Sunrise and Crab wars

Jordan heard others talking about watching the sunrise on the beach. She really wanted to do this, so she set the alarm clock in her room and was going to get up and go watch the sunrise from the top deck of the beach house. Mom told her she'd wake up to and that they could walk to the beach. Dad decided to come along as well and then G-ma Vernetta arrived shortly after that.

While we waited for the sun to actually come up, we had time to watch the pelicans as they would glide over the water--flying just as close to it as they could. But my favorite is when they would dive bomb themselves into the water to catch something to eat. We also watched the seagulls and chased sand crabs.

Here are some of the seagulls near the shoreline...

I fought a crab and I got WON. I caught him by trapping it in my shoe...
I took him home, so I could show Danny--he was so proud. I kept him in a bucket until they all woke up (lazy duffers).
He was kind of scary when he'd stretch out and show his pinchers instead of huddling tightly together.

Joel wanted to try to hold the crab before I let him go. When Joel finally did get a hold of him, he got pinched, so Joel dropped him and the crab was on the move to get away. I had to chase him under two cars and then into the neighbors garage before he was trapped at the back wall. I got him back into the bucket and returned him to the beach. By then he was tough and as I let him go, he ran towards me instead of away from me with his pinchers bared. I chased him around the beach for good measure and re-caught him to show him who was boss and then put him down right by a hole and let him crawl away. So fun!

The sun finally began to make it's appearance. Here it's starting to get light...
J with the pink tones behind her on the horizon...
And he makes his appearance...
Jordan and her sunrise...
Mr. Sun...
Gorgeous sun over the water...