A MAJOR ACCOMPLISHMENT!

For those who don't know it, our son was terrified of the ocean. Yes, I know that we live in Hawaii and that you're not supposed to be afraid of the water when you live here, but he was! We have lived here for about a year and a half and with the exception of TWO trips to the beach, he has been TERRIFIED of the water and waves....that is, UNTIL TODAY!!!

Austin and I were going to go and meet Paula and the crew up at North Shore for Shaved Ice (they don't call them snow cones here!). I didn't think it was worth it to go up there for JUST the shaved ice, but if they were going to the beach, we would go as well. Austin must have heard me talk on the phone cause when I got off, he said, "I wanna go to the beach!" Well, Paula and the group had said that they weren't going, but I made a decision that Austin and I would just go alone then. I wasn't passing up this opportunity to take him to the beach when he clearly wanted to go!

Off to North Shore we went. We got our Shaved Ice and then took the teenagers (Paula's niece, Britni, and her boyfriend, Max) to the beach since they wanted to go as well. We get there and Austin starts playing in the sand and then starts to walk towards some rocks down the beach. I grab my purse and camera and follow. We find this little pool of water that was FREEZING. I'm thinking it was some kind of fresh water spring since it was a LOT colder than the ocean water. You could see where there was a current as well and that it was coming out from underneath a rock. Anyway, Austin starts playing in that water and jumping off the rock into the puddle. He then looks over to the ocean and says, "I wanna go in THAT water!" So, I tell him to go ahead and get it. He looks at me for a bit and then runs over there and that was it. He's hooked! We played for another hour and a half in the water. It was so much fun! I had put his new swimming trunks on him that his Yaya and Bobo sent to him so that he could play in the sand, but they actually got used to play in the water!!! We didn't stay for the entire sunset since it was going to be a cold ride back to the house in wet clothes, but we had a blast!!!

Here are some pictures...I took a TON, so it was hard to decide which 5 to put on here. I may end up putting more on here later, but this will do for now!!!