Beach Days and Runaways

Is there anything better than sand, shovels and buckets?

I am writing this morning from a VERY quiet house.  Clark and the kids left yesterday for a week in New Brunswick, with the goals of meeting new little Jacob (Andrea and Dinesh and Jacob are visiting currently), and to spend some time on the farm.  On Clark's firm prompting, I stayed behind, so as to have my own little mini-vacation. I will, after all, shortly be heading to Vancouver to have a whole lot of one-on-one time with Jacob, and I will visit New Brunswick before flying off.  Yet, I waffled about staying until basically the moment they all drove away.   I am feeling slightly jealous after being sent shots like the following:

Cousins.  Do you get any cuter than this?

Jacob: "OMG. Stop with all the selfies already"

Already, however, I think I made the right decision.  A whole glorious week of no one's schedule but my own?  That is truly a gift that does not come often.  I have about a million things planned (including a whole lot of sleep).  Next week, there will be a full report -- mostly, I'm sure, from perspective of the New Brunswick gang, as I reminded Clark a *few* times to take a metric tonne of photos.  But for today, a quick glimpse at last week - the first full week where the kids and I got to decide how to spend our summer vacation days.

Beach Bliss

As the title of this post suggests, the activity of choice for both kids involved going to the beach.  Now, I am going to be up front and say that the beach is not my very favourite of destinations.  Sand in every crevice, constant sunscreen concerns, SO MUCH prep work and so many items to bring... you get the picture.  Plus, there is the added fact that we are in Nova Scotia - home to beautiful beaches, but also frigid cold water, and weather that can change drastically five times an hour.  I am not nearly as big a miser as some people *cough, CLARK, cough*, who I think secretly believes sand was the creation of the devil himself.  But I also didn't jump enthusiastically into a full week of beach, beach, and more beach.

Linden, in his natural habitat. More than anyone I know, he loves every single thing about the beach

Instead, we took things slow and leisurely: mornings spent playing and doing stuff in and around the house, running errands if need be, hitting up some museums, wandering around downtown.  And when I could put it off no longer, we spent two nice full afternoons at the beach - the first at Rainbow Haven, and the second at Conrad's.  The Rainbow Haven Day was surprisingly cold when you actually made it to the coast - I spent the time huddled in a towel, and even got rained on a bit as a huge dark cloud passed overhead.  The Conrad's Day was beautiful and warm - enough so that I even donned a swimsuit and went to join the kids in the water.  However, despite the fact that I have a very high threshold for pain, I did not make it past my feet.  And even then, the agony was unbearable for more than about 10-15 seconds at a time.  I am convinced that if I had immersed my whole body, my heart would have stopped instantaneously.

Somehow, however, the kids were completely impervious to any of the conditions that held me back. They happily frolicked in the waves, wore nothing but swimsuits, and loved every single minute.  This meant that I got to... relax, mostly.  So despite all the grumbling, I'd say both excursions were, on the whole, a pretty big success. Plus, apart from the obvious (swimming and sand castle-making), there are seemingly endless ways the kids keep themselves occupied.  Cases in point:

Finding some local wildlife

Frolicking with gigantic pieces of seaweed

Lounging

Making "sand holes" (also helps with Linden's apparent goal of making sure he manages to get sand in every single crevice of his body)

I will end on a related note - one that is perhaps worth relating, if even just to remind myself of an era that we have apparently now entered.  So, early in the week, I told the kids that if they could do the things they needed to do without me constantly nagging and reminding, and if they could listen and follow instructions (these are all things we are currently trying to *improve*), then we could go to the beach.  We had, at this point, not yet gone, and it was a huge source of potential excitement.  Linden, however, was just not able to pull it together.  He was feeling - I don't know - particularly devilish, I guess.  When he went one step too far, I called it off.  If I threaten something, I'd better follow through, right?

He FLIPPED OUT, and finally said, "fine!  I guess I'll just go find a different family to live with!".  Then, 30 seconds later: "I'm OUT THE DOOR!".  And off he went.  I watched him from the window as he stalked down the driveway, crossed the cul-de-sac, and entered the path that leads to the mailbox (and ultimately to the Penhorn mall). I gave him about a full minute or two (while I didn't want to give hime the satisfaction of running right after him, I wasn't sure how far he would take this, and didn't want him to end up really and truly lost).  I found him sitting by the mailbox.  He had apparently decided he would just wait there until it got dark, then come back.

I'm not sure anyone really learned any lessons - when I tried to point out that we could have been at the beach if he'd just done what he was asked to do, and made better decisions, he just indignantly demanded "how would YOU feel, if I told you YOU couldn't go to the beach?  HOW WOULD YOU FEEL?"

Sigh.  I would be a little more concerned about the whole thing, except that I think it was about this age that I threatened to run away from my house over some perceived injustice.  I had even prepared a bit better (having packed a bag, at the very least).  But I do remember vividly how that felt.  So... I guess we'll just see how this pans out in the weeks (and years) to come.  Perhaps we both have to change our approach a bit, if everyone is to stay living in the same family, and all.  Hey - if I can figure this all out by the time the kids are teenagers, then it will all have been worth it, right?  RIGHT?  

Stay tuned for what I hope will be loads of photos next week!