Digging the Beach

On Saturday we went to the beach with the Best Family. Be sure and check out their blog. The beach day was a real treat for us. James and John taught Wesley and Lydia how to dig a huge hole in the sand. I think Lydia mostly just pushed sand back into the hole but John was very patient with her.
Joseph, who had a fever, napped on the beach almost the entire time we were there. Don't worry he wasn't too hot; the day was a little cool and breezy and he was in the shade.

Lydia snacked on puffs and also sampled some sand.

James is very into burying and finding treasure on the beach. Unfortunately, he sometimes looses his toys this way.

Wesley loved standing with his legs buried in the sand.

After I managed to fall into this hole, we put Lydia into it for a photo-op.

James and John were happy when the tide came in and filled their ditch with water.

Lydia decided to help with the digging again.

Now that is one happy girl. Our kids briefly got in the water but it was a cool 70 degrees so all the kids prefered the sand.

Joseph and Lydia could be twins with their red hair and blue eyes. After sleeping most of the day, Joseph felt a lot better. Lydia kept taking toys away from him. I feel like she sizes up the competition, and if she thinks she can win, she tries to take the toys. When the older boys laid toys down, she sometimes ran away with them but she often tried to take the toys right out of Joseph's hands and then tried to hold onto them when he tried to get them back.

Saturday night we went to the boardwalk to get ice cream. I am sure Chris got Wesley's ice cream in a cup because he thought it would be less messy but Wesley wanted to eat it like a cone. See how happy he is to have ice cream with sprinkles?

Things weren't as crazy as you might expect with five kids ages seven and under. Here is a picture of all five kids. At first they were relatively happy to have their photo taken.
Soon the youngest ones started to cry. It was well past bedtime.