Can you imagine seeing this through the eyes...

of a four year old that has never seen anything like it before? She liked the neighborhood beach and man-made lake so much we decided to try the real thing. Our new home is less than 10 minutes from the beach and it was a beautiful day today. When we walked through the dune area and the view came into our sight you could just watch the emotion and wonder cross Rylee's face. She was trying so hard to comprehend what she was seeing. I asked her if she could see the water? She nodded yes and never taking her eyes off it said "Water priddy!"

It took her a while to want to get down and when she did she was very unsure about walking on the sand. She tested out every step as if she thought that she might fall through. We showed her the pretty shells and she held one up to her mouth and made her signs for eating. I told her no that we don't eat those, so she decided they were worthless and promptly threw down each one that we gave her.

She tested the sand out in her hands and was not real sure about it sticking to her fingers, but eventually she braved it enough to join Hanna in the sandcastle building. It wasn't long before she was running across the hard packed sand and sticking her hands in the water, filling up the watering can and dumping it out on the soft sand. She never did get entirely comfortable walking on the soft sand and developed a sort of tip toe step, until I showed her that if Mommy can jump all around in the soft sand and not fall through, surly it can hold her tiny little self up!