Enjoying the Summer

It's hard to believe that it's almost the middle of July.

We have packed a lot into the last 6 weeks...mini-vacations, visiting family, and day trips to the beach.

Saturday, we headed to our favorite beach and played with the boys for several hours before returning home. It's so much easier, when children are school-age, to do things together. When they're young, so much time is spent managing and supervising their every move.

It's satisfying to be able to sit on the beach with DH for a while and watch them play in the water, without having to worry that they'll run off, get lost, or drown in the 20 second intervals when we look away. The Gulf of Mexico is relatively gentle, so there is less paranoia about a rip tide dragging them out to sea.

Sunday, we made our third attempt to smoke/barbecue some Lexington-style, pulled pork. It actually worked this time. Instead of accidently catching the wood chips on fire, like our last endeavor, we managed to get them smoking the "right" way.

It was a triumph of man over meat!

After dinner, we were sucked into family video game playing. The Rationalist bought Super Paper Mario with some of his birthday money and had egged me into playing it. For some reason, he takes great joy in watching his parents play. He'll pester me over and over to play....probably because he has a limited amount of time in which he is allowed to play. Watching me play is a vicarious way to get more Wii into his life.

Unfortunately, I have become addicted to this game. I didn't make it into bed until 12:30 am because I had worked my way through Francis' castle and hadn't defeated him yet. It became a matter of determination and pride. I couldn't go to bed defeated by a green chameleon.

Vacation Part Deux

Personality profiles couldn't give a better contrast between these two boys.

Water Guns + Kids + Dog = Joy

Summer Is Officially Here

Let the games begin!

School has officially ended for the boys. They have partaken of the requisite 4 cupcakes, 5 cookies, bowls overflowing with popcorn, and red, fruity drinks at the end-of-school celebration in their classrooms. They have carted home at least 2,317 loose papers in various states of crumplification, 3 half-empty bottles of glue, 12 multi-colored folders stuffed with graded homework from September, approximately 48 nubby crayons, and at least 22 Time--for Kids magazines.

How all of this fit into their desks, I am not sure. My bet is on some sort of tear in the fabric of space/time which exists only in school desks, allowing 100 times more matter to inhabit its interior than seems logically possible.

The kids are already excited and have an erroneous assumption that they will playing with the Wii for at least ten hours each day. No school. No homework. What else could possibly stand in their way?

Ah...such foolish innocence...so quick to forget the mean mommy who will place limits on them.

Back From Vacation

Thanks to my lovely in-laws, we enjoyed a three-night, four-day beach vacation with them.

An all-time, world record for changing into swimsuits, in less than 1.613 seconds, was set by the boys as they hurriedly raced to get to the beach. We spent the late evening floating on the waves in the Gulf, lulled by the gentle rocking as we lay on neon colored inner tubes. Eventually this turned into a game in which we were trapped by the Legion of Doom in the ocean. We were to frantically call for Superman to come rescue us from our evil captors. Meanwhile, we had to battle it out, ramming into each other and splashing one another with our salt-water death rays. Yes. With boys everything becomes a battle of immense proportions between the powers of good and evil.

In all the fun, I forgot to bring the camera and missed capturing a stunning sunset.

The next morning I crept into the boys bedroom at 7:00 am. They were already awake, of course, ready for the next adventure. I suggested we sneak down to the beach, before everyone else was up, and go for a walk. In our pajamas. The Rationalist replied,"That's crazy!" After much wrangling he decided to humor me and he accompanied me down to the almost empty beach. We watched the tiny coquinas being swept here and there by the waves, digging themselves back into their sandy habitats when the water receded.


The Rationalist, fascinated by the tiny animals, put a kabosh on the walking part of the adventure. Instead, he tried to save stranded coquinas by picking them up and tossing them into the water, or poking them down into the sand with his finger. I had to tell him to stop helping them, or their tiny shells might be crushed. "I didn't know that," he said matter-of-factly.

Once again I had left my camera behind and missed the opportunity to photograph an enormous rainbow over the Gulf.

The most exciting part of the trip was the mastery of the boogie board and wave surfing. Intuitive Monkey seemed to grasp the intricacies of finding the perfect wave, at just the right time, to obtain maximum force and longevity of ride. With his blond hair, he looked like the quintessential surfer. He was a natural.


Surfers in action

On Vacation

Y'all have fun now, y'hear?!

Family Skate Night

Tonight we relived our eighties childhood at the local skating rink. Family Skate Night. It's a lot more fun than it sounds. Watching two boys trying not to break their ankles while hysterically giggling as they slip unsteadily is great therapy.

As we walked into the seventies/eighties time warp--complete with shag rug wall coverings that were probably older than I am and showed no evidence of ever being cleaned--the kids yelped excitedly.

"It smells like rotten cheese in here," quoth The Rationalist.

This didn't seem to actually bother him, but was merely an observation. I tried not to think about the fact that thousands of sweaty feet had been in my son's rented skates before he ever used them. They bore the same distressed patina of the wall coverings. I thought they might spontaneously disintegrate as he wobbled about. They didn't.

DH and I own roller blades. The Rationalist was given skates for his birthday. Intuitive Monkey was the only one left to strap on the beige boots with faded, pock-marked, orange wheels. He didn't seem to care, but later asked how much roller skates cost and if he had enough money saved up to buy some. I think I know what to get him when Christmas rolls around.

We skated. We Hokeyed our Pokeys. We fell. We had fun.

good times....good times

Bliss

Come. Squish your toes in the powdery sand.

Let the foamy waves drag your burdens out to sea.

Dance in the brightness of the burning sun, carefree and satiated for today.

And never forget to hope for treasure in unexpected places.

Beach Bums

After three days of trying to figure out how to spend every waking hour with two boys out of school, and no swim lessons this summer, I realized we needed to get away from the house.

The morning was spent in a rush to eat breakfast, pack more bags than a mule could carry into the Grand Canyon, corral two boys hyped on pre-beach excitement, and be ready to leave by 9 am. Somehow I managed.

We met up with some friends--L. and kids-- and we caravaned our way to the beach, the drive reaching its peak as we traversed the Sunshine Skyway bridge; a towering suspension bridge providing a beautiful vista of the Gulf and Tampa Bay. The drive was so scenic that I only heard the "how much longer?" question once.

Once at the beach, the kids gleefully threw down the supplies they had helped me drag across the pavement carry and dashed for the foamy waves rolling across the sand; feet kicking water, toes squishing sand, bellies tight with laughter. They had reached Heaven. I quickly slathered them in SPF 500 and sent them on their merry way while I wrestled a beach umbrella into the sand...only to have the wind rip it out and make me chase it like the idiot I am.

Four hours of relaxing fun. No fighting. No impromptu wrestling matches (other than with the beach umbrella). No arguments about whose turn it is to play computer games. Relief for me. Food for seagulls. Happy times for all.

87 Days

This was the first morning, in a long time, that I haven't had to be up by 6:30 am, groggy-eyed, stumbling around in the kitchen, looking for something to scrape together for breakfast for two boys who must have circadian rhythms that shoot adrenaline through their systems at the first glimmer of dawn. Instead, I slept 'til 7:00. Half an hour makes all the difference.

School is out for summer. Those words strike fear in many stay-at-home moms. Long hours that must be filled, hopefully without the necessity of letting them deteriorate 60% of their brains by watching endless hours of TV. It can seem a little daunting.

Despite the treacherous terrain of two small boys + lots of free time, I'm looking forward to his summer. Intuitive Monkey starts Kindergarten in August, and I will officially have accomplished my goal of being home at least until they were school age. This is the home stretch and I want enjoy every moment of it. Trips to the beaches, bike-riding, a few camping trips, and visiting relatives with a pool--that's what most of this summer will be.

87 days to spend with children who are becoming people that I actually like to do things with.

It'll be gone before I know it.