unruly waves: the beach, part one

So there is this weird thing that happens on blogs where people feel like they have to be all apologetic for posting lots of pictures of whatever it is that they are blogging about. You know what I mean, right? I don't really get it. I mean, isn't that kind of the point of blogging (for many of us, anyway)? To document your life in words and photos? I totally get that all of my photos from a vacation may not be all that exciting for most of you to look at, but really, I am mostly just blogging about that vacation so that I can have a record of it for me and my children. The interaction with family, friends, and other bloggers on the blog is a total bonus, but not my main motivation in blogging. So why not post as many as I want, and not even be sorry about it one single bit?! Okay, then, I will!

Except...

I am a little bit sorry about it, not because you have to look at so many photos (you don't if you don't want to, I promise I won't mind:)), but because I have to post them all. Holy cow, I have a really crazy amount of pictures from The Beach that I want to write about and share in this space, but finding the time and motivation to do so has been pretty hard. (Perhaps this was evident from the two week absence?) I'm gonna start small, with a couple of series of photos that document two of the funnier memories from our days on The Beach.

George loved the ocean this year. The last time we were at The Beach he wasn't so sure about how cold it was and mostly preferred to play in the sand. This year he really enjoyed the water, and was not timid about it at all. Our first day there I was surprised when he immediately wanted to wade into the water all by himself.

So off he went, with Logan, and their cute make-shift fishing poles fashioned out of sticks and seaweed.

And when a wave would come, the boys would run back in a bit to avoid getting soaked, and then run back out a ways, following the wave as it retreated. So they were doing that. And then this series of events took place.

You can see where this is going, right?

Oh my brave little boy, here he was all excited about the ocean and then this happens?!

I love Logan looking at him like, "Ha ha, Sucker!"

He got up quicker than I could think to stop taking pictures and go rescue him (thankfully, because that enabled me to get these next couple of photos).

Aside from being sort of frightening to suddenly find yourself face down in freezing water, I am sure the salt was burning his eyes and tasted yucky. Poor little sad boy. And Logan is all smiles.

I am pleased to say that after a change of shirt and a quick hug George was ready to hit the water again. But he wanted to hold his daddy's hand :).

See, he is even laughing again :).

And, since we are talking about unfortunate events, we are going to make this a series (get it?) and showcase one of Pearl's finest Beach moments.

So there she was, minding her own business, just doing downward facing dog on a boogie board.

When, unbeknownst to her, her daddy's hands enter the frame to swoop in and rescue her before an unruly wave comes and knocks her down.

And the only way he could grab her quickly enough was to do just that: grab her. And this is what that looked like:

This all happened very fast, and apparently there wasn't time to turn the little Pea right-side up.

And there still wasn't time to turn her before John realized that the boogie board was being swept out into the ocean and he would need to go rescue that, too. And of course it did not occur to me to put the camera down and help out at all.

Oh, I just love those. So funny to see that chubby little body helplessly hanging upside down, wondering what on earth was going on.

Okay, that wasn't so bad. Maybe another post is in the very near future. I'll chip away at these photos one by one!