(Another) Day at the Beach!

Today we decided to head on down to Newport for the day. Finally we were on our way at 9:30. We twisted and wound our way down the road to Newport. Finally the ocean is in view! That is probably one of our favorite moments, when you can finally see the ocean! We made our way through town down to South Beach State Park. After parking we loaded ourselves up with all the trappings of a fun beach day and headed onto the beach. Not only was it windy it was blustery, gusty, and brisk! We got the kite up for a little bit

and managed to make it through most of a quick lunch before decided to pack it in and head over the the Hatfield Marine Science Center for a while. With the thought that we would head back to the beach in a couple hours, when it, hopefully, warmed up some. So we walked around the Science Center checking out the octopus, fish,

and various other displays.

There is this one tank that has a "cave" on the backside where you can peek through the fish tank, I was able to snap a picture of each kid peeking through the fish tank at me!

We also spent a little time watching part of a documentary on Blue Whales. We visited the Bullfrog and Turtle again, finishing up by browsing the gift shop. We found each kid a small little marine animal to take home. Dylan got a shark and Ally got a Seahorse. We had finally exhausted Hatfield and decided to try and give the back another go. This time we wrapped ourselves up in layers of sweatshirts and coats and headed down again. It was definitely warmer and so we crashed into the sand and let the kids go nuts building,

digging,

and getting buried!

Wow were they sandy! While they were playing we got to see some horses go by

and also a couple of guys kite-boarding!

We played for about an hour the decided it was time to head on back. After changing into less sandy clothes we got settled and heading back to reality.