All year I answer two questions again and again.
“When will it be Christmas?” and “When are we going to the beach?”
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Well, we’ve been home from our annual trip for about 24 hours. And our boys—and their parents—are already talking about next year.
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Our trip this summer was special because our group grew. Two of my sisters and I have been going every year since July 2010—Leo’s first summer in our family—but this year my parents also decided to rent a house, and the rest of my siblings and their families joined us.
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Two houses full of 14 adults and 11 children, ranging in age from 10 months to 10 years, made for a fantastic week even before we hit the beach—and that experience may or may not require a blog post on its own. But hit the beach we did for digging and building and jumping and splashing and shell hunting and kite flying and more.
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You see the world differently when you are surrounded by children, and this year I was surprised that we seemed to encounter so much wildlife.
There were the jellyfish that scared us out of the ocean a few times.
![](/Blogs/open-window/beach_jellyfish.jpg)
Photo by Treasa Matysek
Mostly they just gave the adults something to debate. Would this type of jellyfish really sting? Would it actually hurt? We never found out.
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Photo by Treasa Matysek
Then there were the porpoises.
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What? You can’t see them? Well, they were a bit camera shy. They kept diving out of view.
There were the turtles, of course.
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And there were a few geese who joined the turtles on Daniel’s second visit there when he made a return trip with his cousins. The geese came quickly when they realized we had 10 children throwing bread and crackers into the water.
There were sand crabs…
![](/Blogs/open-window/beach_sandcrab.jpg)
Photo by Treasa Matysek
and Maryland blue crabs.
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Our boys were really curious about the crabs, maybe because they know we eat them.
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Leo got to touch a horseshoe crab, thanks to a knowledgeable man on the beach who gave the children a meet and greet with it.
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Photo by Treasa Matysek
There were herons and pelicans, and one morning, after I had taken a very thirsty Daniel back to the house, the group even saw a skate swim past. As Daniel would say, “Mama, you missed it!”
And if you think a skate is exotic, check this out.
![](/Blogs/open-window/beach_slug_2.jpg)
Photo by George Matysek
“It’s a slug, but it looks like a leopard,” Leo said.
I don’t remember ever encountering that much nature on a beach vacation, not counting my discovery under my bed at the beach house.
OK, so we didn’t run into any sharks or ride a terrifyingly fast roller coaster. But if that doesn’t sound like a wild week to you, just imagine putting six children to bed in the same bedroom every night for a week. Now that, my friends, makes for a wild and wonderful week.
What wildlife have you encountered on trips to the beach?