The day we had school at the beach

Day 6

After naptime, we headed out to the beach to see what was going on.  The tide was out.  

Far, far out.  A merry band of curious children and parents were prowling the shores to see what interesting things could be found.  

Emma found a starfish.  She was so excited.

Then she found another one.  She gave it to Samantha.

Wow!  A third one was found. I told her to give it to Abby and I'd take a picture of all three of them holding starfish.  

Abby did not like my idea.

But tried her best to obey.

As the afternoon meandered on, such amazing things were found - huge crabs, sea snails, sea cucumbers, jellyfish, loads of starfish, sand dollars, anemones, and a few other things that I'd never seen or heard of before.  

C. S. Lewis remarked once that when we comment so frequently about "how fast time flies" and just "wanting to slow down", that even those are markers that God has set eternity in our hearts.  Because we are eternal creatures, living in a world marked by time creates in us a longing for our eternal home where we'll live forever.  

When I watched these children and adults discover ocean treasures they'd never before seen, I felt some of the same way - that the curiosity and wonder in them is reflecting back the idea that God has put eternity in our hearts.  Our world is more than what we see; the things created reflect back the glory of an infinite and awe-inspiring Creator.  

In some ways, each new floating starfish and scuttling crab was a spiritual experience.  

Abby, armed with a sifting tool, became quite the little explorer too - even if she never did get over her squeamishness of the starfish.  {In sympathy, I think I'd have to agree with Abby - they've got LOTS of wiggly little legs!}

For a while, I thought Silas was going to get used to life on the sand.

                         

But, it seems that his time has not yet come.

By the end of her exploring session, Emma has collected about 14 starfish.  We tried to get them all on her arms and legs, but once we got past eight, they were crawling off faster than we could add new ones!

                                          

I put Silas on a little beach chair and gave him some clean sand toys and hoped he'd be happy to sit for a while while we lingered at the beach.  We were having such a wonderful and relaxed time.  None of us were ready to go in.  

Sitting by himself with his little toys must have made him feel comfortable enough to get over his sand issues.  This is his first smile on the sand.  

Abby coming over helped some too.  =)

Then when Samantha came over, Silas's chair became party central.  I'm sure they're drafting an agreement on World Peace or something equally important. 

At some point, I may or may not have demonstrated to Emma the proper form of doing a cartwheel.  

One by one, all the families left.

Only we remained on the beach.

As the sun went down, we kept digging, kept playing, kept laughing together

We had unwound so much and were so relaxed that we were unwilling for such a wonderful day to end.

Finally, we reluctantly called the troops to go inside, obeying the ever-louder commands coming from our bellies, and reminding the kids and ourselves that we still had four more days just like this.