Dan In The Sand

05/10/2026

Happy Mother's day!

This is a throwback post! This Mother's Day sculpture was made in 2023! Then I also included a sculpture I made with my mom in November of last year! She made the castle next to my big mom heart! She's getting better and better with her castles every time! Beyond grateful she is still able to come down to visit and enjoy the beach with us! We have so many amazing Beach memories together!!

The rain this weekend was not cooperating for us! We wanted to get out and build a new Mother's Day sculpture this year! We had a day on our schedule to do just that! Unfortunately it decided to rain that entire day 😭 Deeply blessed we finally got all the rain we so desperately needed!!

As with all my posts, please feel free to share, save, use however you wish! Thank you so much for loving all of this as much as we do!

05/01/2026

Sand effect's with more amazing sea turtle awareness information!!

Hey Guys!
Turtles Nesting!

Did you know❓
Sea turtle nesting season for our area has begun. Nesting season is from May 1st through October 31st.
During this time we will have turtles coming to shore during the night to lay their eggs.
We have a dedicated turtle watch group that will begin patrolling early in the morning for any signs of turtle tracks and indicators of a new nest. Once a nest is identified, it will be roped off and signage to inform the public to stay away.
We have 4 different endangered species that come to shore. The Loggerhead, the Leatherback, the Green and the Kemp Ridley.

It is important to leave the beach how you found it. Dark and flat. Fill in any holes, knock down sculptures and castles. Take your trash and any unwanted items off the beach when you go.
Please use turtle safe flashlights at night when hunting for ghost crabs.
White light will disorientate hatchlings. They follow the white light thinking it's the moon. They end up in the dunes or on the roads. Holes and deep tracks become final resting places for hatchlings. They can and will get stuck.

We all play a part and I love to play mine. For the protection of our nesting turtles, I will not teach a class near an active nest. I always advise clients to record their families knocking their castles down to save the memory and I will continue to encourage that.

My personal sculptures will be knocked flat at night!

I'm always actively filling in holes and picking up trash/toys.

This is a public service announcement!

Be a good Steward and play your part!
Knock down your castles, fill in your holes. Leave the beach clean, flat and dark!

Sand Effects

Your Sand Adventure Starts Here!

05/01/2026

Dig Life, Not Holes!

This is our 2026 sea turtle awareness sculpture! With today being May 1st it officially begins our sea turtle nesting season! No better time to make the sculpture, and/or make a post giving a little education!!

Did you know that sea turtles only lay their nests at night? They use the light of the Stars to guide their way to the beach! Often returning to the same spot that they were hatched! Because of that bright lights can scare them away! It's important to only use either red lights, or sea turtles safe lights while on the beach! You'll notice all beachfront properties have orange hued sea turtle safe beach lights!

Holes! Probably the most important point of them all! Holes can be truly deadly for sea turtles, and people alike! A sea turtle does not have reverse, it cannot back itself out of a hole, it can only continue going forward burying itself and possibly suffocating! Same goes for people! I hear news stories all too often about kids getting trapped in Holes! Sand is HEAVY, only one single yard can weigh over 3,000 lb!!! If it's saturated, even more! Be careful on digging a hole too deep, or tunneling through the sand!

There is Joy digging in a hole, just know the dangers and be sure to thoroughly fill it back in when done! If you don't fill it in, it poses a threat to turtles, and runners! I've heard horror stories of people jogging down the beach and having life-altering injuries from a hole. Having nearly a decade of beach experience, you'll hear a lot of stories!!

Let's talk sandcastles! I have personally talked to multiple sea turtle nest patrol employees. Maybe one will even chime in on the comments. They have continued to tell me that they've never seen a turtle be impeded from nesting from a pile of sand. It's no different than a piece of driftwood, which impedes them even more than a sandcastle would.

Hatchlings could definitely get caught behind a sandcastle on the way to the water!! That's why I always educate my families whenever we're close to a sea turtle nest. If there's an active nest close by I will ask that they make sure all structures are flat before sunset.

We made the sculpture in part of a larger beach day! My amazing love Sharon made a "hello sunshine" sculpture! I included some pictures of that at the end, even though she has her own standalone post, because this sculpture absolutely deserves it! Scott and Antoinette also joined us! Antoinette shared that in her Facebook memories 4 years ago that day was our first ever Sandcastle class together! Truly honored to have students continue to spread Sandcastle joy, and want to learn new skills! Scott made the amazing giant sea turtle between the two sculptures! I look forward to many more Beach days Scott and Antoinette! It's always a joy to have them join us!!

Please feel free to share, save, use these pictures however you wish! I love spreading a little sea turtle education! I hope I was able to give some facts that you may not have been aware of! We're looking forward to a successful 2026 sea turtle nesting season! Hope you all love these sculptures as much as we did making them!

05/01/2026

Hello Sunshine!!!

I cannot take credit for this one! This was amazing sculpture was carved by my love Sharon!! She had a vision, I just built it for her! I thought it turned out absolutely spectacular, the birds must have as well, they perched up for a view haha!!

Can you believe how good she is!! I'm so honored that she has picked up the skill and passion of bringing sand castle joy! Although she may not enjoy specifically castles, she loves writing words in the sand!!! I love how I can help inspire and push her to create new amazing sculptures like this! This is the perfect saying for the 1st of May! Our beautiful Summer Sunshine is on the way!!

I'm so honored to have her by my side! She is truly incredible at not only playing in the sand, but helping me fulfill all of the backend services that are running my passion!! If you've ever sent us an email, she's the one responding! I've noticed that's made all of our responses way more personable, you're talking to both of us, quality over quantity!! I absolutely love having her by my side everyday! I'm beyond grateful that she's able to help me fulfill and grow our passion to a level I never thought possible!! I can't wait to help her grow her passion in singing!! If y'all never heard her sing, you're in for a treat!!

This was a part of a larger beach day! I made a sea turtle awareness sculpture! Scott and Antoinette joined us as well, Scott made a giant sea turtle! Another random fact, this was on April 28th, the 4 year anniversary of Scott and Antoinette's first ever Sandcastle class! You all have no idea how proud I am to have students pick up and continue spreading Sandcastle Joy! Grateful they continue to want to spend beach days together learning new skills!

We hope you all love this one as much as we did making them! As with ALL of our sculptures, please feel free to share, save, use however you wish! We hope you welcome a little sunshine today wherever you live!!

04/26/2026

We made the most of it!

Anytime with some Sandily is better than no time at all! It was truly a joy to spend about an hour and a half playing in the sand before the storm came!

I was already planning on making Antoinette a small birthday wish! She's part of our Sandily! Her and her husband Scott frequently join us on play days! I made her a fun little birthday wall fairly quickly! I truly enjoy their company on all the beach days!!

Keith also made a birthday wish for a fellow coworkers son! Keith works full time off the beach! I'm beyond grateful him and his wife Tammie to have picked up the passion of playing in the sand! They join us every chance they can!

Scott and Keith worked together to create a turtle's nest! What a fun creative sculpture!!! I quickly wrote "no holes left behind" on the front of it! They made some SUPER adorable baby turtles crawling down the back!! Can't wait to have a full beautiful beach day with them in the future!! Grateful we were able to have some time together before it stormed!

During the storm Sharon and I ran and grabbed some amazing .coffeedrivethru !!!! One of my absolute favorite places in Navarre!!! Should have taken a picture of my drink, I guess it got consumed too quick for a photo haha!! Then we met up with Buddy at the to talk about our upcoming workshop on May 4th! Navarre is awesome!! I'm super excited for that experience with them!!

Then as the rain ended Sharon and I felt we needed a little more Beach time before heading home, we went back down and I made a little sunshine and sandcastles! made short work of the castles! This was about a 90min sculpture!

Honestly, it was really hard to be motivated to go back for multiple hours after we were rained off the beach. Because of that we are planning on coming back this Tuesday to make a sea turtle awareness sculpture! Dig life not holes is the theme for that one! It may be just Sharon and I. Not 100% sure where we will land!

Thank you so much for loving this as much as we do! Can't wait to share more Beach days with you all!!

04/25/2026

I know we need rain, but why on our ONLY scheduled play day!

It's been literal months since our last play day, seems about equally long since our last big rainstorm as well, and this is not a good thing to wake up to when you want to play in the sand outside for literal HOURS. Unfortunately from what I can see with the timing it looks like it'll be arriving right about 10 this morning. This does not look like a short storm, I imagine it'll probably last about 3 or so hours. Like I said, we definitely need it right now!! Our grass is crispy as fresh french fries haha!

With so many moving parts I hate to try and make something happen and it put us, or any of you all in a dangerous situation. It is with a heavy heart I have texted my group and let them know we have decided to cancel today's Play Day due to the weather. We are in active communication about trying again on May 30th. We have a couple random weekdays between now and May 30th we could make a play day happen!

I saw this coming even when I posted about my play day. I was extremely hopeful that we would have better conditions today! I guess we'll have to try again, sorry everyone.

04/24/2026

Play day in Navarre Beach!!

Time?
Everyone should be in place by 10-11ish am

Location?
Beach access 40D within the Marine Park. As you're coming to the beach over the bridge from Navarre, take a left at the traffic light by the gas station, first big parking lot on your right!

Although it's been quite over here, we have been BUSY over at .castles Tomorrow is a MUCH needed play day with friends!! Can't wait to spend time with our Sandily spreading lots of Sandcastle Joy! Please feel free to come out and say hello! There will be quite a few of us out playing in the sand tomorrow! I'll try to be better about posting the pictures as soon as we finish haha!

Hopefully you get a chance to come out and see what we create! This feels like a LONG overdue play day!

Side note, lots of workshops scheduled this year!! One I'm BEYOND excited about, we are doing Sandcastle workshops with !!!! First one is on May 4th! Head over to their account for more information!

04/23/2026

Sharon's birthday play day!!

Back on April 10th we had one INCREDIBLE play day for Sharon's birthday! This one was extra amazing because BOTH our Mom's were in town!! You know I had to teach and build a sandcastle with them!! My mom and Sharon have a few under their belts, my Mom's is on the far left, Sharon on the right next to mine. Both of them did great! I love how Sharon added our little DS to the top of her's! For Sharon's mom (Cheryl) it was her first EVER sandcastle!! The middle castle! Truly honored and thrilled I was able to teach her the science, and she did AMAZING!! Hope she want to make another on her next trip!

I made a huge castle with a special birthday message carved just for Sharon! I LOVED spending the day building castles with all of us TOGETHER!! It was absolutely magical with tons of memories made! I feel extremely grateful to have this skill to gift to all and create memories with!! Even more grateful to spend an entire day celebrating my love with our Mom's!

April 9th was Sharon's birthday, and we found ourselves on a random adventure day in Panama City Beach! Huge blessing to be in the right place at the right time and see a 30 min unscheduled Thunderbird show! What a birthday treat for Sharon!! It was truly a great day of making memories with our Mom's!! Beyond thankful for them making time to come see us!!

Thank you for loving these as much as we do! We have been blessed to be consistently booked for the entire spring! We are beyond grateful for all the opportunities we get to fulfill through my business, Dan Castles! If you don't follow that page, you're definitely missing out!

04/05/2026

He Is Risen!!

It's always an incredible honor to complete another overnight Easter sculpture for ! Every year this project is a great reminder of how truly blessed we are to be able to give back to the community using the gift the Lord has given me.

It takes me about three days to adjust my sleep schedule for this, and Sharon is definitely a trooper for staying up through it all with me!! So blessed to have her support through all of this! Overnight builds are not for the faint of heart!! This was probably the most prepared we’ve ever been sleep-wise, which made a HUGE difference.

The evening itself was beautiful. The waves were noisy all night long! Definitely the loudest they have been! The humidity and damp air were a little out of control as well, I'm sure you all saw the fog this morning! Crazy enough it actually makes for perfect sculpting conditions haha!

We started the first sculpture in Henderson Beach State Park around 5:30 PM, finishing and walking off the beach around midnight. We began the 2nd sculpture at crab trap Destin around 1:00 AM and completed just before sunrise, around 5:30 AM.

Moments like this push my love for what I do even deeper. Being able to create something meaningful that celebrates our Saviors resurrection, brings a moments of peace, reflection, and joy to all is a gift I take pride in.

I’m especially grateful for:
✨ The strength and ability God gives me to continue creating
✨ The communities that welcome these sculptures each year
✨ And Sharon, who supports these long nights and stands beside me every step of the way

Thank you to everyone who stopped by at sunrise, shared kind words, or simply paused for a moment of reflection.

Happy Easter sandily. He is risen.

P.S. You may be thinking it's been a little quiet, that's true! Dan In The Sand has been very quiet, but .castles has been getting nearly daily posts! We definitely recommend following if you're not already!