I can hardly believe it’s our last night of vacation. Casey is even beginning to pack up the car, as I sit here at the laptop in denial that we will head out tomorrow. Our first four days here the weather did not cooperate with our beach-going plans, and it feels like we’ve barely been here, now that the air has warmed and the rain has left.
We’ve had a wonderful time reconnecting as a family. Kenny and Cooper are certifiable beach boys, and are happy to spend hours on end playing in the sand and being doused by waves. We’ve walked miles each day and Dudley has had more than his fair share of wave surfing and beach running. I read a novel all the way through (actually, I did that in 24 hours – I even stayed up most of one night to finish it) and Kenny and Cooper have had bedtime rituals that extend for hours in the sleepy sunsets. we celebrated our last night tonight with a pizza and wine on the beach, Kenny dancing in the sand and Cooper eating everyone’s crusts with gusto.
We’ve eaten more ice cream sandwiches in the last five days than in the whole last year. I even invented a game where I hid them in the cooler, and whenever a helicopter flew overhead, I threw one in the air in Kenny’s direction and yelled, “Kenny! It’s the ice cream helicopter!” He would give me the fish eye and say, “Was that really you, Mama?” I would shrug and say, “I don’t know, it just fell out of the sky…” At one point today when Kenny sassed at me, I responded, “You’d better listen to me now, or there’s gonna be no more ice cream sandwiches falling from the sky.” Casey snorted and Kenny looked chagrined. Ah yes, all vacations must come to an end.
