The beach!- June.

Since we moved to South Carolina, mama has been making a joke about the criteria we have for new friends. You have to have at least one of the following:

1. A pool.

2. a boat.

3. A beach house on the ocean that you're willing to let us use free of charge.

Number three is kind of hard to come by unless you're independently wealthy and much, much older than us, so we haven't had much luck with that one. But we got really lucky when we met Miss Kerri. Not only does she have a pool (and has graciously let us use it all summer long), her parents own a house on the lake complete with a dock and a boat!

Last week, they invited us to take a ride to a little island in the middle of the lake that is good for swimming.

Henry swam a little, but spent more time as the safety police. He tried to lift Andy off the boat before someone came to help out.

As usual, James and John were eager to jump right into the water.

Even Christopher had a good time, probably due to the fact that the water was so warm it was like taking a bath. It was a cool day- only in the high 80s. Miss Kerri commented that she thought it might be a little cool to swim. That's her Texas blood talking. By the time we finished lunch, it was climbing into the 90s and mama was getting much too hot to be outside in the bath water.

Initially, I just played on the beach and refused to get in the water. But mama picked me up and took me to swim for a while. In no time, I was back to being a water baby. I really like beaches because no one had to hold me.

And once I got into it, there was no stopping me. Someone did have to stay close to me though, because I'd start fake falling (whoa, whoa whoa!) or floating on my belly and a big wave would come in and I'd go under and have to be stood up.


You can imagine how much sand was inside my suit when mama peeled it off.

James and Andy's grandpa's boat was awesome. It even had a table on it, so we could eat lunch on it. After lunch, everyone got back in the water, but Henry stayed on the boat. He was worried that someone might start walking backward and accidentally fall off the front of the boat. So he stayed on to make sure everyone was safe.
And for probably the first time in 10 months we've known them, Andy and I actually noticed each other! We played a fun splash game, which worked out well, because neither of us are very good at splashing or hitting our opponents.
Now this is what I call a perfect morning. James' grandpa let us each take a turn steering the boat. And when we got back to the dock, we each took turns jumping into the water. Well, we all jumped in except Henry. He climbed down the ladder.

Thanks so much for the great morning, Miss Kerri and Mr. and Mrs. Worthy!