When they do the acid wash, that will bring them up. They use power washers. If the shells are too close to the surface, you would lose a lot of them when they do tomorrow's process.
OMG!! Your bag of shells is twice as big as mine, and I paid $300 bucks!! Grrrrr. No fair! But I'm very happy for you. You will love, love, love them! They're another great upgrade that you can't really capture in pictures.
Mine aren't spread evenly, but it doesn't bother me. I figure that's how it is in nature.
Keep giggling and have fun!!
Suz.