Beach bound

Our family left for a quick, sort of spur of the moment, 24 hour getaway before Brad's departure date next week. We headed to Ocean City to spend the night with plans to play at the beach right outside our hotel in the morning, and visit Assateague Island to see some wild horses, ride bikes, and play in the sand and waves in the afternoon. 

Chappie was loaded to the max, and we left the confinement of our 1 bedroom apartment not looking back.  Unfortunately, the brotherly tormenting dramatics came along for the ride:

Those dramatics didn't stay long when we woke up the next morning, threw on our swim suits, and headed for the waves. My prediction was Talan would not go in the water past his ankles and would complain of sand being on him, Ashton would think he was awesome if his shorts got wet, and Syphr would be hot and done after 10 minutes. I couldn't be more wrong. 

Ashton spent the entire time being thrashed around by waves, attempting to successfully body surf his way into shore, all while wearing his blue snorkeling goggles. 

I thought this was awesome because Ashton is inside this wave. You can barely see him in the middle.

Talan, while walking to the beach from our hotel said, "I don't want to get sand on me." I told him that he was going to have a big problem then and explained what a beach was. He was hesitant at first, but ended up having a blast running from the waves, building sand castles, and conquering the big waves with Ashton and Brad.

Syphr is definitely a beach fan. He giggled at the waves crashing into his feet, dug in the sand with his little shovel, and banged shells together. 

His most favorite, and by his face each time I'm guessing also least favorite part of the beach was sand consumption. There were at least 4 different occasions where I caught Syphr eating sand, and every time he made the same face, yet 10 minutes later he was doing it again.

As lunch time, and check out time, approached we headed for some lunch and more playing on Assateague Island. Assateague Island is home to about 300 wild ponies. I say wild, but what I mean is they are as wild as you can get. They roam the island and beaches free, and the last Wednesday in July about 150 of the pony population head for a swim across the channel as they are herded to an auction to reduce the numbers of pony inhabitants on Assateague Island. Sadly for us, that meant all the wild ponies were in a pen so they were ready to make their annual swim, making them look much less wild. Annoying, but made up for by the relaxing, and nearly private, beach we stumbled upon during our bike ride.

This was hands down the winner over Ocean City. Not only did the sand dip down into a little trench which waves would periodically refill to make a Syphr sized ocean, but there was no worry to watch out for incoming boogy boards, or other kids to stomp on our sand castles. 

Syphr found the sand unappetizing here as well, yet still shoved his mouth full a couple times.

 The only thing that lost this beach a few points was the tiny crab residents. Good thing we brought the Fivefingers to protect our toes from tiny crab pinches.

 So, I love a good succession picture. I saw this happening out of the corner of my eye, but I didn't realize I had gotten it on camera. I'm so glad my camera was set up to capture 3 pictures at a time. Watch Syphr on the left:

I think it is safe to say we will be back here when Brad returns home.