After our visit to Fort Sumter and a quick stop for lunch, we headed to Edisto Beach State Park. The drive to the beach was gorgeous. Pine trees with palm trees dotted here and there. Small old churches dotted the drive. Old homes that have seen many a year pass by. It felt like we could slip right back into a different time period again.
I have to be totally honest that the ocean with two little children scares me to death. I was a nervous wreck about the girls being so close to this powerful creation. Come to find out my sweet sister in law was pretty worried too, so we designated ourselves as the counters. We kept track of where each kid was and kept count.
The waves were very powerful the afternoon we visited. This was the girls' first time to the ocean. When Peanut saw the ocean, she would not let go of me and said, "Mommy, make it stop!" Too funny! It took her a while but by the end of our time she was sitting in the sand letting the waves lap over her while giggling uncontrollably. Her favorite thing was when Papa carried her out to the waist deep water with him.
Pumpkin...well she is a different breed. She saw the ocean and darted right for it. I held her tight and let the water rush over her legs. She loved it. She loved it way too much because she SCREAMED and CRIED because I wouldn't let go of her. She wanted to get right in and swim. YIKES! I am glad that Peanut was scared at first because she was safe in the sand playing while I held tight to Pumpkin.
I had to get Pumpkin away from the waves because she was determined that she was going in, so we went and found the showers to rinse off in. She loved these and played in it for a long time.
The older kids had a ball playing in the water together and swimming. Dobbie took Pumpkin in with her and this seemed to suffice Pumpkin's curiosity. She played in the sand pretty contentedly after that. My girls had sand EVERYWHERE! They were little sand monsters. It was sand mixed with tiny broken up shells so it was very coarse and hard to rinse off.
The tide rolled in and the waves became even bigger and more powerful so we decided it was time to head back to Dobbie and Papa's with a bunch of exhausted kids.
