I've been meaning to take Marc to the beach since last summer, but we hadn't gotten around to it until last weekend. He loves sea life, especially fish and dolphins, and watching his Baby Neptune movie. But he'd never actually been to the ocean. He's been to a lake beach before, but he's always been afraid to go in. I've had to carry him in and then he enjoys himself once he's there.

Last Saturday, we had to go visit my brother-in-law and his fiancee (one of my best friends) so Marcelo could go over the music they're using for the wedding with them. They live in Hermosa Beach, so we decided to go down to the pier. I told Marc we were going to the beach and he thought we were going to get to see all the stuff in Baby Neptune. He thought there would be fish, dolphins, seals, starfish, crabs, etc.

After having ice cream on the pier and looking at a fish store with tanks of fish, crabs, and shrimp, we went down on the sand. There were people swimming, but it was really a little too chilly for it (just about 70 degrees or so). I asked him if he wanted to take off his shoes and put his feet in the waves, but he was a little scared, so I asked him if he wanted to watch Mommy in the water. Of course he did, so I took off my shoes and rolled up my pants and stood where the waves would wash up over my feet. Just as we were getting ready to go, he decided that he wanted to try it. Every time a wave came towards his feet, he'd shriek with anticipation. :) By the end, he was jumping up and down in the water and begging to run into the water. Jess (my soon to be sister-in-law) was holding Alex so he could put his hands in the waves and grab up handfuls of wet sand.

Before we left, we collected some sea shells and walked barefoot back to the car. I've promised we can go back and go swimming when it's summer, so Marc's been asking every day if it's summer at the beach yet. He loved it so much and it was such a wonderful day, I can't believe we waited this long to take him.