walking with the starfish

The tide was very low.

  We were able to walk out on the rocks a lot further than normal.

We were wading along and quite far out when Prince says, "Come see this girls."

He was kneeling down further out and all my little adventure seekers splashed over to see.

Through the crystal clear water, Daddy was pointing to what appeared to be some

 thing's spiny legs sticking out from under a rock.

After closer inspection we found out it was a starfish.

In {my} opinion, this was not the beautiful picturesque looking starfish

 like we put in our fish tank.

No, this was the faster moving...wiggly... resemble a snake kind.

The princesses were enthralled!  They love that kind of stuff.

  They get it from their father.

The water was shallow but still covered my feet up to my ankles.

Did I mention it was crystal clear?

Well, things don't dawn on me very quick and when they do my 

reflexes seem to work faster then my brain.

When I looked down at the water and all the objects swirling,

 in the waves, around my feet... I saw it!

Legs!  Lots and lots of legs!

  There were hundreds and hundreds of starfish everywhere.

They were living around the edges of the rocks and hard to see

 unless you knew what they were.

After I "knew what they were" I became unglued!

UNGLUED! And started splashing and bouncing around between both feet.

 {clear throat} Normally I like to think of myself as a dignified lady,

 but I'll confess I whooped and hollered around until I found a small rock

 barely elevated above the water.

All with my 4 year old riding on my back, no less!

After a few minutes I got up the courage to follow my

  family as they wondered around

 filling their little bucket with treasures

 like shells, sand dollars, and more starfish.

Moriah was sad when Daddy wouldn't let her bring home a tiny little starfish.

We weren't sure if it would try to eat our pretty fish

 and Mommy didn't want to have to feed it.

  The last starfish I had to cut up raw (smelly) shrimp and hand feed.

  That got old real quick.

Next time, I'm gonna wear my water shoes, even if they make me look dorky!