Grand Isle Trip: The Beach

We went to Grand Isle this past weekend for part 1 of Trace's birthday celebration. On June 27, Trace turns 2, but since Maw Maw and Pap will be out of town for his party, we decided to do a family birthday on the island.

But before we get to the party, Trace had another first: His first time to go to the beach!

Ashley and I weren't sure how he'd react to the beach. He loves to play in the sandboxes at school (evidence: the pounds of sand we've emptied out of his shoes each afternoon when he gets home), so we went to Sureway and picked up a few sand toys. Once we got to the beach, we let him check out the sand and surroundings:

He wasn't quite sure what to think, but he knew that this was a place to have some fun. Once we broke out the sand toys, he started playing and seeing what he could do in the sand. He'd dig with the shovel and throw the sand around. So far so good.

Next step was to check out the water. At first he wasn't sure about it. He's swam in pools before and loves to splash in the bath. Ashley walked him to the edge of the water and he checked it out.

It didn't take him long to get comfortable. He loved sitting on the edge of the water and playing in the sand. I took him in a little deeper, but a fin in the water about 10 feet away from us scared mommy and daddy back to the beach (it was actually a porpoise who was swimming way close to the bank, but when you see it out of the corner of your eye so close to you, it's pretty scary).

We spent an hour of so on the beach and Trace got to see a crab and enjoyed throwing the hermit crabs back in the water. He had his most fun, though, when we found a rubber ball. He liked throwing it in the water and down the beach and then chasing after it. He basically had no fear and wanted to explore everything at the beach. We'll definitely be spending more time on the beach with him than Ashley and I ever did when we lived on Grand Isle.

Here's Trace waving bye bye to the water and the beach: