Shells teaching lessons

One of my favorite parts about going to the beach is shelling.  I could walk for miles picking up shells.  Our special place at Emerald Isle has so many awesome shelling spots I'm absolutely spoiled.  When we got to Chincoteague I admit that I was a little disappointed.  90% of the shells I found were broken or generic oyster shells.  I stumbled across a few pretty colored scallop shells but returned with a tiny bucket containing less than a dozen shells.

On my second walk of the day (I've got a new Fitbit and have been determined to hit my 10K steps each day since, including walks on the beach) Erin decided she wanted to come along.  The tide was out so I grabbed a plastic bag and we headed up the beach away from the small crowds.

We got 10 steps up the beach and Erin reached down for an oyster shell -- "Mom!  This is the most beautiful shell, see how it looks like a wing."  I had passed that same shell 10 times in my chasing the kids up and down that stretch of beach throughout the day, but to E it was priceless.

Ten steps later "This one is a dragon wing!"  (Same style of shell, different coloring).  Plop into the bag.

She discovered that if we walk in the surf there are small colonies of shells washed ashore at the edge of the surf.  She'd throw herself into the water to chase after the perfect shell before the waves took it back out to sea.

Sometimes I'd hear, "Mom you missed this one.  It's purple and pink.  Why didn't you pick it up?"

Why didn't I pick it up?  What about that shell did she see that I had quickly passed by.  What else in life am I walking by too quickly to see. What does she try and tell me that I'm too busy to hear?

With our bag laden down we ran across a gentleman who's first language was clearly something other than English.  He tried to ask Erin if she had found "Big" shells.  When she started to show him her abundance of smaller shells he waved his hand and continued on his walk.  Clearly not impressed.  Erin would have easily continued to show off her beloved collection.  "See this one, it looks like a tree branch?"  

The two of us walked up the beach for almost 40 minutes before we realized how far we'd gone and had to turn back to get to daddy and Jeffrey.  We continued to talk and pick up lovely little shells until the bag literally started bursting at the seams.

What exactly I'm going to do with a bag full of 30 oyster shells, I'm not quite sure.  But I will always remember the lessons I learned from my 10 year old while looking for shells.

• Every shell is beautiful in someone's eyes
• Where I see a shell, Erin sees a dragon's wing or a boat.
• It doesn't matter if we have a big shell, every one in the bag is special
• It's worth a mouth full of salt water to grab that next shell, even if it is another white oyster 
• Don't walk so fast you miss all the colors in the world
• Step up and tell the world what you found.

Thanks for the lessons baby girl

See some of my beautiful shells?

Beaching

We took a quick trip to the beach over the weekend to get some summer ocean in.  I am definitely a beach baby.  That's my happy place.  Tom claims the mountains, but once he gets his toes into the sand he's a pretty happy fellow.  The kids, on the other hand, have not been to the ocean in about 5 years.  This is how tiny they were.  Jeff has no memory of it aside from pictures that he's seen.

We arrived at the beach Friday afternoon after leaving early in the morning.  We chose Chincoteague for the weekend since I've never been there, and Tom had only visited once as a child.  As soon as we set foot on the beach, tossed our bag onto the sand Jeff ran straight into the waves.  It was pretty cold, but that didn't bother him a bit.  In 2 minutes he was out past the breakers swimming and splashing and trying to ride the waves back in.  Erin was a little more cautious, but got herself out into the waves catching the surf with her daddy.

The first of the waves

Castle construction

He looks so tiny, and had so much fun

They were posing for the picture when a huge wave crashed on them!

We left the beach just about sunset, drove back over the barrier island and found some dinner.  We hit up a local BBQ hangout.  Order your food, hang out and play "beach" games while you wait.  Find either a giant checker board to sit and eat at or stand at the tiki bar.  Just make sure to bring your bug spray.  Apparently the Chincoteague mosquitoes are nothing less than blood thirsty.

Saturday morning we crashed the beach again.  Tom led us up the shore a bit to get away from the crowds.  Of course both kids whined and complained that we were walking to the moon and they just wanted to get into the water.  This only makes dad walk a little longer.  The day was spent building sand castles, riding the waves, walking for shells etc...  The shelling was definitely my highlight.  I took Erin with me, and that is for it's very own blog post.  After 40 minutes wandering up the shore I had to make her turn back for the boys.

Erin catching a wave

Showing off a small portion of her sea shells

We were rushed off the beach late afternoon by an incoming storm.  We stopped at the island visitor center to wait out the storm.  Afterwards we discussed walking to the lighthouse.  We coated up in Off and started for the lighthouse.  We missed the parking lot for the path to the lighthouse but found another island path.  We made it about 1/4 mile before turning back.  Swarms of mosquitoes had some of us choking on bugs.  We headed to an all you can eat seafood place where Erin put away 3 full snow crab clusters, doing all the work on her own.  Jeff enjoyed his own crab AND shrimp.  We finished our evening with some miniature golf.

Sunday morning we found our way to the beach again.  We took a few minutes before checking out from our Inn to do a little photo shoot of the kids on the dock of the channel.  Sunday was the best beach day by far.  We were a little later arriving and had to sit back further from the surf but still had a fantastic spot.  Jeff quickly made friends with a young girl his age.  They built a huge sand castle, rode some waves (she let Jeff use one of their extra boogie boards) and splashed around.  You would have thought they had known each other forever.  It was so wonderful to watch the kids just relax and enjoy themselves.  No one wanted to leave, but work was calling and a long drive back home was in the way.

A moment on the dock

Toes wet, bottom not.

I got this!

No parking bird!

Awesome sculpture made by the family next to us

Jeff and Erin with their new friend

Collecting rocks and shells

We loaded up and headed off the island back to the mountains.  About 6 hours later we pulled into the driveway 6 miles from the base of the mountains.  And no one can wait until next year to go back.

Bye Bye