Beach days

Sunday morning: James refuses to even touch the water. He does, however, dig in the sand and moves mighty mountains of it around in his Tonka dump truck. Owen, with a new matching truck, helps for a few minutes, then goes and jumps in waves with Mommy or Daddy for two hours. Woe to the grownup who dares remove him from the water. Daddy quickly loses his sunglasses to a particularly violent wave. Mommy and Daddy try to keep their eyes open after arriving at 3AM that morning. Even though the boys got minimal sleep, they were still raring to go at 7:30. The adults agree that the salt air is rejuvenating, just like you read about in books. Later, they go running on the beach and are delighted to discover that the magic of the shore means you never get tired running.

Monday morning: Mommy half-drags James down to the water line and plops down in the sand to let the very edge of the waves tickle her toes. James, reluctantly, joins her. Owen runs head-long into her lap. Daddy joins in a minute and the four hold hands and wait for the water. It isn’t too bad. Within five minutes James is up to his waist, Owen is laughing uproariously, and all four are soaked. James declares that the waves are “awesome” “incredible” and “so great to enjoy.” Upon his return to the beach house three hours later he proudly informs Grandma that he “tried a little bit of everything today.” Daddy breaks his new, cheap, replacement pair of sunglasses. The adults go for a much longer run in the evening and still don’t get tired, even after overshooting their exit by at least a half mile.

Tuesday morning: Owen figures out how to sit on a boogie board, with Daddy’s help. This is now all he wants to do, so Mommy and Daddy alternate jumping waves with Owen while James digs trenches and sits on the edge of the water. Daddy breaks his second cheap replacement pair of sunglasses and Mommy loses her first to a particularly violent wave. (Yes, that’s right. So far we’ve gone through four pairs of sunglasses between the two of us…) Mommy finally finishes a book and the weather continues to be perfect: mid 80s, breezy, and sunny. You forget that vacations are actually really wonderful and rejuvenating and a glorious form of self-care. And that self-care is OK now and then. <Repeats over and over and over and over again.>

And the United States is trouncing the world in women’s gymnastics. Perfection.

 Book 48/50: Gone Girl. This was a really fascinating, suspenseful, reasonably well-written tale. It was also FULL of profanity and graphic detail. Some details were necessary, most weren't. If the author had pared down the grime this would have been a phenomenal book. But I can't recommend it from any type of moral perspective.