Single parenting, days 8-10.
The final days.
The finale, if you will.
What’s a mom to do to cap off all this excitement? (“All this excitement” referring specifically to cows. There hasn’t really been much other excitement, but, around here, cows are usually enough to hold us for a long while.)
Why, I added a 4th kid and took ’em all to the beach, of course.
‘Cuz the beach rocks!
The beach rocks:
So tropical.
(Not at all.)
So warm.
(Not even a smidgen.)
Sun, surf and sand!
Right, guys?
Ignore the skeptical look on the short one’s face. He’s still not sure how he got stuck with us for the weekend.
I kept telling him how lucky he was. A whole weekend at the beach with his cousins!
He didn’t really buy it, but that didn’t keep me from insisting it was true.
Now, Aden on the other hand…
Aden agreed with me.
Aden though the beach was awesome despite the fact that the cuffs of her white coat were the kind of brownish-yellow that makes a mama want to bow her head in shame.
(Aside: Why did I buy Aden a white coat? What was I thinking? What in my bevy of experience with children made me go, “A white coat! Perfect!”? Someone please check my brain for leakage.)
Aden also thought the beach was awesome despite the fact that she wore her Tinkerbell PJ pants because, um, I didn’t pack her any pants.
So her one pair of pants… the pair she wore in the car to the coast… was in the washing machine while Miss Aden played in the tide pools with Tink.
Nevertheless, Aden managed to have fun.
Well, she managed to have fun after she glared at mom for a bit.
‘Cause sometimes, a no-pants-packing mom must be punished.
But after that, the beach was awesome!
It was even more awesome for me, because I brought my friend Leanne.
Why would Leanne come to the beach with me and four little kids?
I don’t know! But I’m so glad she’s nuts and did it anyway.
Now, Leanne actually managed to avoid the camera except for one shot I got of her butt while she was leaning over helping a kid with something.
I want to keep my friendship with Leanne, so I’m not going to put that shot in here.
Here’s the only other photo I have of Leanne:
She’s that peach speck of at the top of the photo.
See her?
No?
Then, in the absence of any reliable photographic evidence, I offer this proof that someone exists in the world who’s crazy enough to join me and 4 kids for a relaxing, care-free coastal vacay:
- I brought all the kids home in one piece.
OK. That’s all I’ve got. But I’m sure you’ll agree that I couldn’t have accomplished that by myself. Therefore, Leanne exists. She’s my friend. She’s nuts. And, like the beach, she rocks.
Among other memory builders like breaking up fights and visiting the post office (doesn’t everyone spend vacation time finding the post office?), we went to the aquarium.
We saw fish!
We saw jellyfish.
We posed enthusiastically for photos with mama.
(Now there’s a kid who wanted his picture taken.)
We saw super cool art made out of ocean trash.
Yep. That’s a fish made out of ocean trash.
I’m pretty sure its purpose is to make me feel horrified at all the garbage in the ocean. I mean, I’m not happy about that on principle, but this fish made me go, “Wow! Cool! A fish made out of trash! I wonder what the artist could do with the stuff coming out of my house?”
Pull-ups, mac and cheese boxes, and bread crusts. What can you do with those? If anyone wants to find out, let me know. I’ll be your supplier.
Turns out, Mr. Cael was as inspired as me.
When we finally made it down the long and winding path to the kids’ play area…
… and while sleepy Cai took a little rest on the bigger-than-life aquatic animals…
…or under them, as the case may be…
…Mr. Cael perfected his own art medium.
Gravel.
The other parents at the play area were extremely impressed with Cael’s gravel angel.
I could tell by the way they kept saying to their kids, “No, you can not lay there in the dirt.” And, “No, just because that little boy is doing it and his mommy is taking pictures does not mean it’s cute.”
Well, maybe they didn’t say those exact words, but the rolling of the eyes and the hushed whispers at their kids were fairly telling.
Just think. When gravel angels become all the rage, you can remember that you saw it here first.
And you’ll never, ever wonder again how my kids’ jackets become so incredibly filthy. Asked and answered. That’s why I’m here.
7 responses to “The Beach Rocks”
Glad you all had fun! We’d have loved being there, too. Looks like the tsunami took all the sand again.
The tsunami took all the sand again? For real? (forgive me for this undoubtedly incredibly silly question… I’m gonna play the ‘I am Dutch and I am completely unfamiliar with the effects of a tsunami and I don’t know what the Oregon beach usually looks like anyway-card’ if that’s okay with y’all 😉 )
Carina, this beach usually has a nice stretch of sand at low tide, but the ocean regularly takes it away and leaves the rocks for a few months at a time. (But not every year.) The unusual waves we got after Japan’s tsunami probably helped move the sand this time.
Thanks Judy! I did not know that, can’t wait to see this rockin’ beach for myself one day! Our beaches look so different, very interesting. Of course we don’t have any tsunami-aftermath kind of things going on here, so I guess that alone is an educational experience all together 🙂
I think the combination of the gravel angel and the shirt did it for me! Laughing so hard, so so so hard! 🙂
ps: no old shots of Leanne then? Just to convince us some more, you know… 😉
ps: almost forgot to mention how much I love the picture of you & your little boy! You look so cute! I cannot believe you’re 37! 🙂 (I should know, one of our student teachers estimated my age at a whopping 41… nothing wrong with being 41, I hope to live and see the day, but when you’ve just turned 33 and have not had a decent night’s sleep in a week… 🙁 )
And by the way: the trashy fish – also very cool! Hard to be appalled by the grossness&awfulness of garbage in the ocean when they can make stuff this awesome with it…
Hehehe. So glad you liked it, Carina. Especially the irony of the college t-shirt with the gravel angel action.
And, um, any time you want to tell me how young I look, you just feel free! Don’t let me stop you. 😉