Monkeying around...

The Beach, a favorite place

Jud and I

Yeah! We're here!

Braji and Tank

My girls climbing Mt. Jetty.

We've almost made it...

What to do when you have conquered Mt. Jetty? Well you jump off of course!

Or you could just sit and enjoy your conquest.

Any cool shells today?

A romp with Tank is always fun!

Me, reminiscing about the last four years.

Lastly there's me. I am cherishing the last trips to the beach. Some of the best memories as well as some of the hardest moments have been spent at this very beach.

We have played here for hours. We have cried here as we watched from atop these same jetties as Daddy's ship pulled out into the ocean to carry him far away to the middle east for 6 months. We have waved our arms off when he would return after all those months.

I love coming here and will miss it terribly when we move. I know there will be new sites to see and mountains to climb and explore. I hope that there will be rivers and peaceful places to sit and ponder life. I hope that my children will find incredible excitement in the new places to come.

As for my beloved beach...well... I will miss the sound of the waves crashing and the sea gulls squawking above. I will miss the sand between my toes and watching the porpoises jump in the water.

I will miss body surfing with my kiddos and the inevitable shreik of "Mama look at this one..." from my little ones as they run to me with each shell that they find. Of course you know that "every" shell is the coolest one ever and they all need to be carried somewhere on my person until we get home and add them to our ever growing collection.

Oh how I will miss the sweet little foot prints that Miranda leaves in the sand and the I love you's written by Paxton and Braji. I will miss the excitement of the girls when a sand dollar or urchin is spotted. I will miss seeing Zachary's thrill when he catches a bunch of mullet with his casting net to put in little tide pools for the girls to inspect and then rescuing them back to the ocean before the pools disappear draining back into the sand.

I will miss Franki's cartwheels and climbing on the jetties just for fun (rather than to watch Daddy's ship leave, which is not fun at all). The tired and smiling sandy faces as we head for home, yep I will miss that too. Yes, I will definitely miss the wonders of the beach and the joy it has given us and I hope with all my heart that our family will fall in love with the mountains just as deeply.