If you see a hermit crab. . .

. . . it probably belongs to my son.

See, we hit the beach again yesterday in Gulfport. Did Lynn Meadow's Discovery Center first and then had to do the beach again. The kids wanted to get shells this time. Well, not only did they get shells, but they caught a shrimp, blue crab, minnows, jellyfish and, well, 3 hermit crabs.

The hermit crabs, however, were not discovered until this morning. I sent the girls outside to their buckets of shells to wash them off so my niece could take them home with her today. While my daughter had hers in a pile on the ground she suddenly noticed one shell was making a run for it. She screamed, "It's a crab!"

And that is when the excitement went to full throttle . . .

You have to understand. My daughter and niece spent two days at the beach doing very little swimming and more critter hunting. Anything living was good for them. So to unknowingly bring home 3 (nice size!) hermit crabs was like discovering gold to them! They immediately assigned one to each of them - including my son. And of course named them. Then, they filled up the sand and water table and let the crabs romp around.

When it started to rain, they insisted we go back out and get the crabs and bring them in to shelter. So I took some old plastic bowls with lids and made temporary homes for them. But! When we went out to get them there were only two left. My son's (the original runner) made another break for it and we couldn't find him anywhere. Fast little booger! My SIL and I were stumped as he was only left alone outside for a few minutes. Apparently, he hoisted himself over the edge of the water table and took off. We searched through the sand side thinking maybe he buried himself or something. No such luck.

So if you find a hermit crab in your yard shoot me an email. He belongs to my son!

Oh, and my niece's crab? Well, he is on a plane to Dallas. I hope he made it through security in Gigi's purse!