Another day at the beach...

...so the boys and I got up "early"-ish this morning and went to the beach. Mickler's is our choice of beaches. I love the fact that my boys love the beach and love the ocean. It does a papa good to have them follow in the footsteps of their old man...

I grew up around, and in, the ocean. And I'm happy to be able to raise my boys around the ocean as well. And actually, they already, at this young age, have a much greater appreciation for the ocean than I did. They love the ocean, they love the critters found in the ocean, they love the plants around the ocean, they love the critters found around the ocean. These boys are Marine Biologists in the making! Pepper scuba dives with Allison and I when he can. In fact, he is quite good at finding awesome critters that I always overlook...like scorpionfish and cleaner shrimp and yellow headed jawfish. He's been on the lookout for octopus lately, but we might have to get him under the water for a night dive for that to happen.

Andrew is chomping at the bit to get scuba certified...he must wait a few more years for that to happen! But you know what the interesting thing is? He struggles to swim unless he's under water. Weird, huh? Put a mask and snorkel on that kid, and he's like a completely different person! Today, he was duck diving under waves, clearing his snorkel, and never blinking once!

We cruised around the beach looking at shells, periwinkles, sand fleas, crabs, dragonflies, beetles, etc...they love the wildlife.

There's something about getting around the ocean before other people get there. It's almost surreal. The vastness of the ocean, the depth, the intrigue. It is amazing that there is so much about our own planet that we don't even know. So much about the ocean we don't know...and it covers over 70% of the earth!

I guess that's what really attracted me to scuba. Getting under the ocean and down with the fishys and critters to see how they behave. It's not about being macho, it's not about spearfishing or lobstering, it's simply about being a part of God's majestic creation and glorifying Him while under the sea with some of the most fascinating creatures ever imagined. On a dive last week Allison and I watched as one by one a school of French grunts would open their mouths as wide as they could to try to entice a blue-headed wrasse to swim in and clean their innards. The wrasse would have nothing of it...I'm guessing he had already has his fill of parasites for the day! But it was just amazing to see...a school of larger fish basically begging a smaller fish (one they could have easily eaten) to provide a service for them.

Elsewhere, a grouper blanched and tilted verticle to entice the cleaner shrimp to climb aboard and start cleaning. The grouper could have gulped this little critter down without so much as thinking about it, but of course it did not.

Just barely moving along the reef watching the life interact. Amazing.

It is this natural curiosity that my children have for God's creation that I even allow them to entertain the thought of scuba at young ages. Pepper became certified at 10 years old and only dives with 2 other adults as his dive buddies. I think that makes sense. As he matures and as his skill mature, we will start to work on different skills.

Anyway, we had another wonderful day at the beach today. It's time for lunch and then off to football practice for Pepper.

We are celebrating my birthday, my mother's birthday, and Paul's new mortgage tonight at Harry's so it should be fun time of family fellowship.

If you want some photos from today's excursion to the beach go to http://picasaweb.google.com/coachpilliod/MicklerSLanding1August to view them.