Day at the Beach

I took the boys to the beach this morning. I was sitting in my chair, peacefully watching them bobbing in the water when a mom and her son came by looking at the sand. I didn't think anything of it, guessing that they were collecting shells. As they passed by though, they asked if we had seen the turtles. Turtles, I had missed them completely! It was almost 10 by then, the baking heat of the day was coming on full force, and any turtle in its right mind should have found the sea long ago.
So we went to explore, and sure enough, there was a tiny parade of little baby loggerhead hatchlings valiantly making their way to the ocean. I'm sure most of the nest emerged under the safety of moonlight last night, but there were still four tiny turtles slowly finding their way. Over the next hour, we watched the first three find the incoming surf and swim away. The fourth though wasn't looking too healthy and we wondered if he would make it. He was starting to dry out and had gotten turned around backwards, struggling to survive. He managed eventually to get himself turned around and find his way. How difficult it was to wait with hands folded behind our backs while watching him flounder. Sea turtles are endangered though, and to touch them is strictly prohibited. We all cheered for him as the final wave washed him out and away.
After our morning adventure, the boys have been happy to play inside this afternoon, leaving me time to get some sewing done. I've polished off a huge stack of nine patches. I'm off now to do some ironing and throw them up on the design wall so they can tell me what they'd like to be when they grow up.