At the beach

First of all, we hit our two year mark of living in Australia! Yay! AND they're not kicking us out yet! Yippee!
On Saturday we took a day trip to King's Beach in Caloundra. It's a good hour's drive north and is the first beach we went to. We were happy to get back! Here I'm carrying Bridget around in our baby back pack (I think the last time we used it was for a little Lydia in New Orleans).








The back pack was perfect because you can take it off your back and set it on the ground, fully supported. See, here she is supervising a sand excavation project.


And sitting with me in the shade. Mike found this nifty beach shade at Aldi's. I love that store!




We also found $4 boogie boards for the kids at Kmart! Sweet! They had great fun riding the waves.




Lydia would have been in the deep water with the big boys if we'd have let her.





Evelyn was happy to dig in the sand.




I couldn't really tell what Bridget thought of the water.




I love the beach for of all the exotic critters you can find! I found this rock that had been washed up on shore covered in goose barnacles. Too cool! It was amazing to watch them stick out their short feathery legs (which they use to filter food out of the water) and pull them back in really quickly.




And there were rock pools nearby. Funny because when we went 2 years ago the kids couldn't have cared less about looking for little animals, but this time they loved it!















Nothing terribly exciting. Just lots of limpets, chitons, and snails. Occasionally we'd find a tiny hermit crab. This one is in a little cowl shell, which was unique.





Hermit crabs are fun because they actually move. One can only stare at a chiton for so long.
But back on the beach we got a neat surprise! There was a sea turtle!




It had been washed up on shore and wasn't doing well. A lifeguard (check out the hat) was staying with it until the RSPCA (government run animal aid) got there. Amazing! A real live sea turtle!! From the ocean!!
What a great day! And at the end of a day on the beach you can play in the splash pad up near the parking lot and get all de-sanded! Yay, we all win!