Moore Blessings: We called it "Crab's Pond"

So we finally stopped at the spot that we have passed by time and time again on our way to Dave and Carolyn's and we LOVED it! It was a beautiful day and although we set out that morning with the idea of spending only a little time at the beach we ended up being there for nearly 3 hours!

The lava rocks create a little pool that is protected from the waves and the currents. It is about a foot deep in most places which makes it a perfect swimming and playing spot for little ones.

As you can see, it is not a very big space so we were thankful to be the only family there.

Another perk to this new found "playground" is that I can park so close to it. This makes loading and unloading easy, and going back to the car to fetch a forgotten item is no big deal.

Yep, that's the trusty van. =)

Initially the boys would go no where near the water because of this guy:

He was bigger than most crabs we see (he was about as big as my fist) and his pincers freaked the boys out a little.

The poor guy, he was scared to death of us and would do this every time we moved close to him.

(If you can't tell, he is burying himself in the sand at the water's edge)

And no matter how much I told them that the crab was FAR more afraid of them than they were of him, they were quite content to dig in the sand a good 15 feet from the "crab's pond".

Lulu, however, was unfazed by the crab...

probably because she knows that she is more feisty than a dozen crabs combined!

After a little sand play the boys decided to go exploring. There were all kinds of little tide pools with small fish, hermit crabs, sea snails, etc.

Such a handsome little guy

My happy boy!
I tell you, it is so so appropriate that his name, Jonathan Asher, means a blessed and happy gift from God. He is truly a joy-filled child...a gift indeed!

Classic response to "Hey boys, can you smile for mama?"

Don't you just want to squeeze him? I do!

She picked up this truck about 15 minutes into our time at the beach and I'm pretty sure it never left her hands the entire time we were there!

She drove it under water...

She drove it on top of the water...

She chewed on the wheels...

She walked around with it...

She climbed the rocks with...

And as you can see, she finally convinced her brothers that the water was safe (the crab seemed to have relocated) and it wasn't long before they were jumping off the rocks into the water.

Here's Aden getting ready to jump...

And he proceeded to do this (along with his brother) about 50 times!
And don't worry, although it looks kind of close, the boys easily cleared those rocks that you see there.