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The sand teemed with people building castles, turtles, seahorses – you name it – at the City of Edmonds’ annual sand sculpting contest July 23 at Marina Beach.

There were so many sand sculptures that, if someone wasn’t careful, it would be easy to accidentally step on one.

At one sand sculpture, Jordan Hart was busy putting the finishing touches on a horse’s head.

Surrounding the horse’s head was a wall with a tower at each corner. When one of the towers fell, Jordan’s friend, Sabrina Stokes, started fixing it. She sprayed the rest of the wall with water from a spray bottle while Jordan added seaweed, which acted as the mane, to the horse’s head.

Sabrina and Jordan have been riding horses together since they were 6, which inspired their design. Sabrina enjoys barrel racing, while Jordan practices archery on horseback.

“We’re really into horses,” Jordan said.

Taylor Greco, Mercer Couch, and Reese Couch were a last-minute addition to the contest.

They had six towers, made from turning over buckets filled with sand, in two rows of three. When their largest tower toppled over, they patted it down and realized it looked like a volcano, leading Mercer to place wood chips on top of it as lava, while the rest of their structure was a town.

They sprinkled assorted items, such as seaweed and little rocks, over their bustling town.

While they were busy with their volcano and town, another group sculpted an alligator.

Adrian and Amanda Lewinsohn were busy building it, while Joyce Altaras watered it with a watering can.

Jan Lewinsohn said they brought a watering can because last year, when they had sculpted a sea turtle, it dried out due to the heat.

Although it was not hot this year, they still used the watering can, which let the water out in a sprinkle so as not to damage the sculpture.

“Every year, we kind of improvise,” Jan said.

At the end of the two hours of sand sculpting, the judges had to determine a winner for each category.

For the adults, Susan Wolf, Mathew Pruitt, Stephanie English, Ann Bouzigard, and Katy Thelen won first place for their sand sculpture “Ms. B the Turtle.”

In the day camp/organization category, Owen Lee, Caitlin Chung, and Caroline Wills won first place for their sculpture “Spirit of Edmonds.”

In the children’s category, the “Under the Sea” sand sculpture won, built by Team Turtles.

Winning first place in the family category was Erin, Quin, and Hazel Zackey with their sculpture “Girl You Can Move Mountains.”