A trip to the beach ...

Above is Mt. Etna in the background with the city of Catania in front.

 I took the kids on our first solo adventure yesterday while Jake was at work. We went down to the beach, La Playa.  It was down by a the pier.  There was basically a boardwalk street.  Lots of bikers, runners, walkers, skaters.  There is even a circus down there and the kids got to see a camel as we drove by.  They were excited by that!  I thought it was freezing at the beach, but they all wanted to pull up their pants and let the waves hit them.  They had a great time and want to go back every day :).  Good thing it is an easy drive down and back.  I didn't even get lost...hooray!

 Owen traced all these lines into the sand with his thumb.  He was making a river that he wanted the ocean to run through.  It was cute.  We came home with quite the shell collection.  Anthony even found a skeleton of a crab.  It was a little broken up but not entirely, he was super excited by his find since Jake brought one home from one of his work trips a while ago.  I am sure we will be going back to the ocean very soon.