What I Did on My Spring Break

Girls in bikinis, white sands, tons of sand. You could say I have had it all this week, and I'm only two days into my visit with my sister, Julie, and my nephews, Jacob and Joshie.
The crew is featured above: besides Owen, Ellie and Jonah, I have Jacob (age 5) and Joshua Gates (2). We went to Jeckyll Island on Monday, and we couldn't go anywhere without climbing all over the first oak tree we could find. These things amaze me. Their branches are often longer than 60 feet, yet they seldom touch the ground.

In its day (the first three decades of the 20th century), Jeckyll Island was a super-exclusive winter playground for the rich and famous of New England. Families like the J.P. Morgans, the Goulds, the Macys--they hung out here. This place was SO EXCLUSIVE that you had to be born a millionaire to have a house here. Nouveau riche need not apply. The kids are standing in front of the clubhouse (now a hotel).

We quickly left the Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous for the beach. Jonah and Joshie had a blast. When they weren't flashing buttcrack at the rest of the people on the beach, they were running in and out of the waves. Last August, when we went to the beach, Jonah was too scared to even get his ankles wet. You can see here that he was totally into the wave action!
On the beach, I dug up a conch shell. The animal was still living inside it. Joshie spent time tickling the animal (it recoiled, bubbled and gurgled when we touched it). Then we buried it in the sand. That was the first time I had ever found one of those shells.

The boys' big project for the day was digging a "bath tub" (they needed one once the day was over--I didn't know it was possible for Jonah to get so sandy). Here you can see them demonstrating its usefulness...moments before the tide came in and erased all their work.

I realized I didn't have any pictures of Ellie! I'll rectify that tomorrow.