The week before school started we had our final hurrah of the summer. Dan & Kassidy were in town on their way to Missouri, and like us, they were going to be hundreds of miles from any ocean. Na-worries, mahn! We headed on down to the finest beach in Colorado at the Aurora Reservoir and got right to work…

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The harbor for our kingdom of sand was constructed first. Eleanor expressed some concern about the tide causing too much erosion. I think we need to worry more about what tide you might bring in Ellie! 

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The kingdom took shape quickly. Hey Brinley! Workin’ hard or hardly workin’?!

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See?! I told you we’d have to worry about Ele-tide!

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Where’d all your sand-slaves go Princess Binnie? Nice sopping wet hat by the way!

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Kingdoom of Sand complete! “Kingdoom”? Well look at it! It’s starting to crumble already. And I think these villagers are about to re-purpose the sand for other fun projects. Way to go green!

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I’m not so sure that Ellie was entirely thrilled with this re-purposing idea:

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She’s got her own shovel! Everybody scoop faster! Don’t let her escape!

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Eleanor may not have loved being a pile of sand with a head, but all the rest of the kids enjoyed it…and I mean all the rest. Look at the envy on those girls in the background!

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The Princess appears to be having some difficulty giving her commands…the sooner we get that hand covered the sooner we can revolt!

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The sun was high in the sky when this little sand crab noticed that she was finally bigger than something else: Her own shadow!

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Enough with the sweat and chafing, it’s time to take a dip! Our water aerobics teacher seems pretty excited!

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Or maybe it’s just that chilly ocean…mountain water!

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Looks like the water aerobics teacher also does sand scrub pedicures on the side. She’ll take your cash under the table…

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Boy. Shovel. Beach. Nuf. Said.

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I thought Rowan did pedicures, not manicures!? How much did that cost Ellie? 2 buckets of lake water and a Dora shovel…deal!

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Astronomists are dumfounded: Full moon visible in broad daylight in Denver!

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This one’s only a crescent moon, but those kids are still laughing!

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It’s not quite the beaches of Mexico for these two honeymooners, butt…we did provide them with quite a show. Hopefully they are brave enough to come back for another visit!

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