Lily LOVED the beach. She enjoyed kicking, splashing, twisting, and even laying back in the ocean. We took a baby pool for her to play in on the deck when the sun was too strong for her to be out in. We even managed to all 3 come back without getting burnt- a first for me. Lily was not impressed with the wet sand but she really enjoyed the dry sand- she did not seem to mind the grit when she ate a few handfuls either. Goober.
We had a few small adventures. Michael and his BIL and dad went bay fishing (doesn't qualify for deep sea fishing evidently) and he caught a small shark. We will try to get that picture posted but it is going to take some work to get it off of my cell phone. Those of you who call Michael on his cell phone- its dead. It jumped out of his pocket and went swimming one morning in the surf, so it has gone to meet the great antenna in the sky. We will be replacing in within the next week.
One evening we all went out to a spot that is technically on Tyndall AFB but is open to the public. It was very isolated and was gorgeous in the late evening light. Lily hitched a ride in the BabyBjorn and we, along with my SIL and niece, went walking down the beach while the others fished from the shore. We walked a LOOONNNNGG way. We turned around once the sun was fully down. That was not a good idea. We figured that we would know when to stop when we got to the rest of the family on the beach. We were not counting on them packing up and going back to the cars. There was an amazing orange full moon that rose while we were walking so Jennifer and I stopped to try to take some pictures of it. Michael saw the flashes from our cameras and thought we might be signaling for help so he came tearing down the beach looking for us. We were just fine, at least till we all found that we could not find the boardwalk that would take us back over the wild and rugged dunes (the same ones that had a huge sign posted about the alligators, snakes, sharks, jellyfish, etc in the area). Fortunately, Jennifer's husband, Jody, came out to find us with his emergency light thing and we all got back safely. But, for a few minutes there it was an "oh shit" moment.
We also saw schools of small sting rays "flying" through the water nearly every day. Michael and I saw a huge one though off on its own the first day there. He was close to dinner table size.
I almost caught a small shark the morning we went fishing. I saw him coming down the shore and tossed my line in front of him to see what he would do. He took it, gave one yank, and I assume sliced my line. Oh well, worth a try.
All in all it was a good trip. Lily did well with the long ride, or at least as well as you would think a 9 month old would. We had some trouble with her getting to sleep and staying asleep with the noise and goings on in the house, but I guess that was to be expected too. Maybe next year will be easier. Make sure you check out the picasa photo site.
