Sand and Ice Cream

Let me start off by apologizing for my lack of posts this week. Oddly enough the week that I thought would be pretty easy, turned out to be a very busy week. I'm sure I could have posted at some point, but posting was one of the last things on my mind. Anyway... On with the post!
Friday's are days full of family in most families. Many families use Friday night for pizza and a movie, going out to eat, watching ball games, and the list goes on and on. The Beach Bums are no different. Before moving to the beach, my family would be found most Friday nights sitting in front of the T.V. watching a movie that my kids had found, eating whatever Beauty had prepared, and I would be working. This move has changed a lot of that and as you may have already guessed, yes it involves the beach.
You may remember that I confessed in my first posting, that I really have never cared for the beach all that much, at least the sand. However, I am getting to where the toleration is turning into a time that I really enjoy. My wife on the other hand has gone from enjoying the beach to desiring to be at the beach most if not all of the time. So, being that Friday nights are free most weeks, it's very cheap, and we all love it so much, we have decided to make the beach our Friday night tradition. It kinda works like this... I arrive home by 4, we prepare dinner and eat by 5 and are well on our way to the beach by 5:30. This gives us a couple of hours of playtime before the sun goes down. Of course every week I call Beach Beauty before I leave the office to find out if we have plans, and just about every week she says "no, we don't have any plans, but I figured we could go to the beach". It never fails, and I have to say that I am beginning to look forward to this time with her and the kids more and more. So, let me tell you about tonight's adventure.
Our trip to the beach tonight was like most others, we arrived early in the evening and began playing as soon as our feet hit the sand. I was trying my hand at building a sand castle, the girls were trying their hand at helping me, Surfer Boy and Beach Beauty were playing in the water. It was just a normal trip to the beach. Now Sea Breeze has decided recently that she is not very fond of the beach, she has no real reason, however ever time we arrive she begins to ask when are going home? can we leave now? my feet are tired! Basically a bunch of complaints to make us decide to go home and usually we will stay for less than an hour and then head home. Well this evening was wild. As soon as I arrived home from work today I asked Sea Breeze how she was doing today and she said "not good, I have a cold". This is not uncommon for her to tell us this, and there is not anything wrong with her, she is just saying it because she sneezed once about 4 hours before. With that being said, we kind of ignored her, and went on with our plans.

Now that were caught up with the details, back to the story. So we are out there playing, building and just having a great time, when Sea Breeze proclaims that she is done playing in the water, and goes up into the dry sand and begins to cover a very large piece of drift wood with sand. Now anyone who knows Sea Breeze very well will tell you that she is one of the most content children in the world when she is playing by her self. She can entertain herself for hours and never say a word to anyone. Tonight was no different. She began to cover that log, and sat there for a very long time placing handful after handful of dry sand on this log, until eventually well over half of the log was completely covered in sand. We had easily been at the beach for double the amount of time that we would have normally stayed, and she was quite content. Puca Shell was having a blast looking for sea shells and sand dollars, she actually found a whole small sand dollar tonight. Surfer Boy was soaked from head to toe and laughing and giggling with the waves, Beach Beauty was content to stand in the water and watch the shells as they passed over her feet with each passing wave, and I was taking all of this in and enjoying the fact that my family was together, and happy. Anyway... Sea Breeze all of a sudden looks up at me and asks in a somewhat croaky voice "Daddy, can we please go home now?" No complaining, no attitude, just a simple question. As I looked down at her I could tell that she was not feeling very good at all. So we packed up to head home.

So on the way home we find out that Sea Breeze has a sore throat, her voice is getting more and more croaky, and she basically just looks pathetic. Whats the remedy for these ailments? Ice Cream! We just had to stop for Ice Cream on the way home, Sea Breeze needed it to feel better, and every body else needed it just because it's Ice Cream. So, we pull up to the drive in and begin asking each of the kids what they would like. Beach Beauty offers them each either an ice cream cone, sundae or milk shake. Without evening missing a beat Puca Shell asks very seriously "what is a sundae?" Now I have to say, I was taken aback by this question, because she was dead serious. I began to question my parenting skills, asking "where have I gone wrong? how could we have not taught her by the age of 7 what a sundae is?" We of course explained the Ice Cream concoction to her in detail and she decided that a hot fudge sundae sounded like the best bet. Now Surfer Boy was not given the choice in this matter, he was given his very first cone, and boy did he love it. As we drove home he ate, and ate, and ate and ate, until eventually the cone was folded over in an L shape, and the ice cream was all over him, his car seat, and the rest of the damages will be assessed in the morning. The girls of course loved their sundaes! So, here you have it, the newest Beach Bum tradition, Sand and Ice Cream! I hope that each of you have a family tradition that you take part in on a regular basis. Whether you go to the beach, or have meatloaf night every Tuesday, the event doesn't matter, but are you spending a given amount of time each week with your family. As I close I will tell you this. Spending time with your kids and spouse will do more to develop a long lasting strong relationship then anything else will. Some day don't you want your adult children to come to you before walking off into an important decision? Don't you want them to seek your advice and enjoy your counsel? At some point in the future, don't you want your kids to know that they can come to you with anything, and that you will love them, and support them? I think we all want that, and the first step to that is having consistency with them. Give them a time each week to look forward to.

Until next time: Clear Skies, High Surf and Sandy Feet!