Munchkin Beach Trip

The first few days of this trip were pretty tough for me (details in another post; this one's for the good beachy stuff!), but seeing the kids climb out of the trucks, strip down and run screaming into the sea instantly made it all worthwhile. They were giddy! They ran, jumped, skipped and did cartwheels to the water... then splashed, dunked, giggled, squealed and searched for sea creatures. They dug up clams and crabs, starfish and sandollars. They found dozens of these weird little animals none of us could identify - shaped a bit like tiny horseshoe crabs, and looked like porcupines. The kids were enthralled!

Some of them had as much fun in the sand as they did in the water. They made sand sculptures, used fingers and sticks to draw pictures in the sand, buried themselves and each other, sprinted up and down the beach, and watched in amusement as starfish dug their way back down into the sand.

I wish I could send you all some of the fantastically fun moments that were had in the water... I *do* have pictures from shore that I'll send soon, and I got video of the first few minutes after we pulled up to the beach, with all the kids sprinting to the water with big grins and flailing arms. To those of you who helped make this happen - know that you've given huge smiles and carefree laughs to some incredibly deserving kids.