Playing on the beach

When looking for something for you and your children to wear on the beach that protects you from ultraviolet rays and protects your modesty, we have used Coolibar. The outfits that we bought two years ago are still working well. Actually, since we bought a big enough sized neck-to-knee swimsuit, it still fits our 3 year old who was 1 at the time. Similarly, the 6 year old (who will be 7 this next week) still fits the swim set she wore when she was 4. Wow. Our 8 year old is wearing a hand-me-down Coolibar swim set from our oldest daughter. So we got our 11 year old a Coolibar zip front swim shirt. I pray that all my children will grow in their love for God and it will show by their wisdom and purity. I love them. (Some interesting links regarding modesty: (1) a Vision Forum article, (2) a book that sounds interesting but I haven't read, and (3) some resources from my Bible website.)

Joseph has been demonstrating that he is learning about protecting against UV. For several days I've heard him singing the "Slip, Slop, Slap" song seemingly without any provocation.

This year we also got a few swim shirts and suits from Lands End. The Coolibar shirt I am wearing in the above picture to left is short sleeved. At times I wish it was long sleeved, but I'm thankful for what I have.

As we have been going to the beach in the early morning or in the evening, the sand and pavement were not too high of a temperature. I went for a little walk in the middle of the day. The sand and pavement were excruciatingly hot. That is why we got sandals and swim shoes for the everyone. Several years ago we went on a vacation (I was at a TI workshop in St. Louis and my family was on vacation with me) where the little kids got to play in the pool everyday. After a few days of their soft feet jumping and running around on the bottom surface of pool, their little toes were rubbed raw. That was when we learned the wisdom of swim shoes.

A cute thing that happened this evening: Our little red-haired girl, a.k.a. the birthday girl, somehow caught a fish. She put it in a red bucket, along with some sand and vegetation so that it would have a comfortable habitat. It stayed with us after we left the beach and went to the pool. Later she told me that they took it back to the ocean and let it go because it was the little fish's birthday.

Enjoy an 11 second video. Every time a wave came up, Rebekah would do a dance.


And lest you think all I have been doing today is playing, I made progress in reading a couple of neat books as part of my commitment to the Lilly Fellowship. (I'll write about those later.) I am looking forward to a nice day of rest tomorrow.

Also, we have been delighted to have a visit today with a friend from Indianapolis who is now working in Florida at ECHO, Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization. This week they were in the news as a practical response to what some world leaders were meeting about at a summit in Rome. A reason for world hunger is that small farming has been neglected. I sure do agree with ECHO's vision: "to bring glory to God and a blessing to mankind by using science and technology to help the poor."