God's Beautiful Creation

Yesterday (Saturday) Jon took Elli and I out to the pier! It was such a beautiful afternoon and evening - we just basked in the fresh ocean air, relished the openness, and contemplated such great a God as to create this immense strength and beauty that we call ocean! Such a force it is!
ElliAnna also loved being outdoors - she had such a great time learning about rocks and dirt! She would sit on the ground, dig out a rock, study it for a time, and then throw it up in the air and watch it come down. Amazingly, it never landed on her!

But, she did fall down once and had her first knee scrape experience. Here's Daddy helping her brush the rocks and sand off her legs and hands.

I just loved being at the ocean - I wanted to just open my arms and bring it all in close to me. It is so huge - so immense - so amazing. Somehow I just wanted to capture it. The strength of the wind, the smell of the sea water, the realization that Africa is just across the big water. Wow!

And yet, this amazing wonderful All Powerful God loves us!
O LORD, what is man that You are mindful of Him?

(if you look closely you'll notice their shadow and their footprints on the sand)

Here is just one of a few attempts to get a good family picture using the camera timer. :)
We had a great time, even if the picture wasn't as good as we'd hoped.

There was another mother down at the beach with her son - he was having a great time running towards the waves, and then away from them as they came rushing in. He and his mom were having such fun together! This was another time when I could have paid a million dollars to speak fluent Portuguese! Elli and I went down to the water with them and shared smiles and giggles. Every time the waves would break, Elli would laugh! She loved it! A couple of times, the waves were bigger than we expected as we stood there on the shore, and Elli would get wet right up to her belly. Oh, it was so fun!

Check out the sweet sailboat in the background!!

The little girl in the big city. :)

"Tchau tchau!"