Amelia Island-part deux

This most recent trip to the beach is the first time we've gone just by ourselves and we had a lovely time. We did invite our good friends, the Foskey's, to join us for the weekend and it was great to relax, spend time together & play.

Warning: this post has A LOT of photos

Good Morning Amelia Island!

Sam so enjoyed the beach, more so than in the past. He let the waves wash over him, he did the deadman's float and for the first time, he attempted boogie boarding and loved it!

This summer has brought a lot of sea turtles to the island to lay eggs. The eggs takes 44+ days to hatch and the nests are scattered up & down the beach. The Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch which is a group of volunteers who mark the nest, and wait until the baby sea turtles leave then they count the number of hatched eggs, the dead turtles and if there are any live turtles, they help them to the ocean. This is one of Todd's dreams; to witness baby sea turtles crawl out to the ocean. Therefore, Todd pulled himself out of bed very early in the morning to go see the dig. There was one by the beach house and all the babies got out but it was really neat to see. This photo is the 2nd turtle dig we saw and it was on Main Beach. As you can see, there was quite a crowd. There were 130 eggs, 2 dead and 2 unhatched eggs.

Sara enjoying nothing to do!

The 4 adults went out for sushi and walked to the pier. I look quite pregnant in this photo. I guess I've learned that sushi + gray dress = food baby

Pier on Main Street in Fernandina

On our last full day at the beach, Todd got up a bit after 6am but shortly after came back to bed. I said, you better just go, you never know...so he dragged all the kids (minus Sam) out at 6:30am to see one last turtle dig. Luckily it was just yards from the house. We set up camp & waited for Mary to come dig out the nest. His last chance to hopefully have his dream come true...

Well, what do you know...Mary found 2 little baby sea turtles (loggerheads) that hadn't made it out of the nest. These two little guys were kind of crammed in the nest and their shells were a bit misshapened and their little flippers didn't work so well. They were kind of "special needs turtles", our favorite kind. I just wanted to take them home and love them.

Mary is giving this one a little therapy to help him out

Mary suggested we help them and Todd was behind the camera and was about to let the kids take them. I had to step in. I INSISTED that Todd be the one or he would never get the chance again. It's fairly rare that stragglers are left behind so this was his chance.

I sure hope they make it!

Sam & I at the beach

Abby can find just about anything! She was the shark teeth master and found 4 on her own.

Ben helping the girls build a sand castle

A few feminine touches...

Abby & Carly are just about pro status when it comes to boogie boarding. They had a blast!

The gang

Emily's dream...driving in the yellow convertible, hoping to meet some cute boys.

We had such a great time at the beach and we're always sad to have to leave.

Don't worry, I'm going back with "the girls" in 2 weeks!

Yay me!