Boogie Boarding Spectacular: Tuesday, May 20

The water was much choppier on Tuesday, which made it perfect for boogie boarding (but less perfect for Phoebe, who has given everyone a real arm workout this trip). Here you can see Phoebe in Grandpa's arms, along with all the kids (except for Alexander) and Darla:

Andrew had to work again in the morning, so we were at the beach without him until around noon. 

The kids worked on a sand castle for a while...

...but those waves were calling for the kids to ride them. Here's Alexander zipping along (Rachel is holding Phoebe now):

He was catching some pretty awesome waves!

I know that you always have to be careful in the water, but I've got to admit that it's really nice having the majority of our children be proficient swimmers. Alexander was holding his own out there in the waves (though often clinging to Darla or Grandpa or me or whoever was out there with him when things got rough). 

Here's Rachel catching a ride into shore, with Grandpa, Miriam, and Darla out jumping waves:

These little ones were working on a sand castle:

And Phoebe was probably on my hip, though I did also get her out on the boogie board for a while!

I just pop her onto my back...

...and away we go!

Here's more of Rachel:

Andrew joined us around noon and immediately got to work building a sand castle.

Andrew sent this sweet baby on a solo ride and it did not go over well. I mean, it went over...just not well. Here's a screen grab (I'll upload videos later):

After much coaxing she agreed to go for a ride on Daddy's back:

With Andrew's eyes on Phoebe (who was flat-out refusing to get back in the waves at this point—they may have even headed up to the pool), I was able to hop in for some solo runs:

Here's Rachel looming over me, debating whether or not to get back in and join me (we all know how that turned out)...

You should know that before Rachel kicked me in the face she also played a game with Grandpa, who dove for the ball and landed in the waves, unable to get back up again. Rachel just stood there and laughed while he floundered in the water.

She also ran over Benjamin on one of her boogie board runs...and kicked me in the face on one of mine...

We started joking that we all needed to steer clear of Rachel because she was slowly taking everybody down!

Here she is coming up on the shore right beside Andrew:

Here's Phoebe safe on the sand, making some sand angels again:

And here's Rachel being eaten by a wave (serves her right):

And now I think all I have for you is a billion boogie boarding pictures...

Ben:

Here's Alexander:

Here's Darla helping Alexander get out far enough to make his way back to shore (he was just battling against those waves):

Here's Andrew:

And Miriam:

I feel like I should have more pictures of her boogie boarding and I know that Zoë was out there as well...but perhaps I was simply typically out with them and thus have no pictures of that happening. 

This picture was taken in the afternoon after we'd gone in for lunch. Zoë has changed into her white swim shirt and is holding the board on the far right of the frame, but I don't know why I don't have more pictures of her in action. 

In my defense, my house head hurt (and at this point on Tuesday afternoon my neck and back and knee were also painful...but I'm happy to report that most of those locations feel much better now). Here's everyone off in the waves together...apparently I was just sitting back on a chair, soaking up the sun.