Terrific Tuesday at the Beach!

Waiting on the girls to get up!
It took us a few days, but we jumped on the bandwagon of getting out to the beach early to stake out a spot! Seriously! If you aren't out there by about 9am, there isn't much room left to set up shop!

Notice our new addition? The beach umbrella. Sadly, the cabana that served us perfectly when the kids were little just isn't big enough now.

Michael running towards the ocean-his reward for helping Derek set up our stuff. Michael has loved getting out in those waves!

The boys going out to boogie board

Ella conquering the waves!

Our new beach set up

The girls taking a shade break-it is hot today!!!

Alright..no shocker here..Fiona was the ONLY one brave enough to get close to the (real) enormous pelican. We walked down to the pier and as we got out towards the end we saw the bird. She was like, "THAT IS SO COOL" and got pretty close!

Fiona has been fascinated with the ocean life, shells, and other scientific things that we have seen. She is loving it!

Enjoying homemade ice cream at Painter's. After our long walk down to the pier, we needed a little treat before the hike back.

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Tuesday was a great day here at Garden City Beach! We got up early (well relatively so) and got out to the beach by 10am-thank you Derek and Michael for staking out our spot! We learned quickly that if you don't get your stuff out early, there isn't any room! Our day consisted of hitting the beach in the morning, taking a break and going to the outdoor pool, getting dried off and walking the beach to the pier, getting ice cream for lunch (yes we are super cool parents), walking back to our spot, getting re-sunscreened, spending the afternoon at the ocean, making sand castles/sand cakes/sand tarts, boogie boarding, and around 4:30pm coming back in for dinner. My favorite part of the day was heading out around 7pm for an evening walk in the opposite direction down the beach (see Facebook for those photos). The kids are fascinated by the little shells (we aren't sure what they officially are called) that turn on their sides and dig back down in to the sand. Fiona and Emmy could watch them all night long!!

It was seriously another perfect day!! We are very fortunate-beautiful weather and wonderful family time!

What a fantastic way to end the summer!