First, some pictures of Rock Island itself, so you can see how gorgeous it is out there! (FYI, all of the pictures can be clicked on if you want to see the full-size version.)
See this rocky little island thing?
Yeah, the water was really shallow so we decided that we'd all walk out to it because Bethany had walked over to it and found a really tiny turtle that we wanted to see. See how close it is to the shore? What we didn't know (thank you, Bethany, for not telling us) was that about halfway between the shore and the rocky island, the sand changed to rocks and they were sharp. And slippery. And perilous. By the time we got there, Justin and I were giving each other that look like "Damn, now we have to walk back". The walk back was punctuated by many shouts of "OW!", "Oh, God, that one really hurt!", "Something is actually stuck IN my foot." (Justin), "This was a horrible mistake.", etc. But, we saw the tiny turtle! According to Justin, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of animals, especially marine life, it was a red-eared slider. Anyway, when we finally got back across, we were all calling that area the "rocks of death" and thanking God that nobody had a catastrophic slip and fall.
So, moving on. We saw one of those water-plane things landing. Check it out!
Now, pictures of the fam!
Justin and the kids on a fallen log on the shore:
Sebastian standing on the fallen log:
Sebastian, digging like a dog:
Bethany on the fallen log:
Bethany, swimming, and generally looking cute like nobody's business:
Dorian, about to pick up some sand toys:
Is it possible to be any cuter than this?
And, now, a picture of a random little girl, just because the kids kept saying how she looked "just like Sophia"!
So, we stayed at Rock Island for about 3 hours, then we went to the drive-in. They had a triple feature and the movies showing were Nim's Island, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and Drillbit Taylor. Nim's Island was cute, if a little strange and completely unrealistic. We planned on staying for Indiana Jones, but I fell asleep about 30 minutes in, as did all of the kids. Justin woke us up to leave because, **SPOILER AHEAD**, and I quote, "I really really wanted to see that movie. But when I saw a psychic, crystal alien skull, I didn't want to see it anymore.". Still, we left the house around noon and got home around midnight, so it was a VERY full day. We all wore SPF 50 so nobody got sunburned, we got to build lots of sand castles which were subsequently destroyed by the earthquake (aka Sebastian and Dorian), we had drive-in food, the kids didn't have to be forced into their beds, and they all lived happily ever after!
