Sand Island May 2011

I have been overdue to post these pictures for a while.  Actually, there are several posts that are overdue, many of which are much more overdue than this one.  I think I will actually work backwards here, posting stuff from Easter soon.  Maybe some of the motorcycle trip posts I never finished.  Lots of National Park stuff.  I have lots of posting to do, and since I never really follow a pattern with anything, I am just going to post whatever I feel like and see if any of it makes sense to you.  I will try to be clear on the dates.  Try not to be confused because some of what I post may have happened last weekend and some of it will be from a year ago or more.

Sand Island.

Since we are not a boating family anymore, I thought we should try playing in the sand somewhere a little bit closer to our backyard.  We had a free Saturday in May, so we decided to go do something fun.  

And I got a ton of fun pictures:

The water's a little cold, Mom

ready to play

Now I can't really tell you why Tyler's hair is green.  I think she was playing at a friend's house and she had green hairspray or something.  She kind of looks like a swamp creature.

Cole did not know that Sand Island was a place with water.  He thought we would be playing in some dry sand dunes or something.  So he wasn't really prepared to get wet.

Swamp girl ;)

our picnic spot

Olivia loved playing in the wet sand with the sand play set Rachel got for her birthday

My little girls were scared of crossing through the rapidly running water to get to the sandbar, so big brother Garrett helped them.

Cole thought it was pretty funny how hard it was to push through the current. . .

especially in his blue jeans

Olivia and Rachel only stayed for a moment

And then they wanted help crossing back over.

See the rock she is throwing?  And I think she has a stick or something in her mouth.  If she is not a swamp creature, she is some kind of river sprite.

The boys had fun floating on the current

The river sprite with some seaweed

A better view of where we were playing

Gorgeous, messy Olivia

Rachel posing for the camera (she is my swimsuit model)

wild child

He will hate me for posting this

"Don't take my picture, Mom!"

Hey, at least I posted an unflattering picture of myself, too.

Britt and I hanging out on "the beach"

One of my favorite shots from the day

Love this girl

She knows it!

The sand was actually pretty muddy near the water, so it made it hard to really play in it.  But that didn't stop the kids.  I have more pictures from the day, including an awesome sand fortress Cole's friend Porter built.

We love having so many fun places to enjoy so close to our home.  We like to play.