June 4, 2012

Happy Monday, my friend.  In this case it is as we've just returned from two days ocean side.   I cannot get used to the way my new phone takes these super long photos, but in any case here is Ems and I from Saturday.  Looking at this photo just slaps me on the head with how much she is growing up.  It was a much needed retreat though this little spur of the moment mini vacation we took.  I think we were all going slightly mad and quite ijity with each other here at home.


The Atlantic Ocean is about 2 1/2 to 3 hours from us depending on traffic of which we had none which I was thankful for and it seems we picked the right weekend.  Memorial Day weekend (last weekend) is the official "kickoff" of beach season with "Labor Day" in September closing it out, so it appears everyone was too worn out to be there this weekend so it was relatively quiet and the beach fairly free of the mobs of people usually there.


I didn't spend much on the trip.  I booked an okay room about a block from the ocean and packed a cooler full of breakfasts and lunches so we wouldn't have to eat out the whole time and of course the ocean is free. The girls though acted as if I we were flying to Paris.  They were thrilled when I told them Friday we were staying at a hotel which we rarely do and you should have seen their faces pushing the elevator buttons, jumping on the beds and staring out the sixth floor windows.  They oohed ahhhed over the view (of the back parking lot and neighboring houses) which made me think we really need to get out more.


It was all quite stress-free.  Ems had one of her anxiety attacks over her stomach after eating some greasy boardwalk fries (remind me never to do that again) which caused a meltdown on the boardwalk that lasted an hour and a half as Karelyn finished her shopping and we picked up pizza (for K and I) to take home, but later she felt better.  The girls didn't slouch around, we were up both days at 6:00 am and out on the beach by 7:00, Saturday we actually had a sand castle built by 9:00 am.  Karelyn spent her day with her boogie board (heard of them?  miniature surf boards you body surf with) in the ocean being tossed about and Emily built mermaids in the sand and then had me videotape her dramatically impersonating a mermaid desperately trying to roll back to sea.  Good gosh, they are two completely unique personalities.


Regardless, I think I am the one who most enjoyed it.  There was no stress (minus the boardwalk/stomach incident where I behaved a bit horribly out of frustration) It was amazing to spend a weekend where there was nothing I "must" or felt I "needed" to do.  I spent a lot of my time just watching the girls or staring out at the ocean.  I didn't think about home, or chores, or work, or what I want to do with my life.  I just stared at awe of the magnificent big blue and listened to the waves crash and spent time being silly and caring for my girls.  


So the sand is rinsed off of everything.  The clothes have been washed and everything put away.  I'm trying to hold on to a bit of that easy feeling.  It's almost 7:00 a.m. now and in five minutes I'm up and away to wake the girls for school and to prepare for work.  I'm hoping some of the calm stays at least for today but we'll see what happens when I get to work.  I've decided I pretty much like the natural world much more than the world of people, more quiet, but more on that another day.


Peaceful week to you, cannot wait to hear from you.


Jen