The beach in September is a wonderful place to be. We headed to Myrtle Beach last Sunday for five days. JDaniel had never been to the beach before. I had read him books about the beach and he had been given a set of sand toys by my mom to enjoy at the beach but wasn’t until last week that he actually gained firsthand knowledge of the beach.

We decided to take him to the beach in his street clothes Monday morning after breakfast in the hotel restaurant just so he could see it and maybe walk on the sand. That was a mistake. At first, he just sat at the bottom of the steps leading to the beach and pushed the sand around like he was a bulldozer. Then he ran straight for the water with my husband trailing behind and got drenched sneakers and all. After that, we started wearing our bathing suits for breakfast.

We quickly headed back to our room to change and layer on the sunblock. The sun was still really strong and would have left us beet red. Once we were properly prepared for the water, we headed back for hours of fun on the beach.

The second trip to the beach that the first morning leads to JDaniel’s discovery of shells. He found he loved them all. JDaniel would just start picking up shells whole or in pieces and place them in his bucket as he slowly followed the trail of shells left by the sea. He only made it about 12 feet along the beach before his bucket was full. There were too many shells to pick up and none could be left behind.

He also discovered a joy of sitting on the shore just where three or four inches of water would lap on him, his plastic dump truck or bucket, and his parents. His truck must have been filled with sand hundreds of times that first day. It didn’t seem to bother him that the sand was carried away by the ocean over and over again.

We usually headed in for lunch and then naptime at about twelve. I say headed because we usually ended up having to use the sand rinsing stations outdoor showers several times. JDaniel has found he loves showers now. Following the sand removal sessions, he loved to run around in the baby pool located right by our section of the hotel. We always stopped because it was on the way to the elevator. You just can’t walk by it.

Afternoons were filled with more time in the baby pool or an indoor pool. The hotel had inner tubes that JDaniel loved to play within both pools. I loved the times at the pool. After pool time I didn’t have to scour my son’s body looking for sand deposits. He seemed to get sand everywhere.

The days flew by. It seemed like we would get up in the morning to turn around only a few hours later and go to bed at night. To say JDaniel loved the beach and his time there would be an understatement. We can’t wait to see what he thinks of it next year.