Thursday, November 15, 2007

Perfection



The boys woke up bright and early, and their room didn't even have a window. When I wandered upstairs after sleeping in, it was the most beautiful day. We had been expecting rain and wind and stormy weather all weekend. It was sunny with blue skies and in the 50's. So we bundled up and headed down to the beach. It is November after all and I wear a hat almost year round on these northern beaches. There is a frostbite story that I will share at a not so future date.

We wander down to the beach and there is the strangest phenomenon. There is virtually no wind. There is always wind. That is why we bundle when it is 52 degrees out. I had to take off my jacket. SweetP had to take off his sweatshirt. It was down right pleasant. Perfect. Wonderful. I had obviously done something really good to deserve weather like this. It was nicer than July and August weather.

So here we all are at the beach, I am the shadow. Look at how happy Velcro is. We stayed down on the beach for almost two hours. SweetE was digging in the damp sand and making sand castles. They were immediately demolished, but he had fun making them. His only dilemma was when he wanted to suck his thumb, and it was all sandy. It took a lot of convincing to prevent him from going back to the house to wash his hands. He did eventually get over it, but there were tears. SweetP was experimenting with digging in the wet sand and then trying to fill the hole with water. Except sand does not do a good job at holding water. He dug trenches and then would wait for a wave to come and fill them. Velcro barked at all the other dogs on the beach. Ducky and I just hung out and helped boys here and there.

We headed back to the house to decide what else we would do. There was no way this day could be ruined. We set off for town, ready to do a couple geocaches and have some lunch. But after such a late night, and such an early morning, my little sweetE could not stay awake. After finishing his hot cocoa, before his lunch came, he laid his head on Ducky's leg and fell asleep. Poor, tired, little guy.

Since he was sleeping, I was voted to go to the next town that had a store larger than John's Market, and pick up a few things. And this is where I made a painful error. I picked up all the stuff on the list and then opted to stop at Starbucks and pick up coffee. I debated trying the gingerbread latte. They made me a sample, they were very accommodating. But in all the debate about what flavor latte I wanted, they missed the part about decaf. And there is the problem. If I drink very much caffeine, I get to enjoy a 48 hour headache that nothing helps.

Not too long after getting home, my head starts to hurt. I assume that it is just the driving and chaos of getting here and not sleeping great all getting to me. But everything is still great because we are at the beach and it is a perfect day. SweetE wakes up and we head back to the beach. Another hour or so of playing in the sand.

I was lucky there was Advil PM in the medicine cabinet.

SweetE's art in the sand. I think it is quite interesting.


SweetP's experiment in the sand after a wave got to it. He thought it was really cool how the wave filled it in and changed it.

5 comments:

Kelly(M&M) said...

I completely agree. Makes everything worth it, doesn't it? I LOVE the beach. I will be going tomorrow with my kiddos.

laurie said...

what great pictures, what a great trip! and so sorry about the headache--i'm the opposite: if i don't get my caffeine, i get a bad headache.

Elizabeth Musgrave said...

Loved the idea of needing to suck your thumb and finding it covered with sand!

Susan said...

Mmmm. Love the beach. Love the beach art. Love that the ocean washes it away and we always start over. If I drink caffeine I get vertigo, alcohol, too.

the rotten correspondent said...

Sounds like a terrific day - minus the headache of course. I can almost hear the surf.