Danger, Will Robinson!

We decided to head to the beach on Tyndall AFB after Dave got home from work today. (Wow. I am actually posting on the same day something happened!) This particular beach has a l-o-n-g boardwalk to get down to the beach (almost a mile!), we had been told. Little did we know that there is also a sizeable walk down to the ocean from the boardwalk. We will not be bringing a stroller next time... We saw a bunch of jellyfish washed up on shore, which Matthew dutifully scooped up in his bucket to prevent us from walking on them. There are thousands of shells at this beach. We managed to find some real keepers, even though the storm smashed a lot of them. We found sanddollars, one of my favorite shells. We found parts of HUGE ones, too. It is my mission to find an intact huge one before we leave here!



The sign is what greets you upon setting foot on the boardwalk. Encouraging, isn't it??






Our first alligator sighting! It was a baby one, but STILL!! Ack. This is what we saw while on the boardwalk, heading down to the beach. On second thought, maybe that sign isn't so over the top?

Other Beach Shots

Timothy all prepared for danger!




Sea Oats.







I have never seen sand this white before... It truly looks like sugar or snow dumped all over!





These photos don't do justice to how rough the waves were. Tropical Storm Fay had just blown through, so the surf was still pretty choppy.




Rachel ridin' in style...




Matthew being buried in sand by Stephen, which I think Stephen enjoyed just a little too much!





Beach Blanket Baby.





Rachel enjoying the sand, which she now knows NOT to eat!




Ready to go home...




Seagulls fluffed up by the wind.




A beautiful sunset over Tyndall AFB, FL.

Rachel's Birthday- August 11th

Happy first birthday!

We hadn't received our household goods yet and that meant I didn't have a pan to bake a cake in, so we bought a cake from the commissary. Everyone was happy to have cake, no matter where it came from. We didn't even have a candle, so Dave lit a match and stuck it in the cake. The matches came from one of his MREs. What would Martha Stewart say about that?!

Note the look of glee on Rachel's face in the first photo and her arm raised. "Yah! CAKE! ICE CREAM!!"

Rachel and the Beach

To say that Rachel loves the beach is to put it mildly. On her second trip there, she was NOT content to stay in the carseat. Oh, no. Once out, she proceeded to taste sand (ick!), and then try to crawl into the ocean like a little crab every chance she got. She would zoom on all fours right into the waves until one would smack her on the face and make her cry. A quick hug from mama was all she needed, though, and she would repeat the whole thing over and over again. She finally tired of that and was content to just sit by the waves, playing in them.

Second Trip to Mexico...Beach

Mexico Beach is a city in Florida about 20 minutes south of here, along the coast. By the second trip, the kids had really warmed up to the beach. The water here is like bath water. It is so warm. When I first stuck my toes in, I braced myself for the brisk waters I remembered from going to Cape Cod as a child. It was a pleasant surprise.

First Beach Trip-Mexico Beach

We have now been to this particular beach two times, but these are shots from our first trip. Mexico Beach is a nice, slow paced community. It seems very family friendly, unlike Panama City Beach ("The Beach", as everyone here calls it), where all the springbreakers and teenagers hang out. Lord, I feel old just typing that. haha :)

Yes, Rachel is in her carseat... The kids were very uncomfortable around the ocean at first (the photos, of course, don't show that because that isn't very fun. Mama was prodding them, saying, "It is ok! Stick your toes in! Look for shells! C'mon!")

Timothy kept calling the waves "rollers" and would screech that at the top of his lungs when one came in, running frantically as he was bellowing. Stephen and Timothy poked around for awhile, but then spent the last half hour sitting up on the blanket, keeping a watch on the sneaky waves, as if they were going to creep up the beach and get them. (I didn't mention all the fun stuff about tides coming in and whatnot at that point!) What a bunch of landlubbers! I think after our year or so here, that will change...