Just one day

Today, my girls & I went to Sandy Hill Cove beach with one of my BFF's, Viv. It was a perfect day to go. The temps were suppose to reach the 90's and most schools aren't out for the summer, so I wasn't expecting the beach to be packed. We packed a lunch, packed up the girls and off we went. It is about an hour drive from my house to South County, which is the southern part of RI. When we got there it was still a bit overcast. But we set up our blanket, umbrella & let the girls start playing. They started out building a sand castle. Auntie Viv as my girls call her, is quite good at building these. She knows that the sand has to be the right consistency of wet sand to stick together. After building our sand castle we went in the FREEZING water for a little while and then sat down to eat our lunch. After lunch, Rachel wanted to go back in the water, while Emily wanted to continue to work on the sand castle. Going in the water & jumping over the waves won out over the sand castle. We then talked the girls into walking down the beach to collect shells to decorate their castle with. It was during this time that this post was inspired. I'm not sure when it happened, but somewhere along the way I lost what was important. I LOVE THE WATER; I grew up on a lake & before that by the ocean. I don't remember much about the ocean other than we used to go crabbing. It was so absolutely beautiful today. I loved watching the innocence of my six year olds playing in the sand, jumping over waves and walking down the beach looking for shells and rocks. When we first went in the water if any splashed on their faces they would make pseudo spitting noises and say, "Blek, pthuhy." It was kind of comical. At one point when we were walking down the beach, Rachel found a shell covered in sand, but as she ran into the water to rinse it off she tripped and fell, getting her face wet, bringing about the obligatory, "Blek, pthuhy." She lost her shell & I think some of her pride. We found a lot of clams, several scallops and many of my favorites. I don't know their name and couldn't even find a picture of them. All I know is I've always called them 'banana boats.'
It truly was a beautiful day. It brought me back to the fact that although being at the ocean is sticky and sandy, I really love it. And most of all I loved watching the innocence of my children. Unfortunately, I didn't take a camera today to capture any of what I saw, so I can only rely on my memory. Words can't begin to describe the thoughts that were going through my head. Everything from, I miss my mom, to "Footprints in the Sand," to the innocence of children, my children, to the joy of spending time with one of my BFF's, who loves my girls like they are her own flesh and blood, and many others. I forgot to mention how we started out the day. The girls were asking me what kind of animals live in the ocean. I think they were afraid of something nibbling on their toes. I didn't have the heart to tell them about jelly fish. But I told them crabs and whales live in the ocean. Then we talked about who made the earth (God), who made the animals (God), who made Adam & Eve (God), and that God put Adam & Eve in charge of all the animals. Thank you God for your beautiful creation.