I had nothing to worry about. As long as I keep reminding kids to not run and fall on the barnacles and I don't bring anything to carry (except the camera) or eat or drink, we are fine. Ian is strong enough to flip that giant rock pictured above so that younger siblings can see the crabs scurry.
It was Heidi's first trip to the beach as a walker and she owned the place. Her favorite thing to do was pick up little handfuls of mud and throw them. Cutie.
Ian, Shane, and Evie quickly took off to wade in the water. I felt so at peace watching them just walk off and do something that older kids do. They were barely in my vision, but as they grew older over the last few years, their Circle of Safety expanded.
Lula has no memory of anything beachy. She refused to wear her boots and would only wear her shiny black shoes (which are falling apart anyway, so who cares). When she saw her first pile of seaweed, she said, "Ew!" and wouldn't walk anymore. Then she saw that it was all around her and she really freaked. She may have thought it was chicken poo...
"Hey, Lula, wanna cookie?" She sure did! But when Fiona passed her that sand dollar she....
....dropped it and said, "Ew!" Ew was her word of the day.
Here is a little biology for you: Sand dollars are just like flat sea urchins. They have short black spikes and tube feet that help it in feeding. They catch little critters in the water and then pass them down to their mouths on their bottom sides. Sometimes, when they are in a group and there is flowing water, they align themselves up in pancake stacks (pictured above) on their edges, which causes the water to spiral in toward their mouths and makes catching and eating prey easier. Not all sand dollars do this though, just the Eccentric (AKA Pacific) Sand dollar does this. I learned that in college y'all.
Ian and Shane knew tons of macroinvertebrate terms by the time they were in early elementary, simply because we took them to the beach a lot. Evie called the tube feet on the starfish above "tentacles" which made me sad and grumpy at the same time. I need to take these kids to the beach more!!!
Lula didn't want to hold Ian's crab.
But Heidi did! And Ian let her hold that big ole crab with sharp, strong pinchers. But that crab is DEAD, so it was no big deal. Daniel got pinched by a crab and cried, poor thing. He was really worried about crabs pinching him for the week leading up to this beach trip, so it wasn't like he didn't know it could happen.
The crab above wasn't dead though! I spotted it through the seaweed and sent Ian to catch it for me. He slowly lifted it up out of the water because they usually flail their pinchers back to catch your tender skin...but this crab was a little too....busy....because that dark mass between his claws is actually another crab. I'm sorry I embarrassed Ian because I laughed loudly and exclaimed (a little too loudly), "They're mating!" He may never forgive me for that. I'm pretty sure no one heard me, but he is pretty sure the whole peninsula heard me.
There were just so many cool little critters under rocks and in little pools. And I took pictures of them with my new camera until my battery died.
These critters were my favorite!
