From the Beach

It is early morning at the beach, and Scott is still sleeping.  Ada is occupied with cereal and cartoons, and John is busy with his cars (what else), so I thought I would steal a moment on the computer. 

The past two days have consisted of rain, rain, and more rain, though we did dash to the beach on one or two occasions when there was a break in the down pour.  In fact, yesterday afternoon at around five, feeling compassion for Ada and her desperate need to get to the beach, she and I headed to the ocean and proceeded to jump in the waves, as rain drops fell down on us.  Whatever--it's all about making memories, right?  And I just couldn't sit in the house when the ocean was a short walk away.  But, there is blue sky in the distance.  I see it this morning, and there is hope that it is only going to get better over the next two days, so yay!!  and thank you, Lord!!  The upside to all of this is we have not had to deal with sunscreen once.

The pool is just a few steps from our house, so we have also been there once or twice because we can always dash home if it really starts to pour.  In those few times, Ada has really taken off with her "swimming."  Now, she won't be swimming laps any time soon, but she is feeling pretty confident and proud of herself and won't even let me take her floaties with us when we go to the pool.  Though yesterday, when she and I went to the pool by ourselves (while John was asleep and it was, in fact, very cold outside and in the water),she said, "let's play Olympics."  So, she put on a princess ring float and her pink goggles, and off we went.  She told me that she was America, and I was Auburn.  That's my kind of Olympics--either way, my team wins ;)  So, we are having fun despite the weather's attempts to hold us hostage inside our house.

It truly was pouring most of yesterday, the kind of rain that soaks you if you even have to run from the car to a store, so in an effort to get out of the house, we went to lunch at a very yummy Mexican restaurant, where I had fish tacos that were so, so, so good and slightly made up for the rain.  Then we headed to the outlets, along with every other vacationer, and I visited Crew Cuts, my absolute favorite children's store.  Oh. my. word.  I told myself I could get one thing for each of the kids--it turns out that Ada now has a very strong opinion about what she wants to buy, so she actually picked out a dress and tried it on in the dressing room, which for some reason, made her seem so grown up to me--maybe because the first time I bought her something from there is was the store's smallest size, a 2, and it was too big.  Anyway,  we bought John a bow tie and a football t-shirt, a nice neutral option for the fall--gray stripes, with a lime green sketch of a football.  So, really he got two things, but the bow tie seemed to not count some how.  And the kids each picked a harmonica for their vacation "souvenir," which hasn't been nearly as annoying as I imagined it would be.  At that point, as the rain continued to pour down, I said that I had to find a Barnes and Noble for some more reading material (I flew through the Pioneer Woman book in the first day since it's been raining non-stop) and I bought a bargain copy of Jane Austen--four novels in one, which should keep me busy for the rest of the trip--surely? 

On that note, Scott is now awake, thanks to the harmonicas, and I think it's almost time to start applying sunscreen.  This post is mainly for family, so I will end with the pictures we have so far...

here's to sunshine!!!

 on our way!

 a stop in Auburn for lunch with a dear friend from college and her family--always good to be with Amy Speakman, who is now Amy Hendrix!!

 a giant bag of bugles to help make it through the last two hours of the trip. I finally had to take the bag away, because I really think he would have eaten the entire thing. 

 And for more proof that I only feed John the healthiest of foods--donuts for breakfast to make up for the rain pouring outside.

 we did get to spend an hour on the beach that first morning when there was a break in the rain--we were trying to take full advantage.

 walking home from the beach, because these clouds were a bit threatening (that's Scott and Ada out in the ocean)

 sand castle building

and my little fish.  She is never without here "gobbles."  Aren't they upside down in the picture?  Okay, off to slather the kids in sunscreen...

p.s. as I was typing this, John was bringing me his cars wrapped in his blanket and then in Ada's blanket, and saying, "here, mommy, car baby."