The Beach

We took Emmy to the beach in the middle of August and she had a wonderful time.  This was the second time we've taken her to the beach, and this was a much more successful trip.

The last time we went to the beach, as I think I mentioned in the post about the xray, Emmy sometimes seems to be afraid of elevators and the ocean (enclosed spaces and infinite spaces, I suppose), so we were nervous about how she would react to the ocean.  And, at first, she was apprehensive.

As soon as we arrived and unloaded the perishable groceries, we headed straight down to the water.  She saw the ocean and started whining, clinging to my legs.  But after about 5 minutes, she got her feet wet, and realized it was just like the bath and the swimming pool.  After that, she had no problem with the ocean.  And it only took about an hour for her to feel comfortable enough to let go of Daddy.

She wore her swim vest, a speedo vest designed for swimming (but not boating! warns the label).  And though she was happy to play with Daddy, she was also determined to swim by herself.  "Leave me 'lone, mama!" quickly became her most frequent ocean phrase.  She also adored "flying" with Daddy, where Tom threw her up in the air, letting her splash in the water.  She liked bobbing up and down in the waves (which hopefully means she won't suffer from my inner ear problems, because that motion makes me seasick).

She got ice pops almost every day.  And a lot of mac and cheese.  And everyday, the only way to convince her to go back to the condo, or to go to bed, was the promise that in the morning we would go back to the beach.  First thing every morning (after the requisite cartoon watching and breakfast) her first question would be, "We go beach now?"

And she would submit to putting on sunscreen and getting her hair put in a ponytail, all the while asking, "We go beach now?"

She loved hanging out with Grandma (Susan).  She loved putting on her princess swimsuit.  She loved snoozing on the lounger, on the couch, on the sand.  "I take a snooze. (Like Daddy)."  I have a great picture of the two snoozing together after a particularly long day at the beach.  Tom got stuck with the short couch.

Emmy Loves the Beach!

 This picture is my favorite from the beach, just for the way it accurately depicts Emmy's sheer joy at the beach.  It's a little washed out, and I caught her at the edge of the frame, instead of the center.  You can see my shadow, and there's a kid up there photobombing.  I can fix all those things, but I don't know that I will.  I love everything about this picture.  Emmy was having too good of a time for anything but pulling out my iphone and snapping this shot.  I got lots of garbage shots too, I just kept hitting the shutter hoping that one would turn out.  And this one did.

Tom and I bought an intervalometer before the trip, so we played around with that some.  I set it up on our balcony to take time lapse shots of the beachfront.  Tom edited them into a video, which you can watch here: Time Lapse Video of Beach.