snow at the beach!

We had a wonderful weekend at the beach as a family. I loved being there with my three Valentines! It felt so good just to get away and relax. Even though we still cleaned the kitchen and vacuumed when we left, it is different than the cleaning routine at home...it feels so good to be at the beach. We usually don't come a lot in the winter, but we decided a few weeks ago to come for Valentines Day weekend. I am so glad that we did because we got to see snow at the beach! Neither Jay or I had ever seen snow at the beach, and it was beautiful!! It was so cool to see the white seagulls fly by and everything around them was white too! The girls had the best time playing in the snow and we even made a snowman....it was the perfect snow for making snowballs. We named her Caroline, partly for Carolina Beach and partly for her Carolina hat she was wearing. We ended up getting a lot of snow....about 6 inches! One interesting thing we found on the beach was a giant buoy that had washed up right in front of our condo. People from all over the beach were walking down to see it, take pictures, and it became a playground for many kids on the beach. My favorite part of our time on the beach was watching the girls walk in the water and splash in their snow boots. The very water I watch them in every spring and summer and now they were dancing in the water in their snow boots...I will never forget that memory!! We also went to the aquarium yesterday and saw lots of beautiful fish and even some sharks!!! We also saw Luna the albino alligator. The girls really liked her, we visited her twice before we left. They carried their "pets" manatee and dolphin through the whole aquarium and introduced them to all the fish they saw. The girls touched a starfish and a sea urchin yesterday and even stumped the worker when they asked if the sea urchin had eyes. After asking many other people that worked there we found out that yes, they do have small eyes on the ends of their spikes, but can really just tell the difference between light and dark. We ended our fun day yesterday with dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. It was so much fun to go to the beach with my family. I can't wait to come back soon and be able to wear our bathing suits on the beach this time!!!