Alex's First Trip to the Ocean ... in the middle of Winter.

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Alex has wanted to see the ocean since we arrived, so we packed ourselves lots of layers and headed off to the beach. The local beach is less than 5 minutes away (even when driving slowly on the left side of the road).

When we got there, we realized we were very overdressed. There was no wind and a cloudless sky. We quickly shed our layers, rolled up Alex's pants, slathered on the sunscreen and headed out onto the soft sandy beach. Alex loved it. We found sand pails and shovels in the garage so were ready to have fun. Alex spent a good deal of time digging in the sand, but really surprised both of us when he decided to venture toward the water. Slowly but surely he and Tom got closer and closer and eventually Alex let a wave touch his feet. After that, there was little stopping him. He pulled Tom a little further out after each wave until the incoming tide was up to his knees (and rolled up pants). He came back up the beach, just long enough to pull Sarah down to the water to get her feet wet. This time, he was brave enough to let the water get up past his knees... and he was all giggles about it. Luckily, we did have a change of clothes.

We found a small play area with swings and Tom got a membership at the local Surf Lifesaving Club. We'll test out their weekend brunch buffet tomorrow.

After a quick nap (I guess we can't expect yesterday's 5 hour nap to continue into a trend), Alex woke up ready to go. We took a walk around the neighbourhood and found a nice little park. It is winter here but the mozzies started to come out and we headed home as the sun went down just after 5pm. Alex had fish sticks for dinner while we had fresh tiger prawns.

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