Turtles!

Our first real day at the beach was absolutely heavenly.  There are multiple beaches along the coast, so we decided to try them all.  The one closest to us is Playa Junquillal.  It's just a few minutes drive from our house. The clean sand goes on for 2.5 miles and the water breaks perfectly for boogie boarding and surfing!  There is a rip tide so we decided to just stick to boogie boarding and skim boarding.  We only saw a handful of people the whole day.  I saw a group of people at the top of the beach doing something. After further investigation, I learned that they are a volunteer group out to save the baby turtles.  Every night they walk the miles of beach and look for mother turtles nesting.  After she lays her eggs, this group gathers them up, brings them to this protected place on the beach, and allows them to incubate in the warm sand for 3 months. When they are ready to hatch, this group helps them get out of the 18 inch deep hole they are in.  Typically it takes the turtles 3 days to dig themselves out their hole once they hatch, but this group digs them out.  They showed us a few of them and they were SO cute!  They let us watch at the end of the day when they let them out to sea.  They start them at the top of the beach so they can gain strength as they make their way into the ocean.  It was a beautiful sight to see these little babies know exactly what to do.  I thought of President Uchtdorf's General Conference talk in October.  He talked about turtles like this.  He said, "When scientists study this fascinating behavior, they ask questions such as 'How do they know where to go?' and 'How does each successive generation learn this behavior?'  When I read of this powerful instinct in animals, I can't help but wonder, 'Is it possible that human beings have a similar yearning--an inner guidance system, if you will--that draws them to their heavenly home?' I believe that every man, woman, and child has felt the call of heaven at some point in his or her life.  Deep within us is a longing to somehow reach past the veil and embrace Heavenly Parents we  once knew and cherished."

The skim was PERFECT!!!

Brig was ECSTATIC to find this HUGE sand dollar! This beach is incredible!

Aren't they the cutest?  A guy there had a nice camera and took some great photos. We only had our GoPro so I asked if he would email me the pictures he took.  He happily agreed.  I didn't know he was a PROFESSIONAL!!!

Such a great day! So happy to be here!