttling across the sand...

A very large sand crab was dug during moat excavation...

and so were a few teeny tiny ones. William and Tinna had sand crab races to see which of their crabs would dig themselves back into the sand quicker...

Some jellyfish are pretty...too bad they sting!

A heart-shaped sea cucumber

Steven says this is another kind of sea cucumber but I think it was a fishing lore

Digging a big hole...

and moat!