Mark took the kids to the beach this morning to show Ellie the ocean. They found hermit crabs (Ellies is in the bottom picture) and leaches and all sorts of 'beach' type things! You can see in the top picture the beautiful mountains of WA state. The second picture shows Ellie and Paige hugging on the beach. All the white shells you see on the beach are oyster shells. This beach is right on a major oyster bed and when the tide goes out the birds go crazy feasting on all the oysters. They grab the oysters and fly up high and then drop them onto the beach to crack them open, eating the 'meat' on the inside and leaving the shells all over the beach. Neat hey? Although, if you read back to last summer, it wasn't so neat when Paige sliced her toe wide open on an oyster shell (they are razor sharp)....but that was an adventure from another day.

Hugs
Mark, Jaye and Gang