Is there anything better ...

than a warm sunny day at the Coast? Even the sea lions agreed! Those aren't logs that washed up on the beach across the bay. Those are all sea lions!

Here's a closer, zoomed-in look to prove I'm not just making it up:

We figured we needed to go see the ocean one last time before we moved to our new land-locked home. The girlies worked very hard digging pools and connecting them. I won't mention how they felt when little dude discovered them and took to throwing rocks and handful of sand in the holes. He didn't mean to cause a problem. He just figured if you find a hole, you need to fill it up!

And speaking of the little man, how did he feel about the sand? When he first got on the beach, he took these teensy-tiny pitter-patter steps, cracking up everybody that walked past. He got down to the edge of the wet sand with Bopa and stopped cold. He looked back and forth between the darker sand and Bopa, until Bopa convinced him it was okay to go forward. He moved on and was very happily watching the girls run around, until a very small wave lapped at his feet (like so small it might not even have covered his little feet). The surprise and shock of this new development literally knocked him over! He fell right down ... and wouldn't get within 20 feet of the water for the next 3 hours or so.

Just a little traumatized.

The girlies, however, kept right on digging. And digging. And digging.

"Give each other a hug!" Guess this is the best it gets when they're all sandy:

Finally, Nana convinced Mr. to give it another try by first getting him to kick the water. Little by little he got more accustomed to it until he was out jumping with the best of them (with a little help to get some good air). And then, of course, he didn't want to leave. We had to drag him away!