Carter Sees the Beach

Thursday morning I woke up with Carter cuddled against me in the bed. As I rolled out of bed to go to the bathroom, Carter rolled over to snuggle up to Ty. It was adorable! I came back to bed and worked on a blog post until Carter woke up. Then I got him ready and headed out for a 3 mile run. I took the road leading from our beach house up to John's Pass, ran along the pier and then down onto the beach. It was so cool to run along the ocean with the waves splashing up onto my shoes. I saw a horseshoe crab and a jellyfish washed up on the beach and even picked up a seashell for Carter. It was the most fun I've had on a run since Washington D.C.!

Carter all snuggled up into daddy!

I came back to Carter wandering around in Uncle Paul's shoes. We ate some delicious French Toast Casserole Amanda made and then prepared for the beach. I was so excited to see what Carter thought of the ocean and the sand and couldn't wait to get there! We were the first ones ready so I took Carter out to the swimming pool as we waited. When it was time to go Carter cried because I made him get out of the pool. I explained where we were going would be even better!

Trying out Uncie Paul's shoes.

Doesn't get any cuter than that!

Ready for the beach!

Carter immediately loved the sand. I had put his swim shoes on because I figured he wouldn't like the sand on his feet. We might try it barefoot later. It took him a long time to get to the water because he would stop to grab handfuls of sand and throw them in the air. When he finally made it to the water he laughed and his eyes bugged out as he got hit by waves. Anytime Ty swam by he laughed and when Amanda would swim away he would yell auntie after her. 

Grabbing hand fulls of sand.

Running out to grandpa in the ocean.

Not sure about the waves at first.

He loved the water when it was calm.

He preferred to have a hold of someone on each side.

After a while in the water he got distracted by birds on the shore and took off chasing after them. It was so cute to watch him run along after the birds. Once he was in the sand again we played with some sand toys Leina and Rocky brought for Carter. He had a blast using the sifter to find seashells in the sand. It was getting close to lunchtime at that point so we headed back to the beach house, ate lunch, played in the pool, and then Carter went down for a nap.

Chasing birds.

Screaming typically lets them know to fly away.

Digging in the sand with toys grandma and grandpa packed.

Grandpa helped him build a sandcastle.

When Carter woke up we played around for a while and then headed back out to John's Pass to walk around, shop, and eat ice cream. I let Carter pick out a sea urchin and a starfish at one store for souviniers and Leina bought Carter a shirt. Leina and I got ice cream and were walking back to meet up with everyone else when a sea gull dive bombed at Leina, attempting to knock the ice cream out of her hand so it could eat it. Back at the house Amanda made vegetable chili for dinner and then Carter and I played in the pool while everyone else went to a wine tasting at a local liquor store. While we were in the pool we saw lightning in the distance so we got out and headed up to the balcony to watch, hoping the storm would roll through and we could get back in the pool. Unfortunately it was time for Carter to get a bath and go to bed before the storm let up. He fell asleep really quickly after our busy day!

Trying out the ice cream truck.

Taking a bite of my ice cream.

Shoulder rides with daddy are the best!

Waiting for the storm to blow by.