Sun and sand and a smoothie in hand...

Louis had been counting down to the beach for months. We have talked on and on about the sand, the ocean, and the fun he would have with his cousins--and Aunt Maureen, Aunt Treasa, and Uncle Eric. In fact, I started worrying that the actual beach would never live up to the imagined one.

Oh, how wrong I was.

When Louis saw the beach, he started to run, following his cousins Julia and Gregory, whose exuberance was hard to top. As he stepped onto the sand, Louis yelled, "Beach!"

Then he pointed down and said, "Look! Sand!"

Did this boy love the beach?

What do you think?

He loved everything about it. Sand. Water. Shells. Hours of play. He couldn't get enough.

The first few days Louis was magnetically drawn to the ocean. He laughed as the waves crashed against his legs--even when the water sprayed onto his face.

Whether he was alone with Baba...

...or part of a group, he laughed and splashed and held his own with more experienced jumpers rejoicing over what his cousins call "King Kong waves."

Then, as his cousin Julia summarized it, Louis became a sand crab. He wanted to play in the sand. And play in the sand some more. And then play in the sand.

At times, he worked alone.

At other moments, he and Mary collaborated, only occasionally...er...OK, fairly frequently disagreeing over who got to use the purple shovel.

We built castles, as happy screamers carried buckets of water for the moats. We made muffins and "dickadoos" and then played "knock over" again and again and again.

We dug deep holes. Then shovels and pails and legs disappeared.

One day, while the children were held somewhat captive in the sand, we tried for a photo. You can see how Louis felt about this plan. Paul (on the right) didn't care what we were doing. Gregory and Julia were photographic models, as usual, smiling at the right moments. Mary just happened to be smiley.

Photo sessions are a bit like sandcastles. There is one shining moment when you can imagine the perfection that your sandcastle might be. Then the tide comes in. Here Julia has sand in her eyes. And Louis is practicing his perfect glare. And Paul is too busy digging to look up.

But aren't they cute?

And even though Louis was tired of Mama's camera even before we unloaded the car at the beach, he couldn't help smiling a lot of the time we were there. After all, he was with four of his cousins. Having them around--even when everyone wanted the same toy at the same moment--made the beach extra fun.

They are great huggers.

They know how to pass the time while waiting for food.

They not only admired the Zax imitation Louis perfected; they even joined right in, adding their own personalities to Dr. Seuss's North-going Zax, South-going Zax and...East-going Zax?. (My sister Maureen assures me, however, that you had to be there to understand the Zax imitation.)

When Mama was nervous to strap Louis into a ride, his cousins happily jumped on with him, even when they might have preferred to go much faster than a 30-cent boat ride.

They laughed at the same funny moments.

They didn't mind getting wet in the rain.

They (OK, just Julia) happily yelled "Dickadoo!" to try to get Louis to smile for a picture.

They got as excited about kite flying as Louis was.

(Even though kite flying was more fun in theory than in practice, it was still pretty terrific.)

And Louis tried to do his part to be a good cousin. He shared his Legos, books, and trains. When his cousins picked a DVD that wasn't Dr. Seuss or Kai-Lan, he didn't protest. Not much.

He offered to wipe Mary's face after lunch.

He gave them "the eyes" on request.

He smiled for the photos they didn't smile for--well, except for Paul, the only one here without sun in his eyes.

He shared his Baba with them. (By the end of the trip, Uncle John had been renamed Uncle Baba by this set of nephews and nieces.)

Hey, in rare moments, he even shared his food.

Oh, and there was plenty of food to be shared!

Your typical Boardwalk fare...

And then your less typical Boardwalk fare, such as Italian wedding soup, one of his personal favorites.

We all enjoyed a birthday cake in honor of my 30-mmph birthday and Louis sang "Happy Mama to you."

You may be able to see our Thomas hats.

What did we wish for? Well, we can't tell you or it won't come true! But you can probably guess that it involves more of this...

...and a whole lot of this.

Still, with an overjoyed child running toward you...

...it's hard to believe there's much left to wish for...

...except maybe another vacation at the beach.

Louis has already started packing his bags.