Florida {Day 5}: New Year's Day Morning at the Beach

Today was a perfect example of the weather that I have been hoping and praying for ever since we started making plans for this trip to Florida!  Low 70s, sunny, light breeze . . . perfect!!  After a lazy start the morning (I was up early with Aliyah . . . and the other 3 joined her before too long.  By the time everyone else was up, I was so tired that I went back to bed for an hour while they took a turn playing with the kids!!) we headed down to enjoy the ocean.  Our first mistake?  Not putting swimsuits on the kids!  They all got absolutely soaked.  They didn't mind and we kept reassuring them that we didn't mind that their clothes were dripping wet, either!  Hope did a face plant in the "puddle" of water (see picture below) that the girls were running through.  She made it clear to us after that that the water tasted very yucky!  She was a good sport though and didn't complain too much about it after we dried off her face!  Samuel and Savannah raced the waves and ran in and out of the water for a long time before settling on the beach to make a big "wall".  Hope and Aliyah were done the water a little bit earlier than the older two but they settled in and played in the sand next to me for a long time without needing much intervention or entertainment from any adults.  Samuel and Savannah made their "wall" and played in the sand about 20 yards away from us for at least 1/2 hour without hardly noticing that the rest of us were on the beach.  It was fun to watch them playing together and having such a great time!  We didn't want to leave the beach but eventually had to pack it up and head back to the house for lunch so we could get to Tim and Kaye's house at a decent time this afternoon.  Praising God for giving us a beautiful Florida day!!