A Girls Day Out

As I said in my last post, Cousin Ana was in NH last week so we spent a lot of time up there having adventures and eating ice cream cones dipped in sprinkles. On Tuesday, Jane and I packed up the girls and a ton of gear and headed out for the seacoast at Rye, NH. First we took the girls to the Seacoast Science Center at Odiorne Point State Park to stick their hands in the tide pool tank and check out the blue lobsters. They have a beautiful seaside picnic area there, in addition to a pebble beach and a great playground. We took advantage of all of it!

You would think the girls would be weary after all that, but they were gung ho to hit the sandy beach at Wallis Sands. We rented a beach umbrella and set up camp, but the girls quickly began to scatter. Ana wanted to swim in the surf (they did not have bathing suits on!), Maggie wanted to dig in the dry sand, and Kate wanted to stomp in the puddles of warm water left by the retreating tide and steal other kids' beach toys. We had an exhausting time trying to keep up with all three of them, especially after Kate finally realized that the ocean was right there! She looked up, her eyes lit up, she started screeching and clapping, and then she ran directly into the waves and had to be pulled out by her anxious mother! Luckily, they eventually all settled into a big puddle under the umbrella with their collection of purloined toys, and no one even suffered more burn than just a little bit of pink cheeks.

Kate barely made it out of the beach parking lot before she was fast asleep, but the two older girls chattered like monkeys and gobbled up every last crumb of the lunch leftovers all the way home.


Curious George

Sea Urchin


Ana in the whale costume

A rare blue lobster!


On the other side of this wall is the sea


Not a bad spot for a picnic lunch


A lot of bloggers brag about their photography skills and tell you all the technical details of how they got each shot. Here on my blog, I will tell you that I took this photo because I thought it was incredible to be gazing out at the blue ocean right behind the playground where Kate was swinging. But somehow I managed to set the camera on black and white and now you can hardly even tell that the ocean is back there at all. Hey, I'm a word person, OK?!


Industriousness


Who needs the ocean when you can jump in a sandy puddle?


Kate liked to stick the top of her head in the water. Weirdo.


Slick