J and C and Me

 Another day of great weather!  We got down to the beach bright and early this morning.  The waves were REALLY rough.  Chris tried fishing but caught nothing (after many promises of  “this is the cast that will bring in dinner!”).  He tried to convince me to go boogie boarding, but I wasn’t having any part of it.  For one, I was wearing the new two piece (not my halter tankini that keeps all my goods covered when I wipe out) for two…..well, I hate sand pounded into my ears and nose even more than I hate sand in my suit.  But off he went in the water.

Can you see his head there?  That little dark speck over the first swell, right under that big monster?  Oh yeah, he’s about to get crushed.

He came in shortly after with the comment “It’s a little rough out there”.  Ya think?  After about an hour the surf calmed down enough for the boys (Jordan has met two boys his age) to brave it.  First the had a “who can keep from being knocked down the longest) competition, then they decided to boogie board.  First Jordan sticks close and catches some little ones.

Then he gets bold and goes out a little farther.

You can almost read the relief on his little face.  “Whew, I made it.”

Celia did only two things this morning.  Chase dogs, and play in the sand.  There is no leash law in Corolla, which is fine for the most part.  There is one family with three german shepherds (they are a little wild) that I stay away from.  One of Jordan’s buddies also comes with two dogs (and a super nice scrapbooking grandma).  Lucy is  an 11 year old lab that LOVES the ocean.  If you through her ball in, she dives right in, jumps over the waves, and gets it.  Every time.  Toby is a funny looking dog.  Kind of a combo of a weiner dog and a sheltie.  Seriously, she’s a big long puffy dog with almost no legs.  Needless to say, she doesn’t swim much.  But she’s sweet and will gladly fetch a ball.  Celia just loves running around after Toby (Lucy shakes off water too frequently for her liking).

She also spent a good bit of time building a big sand wall with Chris.

After that she wanted to wash the sand off so she got in her “bathtub”.  If I fill this bucket up with water, it will entertain her for at least a few hours (on and off).  She’ll get in it, dump some out, pour into buckets, make lemonade and soup.  She loves it.    Which means I love it.

Here’s a little sand crab I played peek-a-boo with while reading my book.  He kept popping up, throwing some sand at me, and dodging back down in his hole.  You can barely see him, because it’s sand colored, but he’s there.  Just a tiny little guy…like a large spider.

When we came back for lunch and some pool time, we found an unexpected guest in the pool!

Poor little froggy.  First he has to ride around on Celia’s head….

Then Chris tries to eat him…..

Finally we let the poor little guy go so that Jordan and I could practice some pool acrobatics.  I’d like to say that it eventually looked better than this, but really, it didn’t.  My butt just doesn’t flip so well anymore.  It was fun though!

After that I put Celia down for her and and snuck down to the outlet mall.  Ahhhhh, shopping.  I didn’t find too much, but I’m exceedingly happy with what I did find.  Gap had some nice things, and the Bali outlet has some bras that are super comfy for $10!  I usually spend about $50 on one because I’m so darn picky about them, so I was thrilled.  I got one in every color they had (which was only three, but still!)  They also had some really nice camis for $4.  I got a lot of those since they don’t seem to make sweaters that aren’t entirely too low cut anymore.

Back to the house, talked Chris and the kids into getting into the car and hitting the 4WD beach.  Keep in mind that Chris has some big Jeep something-or-other with enormous snow tires on it.  The whole way there I hear “I don’t want to get stuck, I’ve heard horror stories”.  Then all the way out “I don’t like this”.  We went about .8 miles out the beach and parked.  The boys kind of tried to fish a little while Celia explored.  We walked up near the dunes.  Although we did not see any wild horses, we did see some wild horse poop, which confirms the existance of these horses.  Then we walked down the beach for just a little bit before we notice both boys were back in the car, ready to go.  So we went.

I will say this….everyone who drove by on the beach was super nice.  They made a real effort to slow down, smile, and wave at us.  Just like a small town.  Not that where we’re staying isn’t nice, it is!  But the people up there were just……super nice!