Charlyn’s Web

Col. Panic had promised to take his little Pixie to the beach last year and somehow it didn’t happen.  This year it was a priority.

We drove to my parent’s place, spent a night and then headed to the coast.  We took The Long Way because that is just how we do things, much to the disgruntlement of the children.  They see no sense in it but who said parents had to make sense?

We were all glad to arrive, check out the ocean and find ice cream.

 After walking around awhile The Boy decided he would much rather go back to the hotel room, get into comfy clothes and relax.  It didn’t hurt that there was T.V. there with a kazillion channels.  But no, his parents were still in Torture the Children Mode and insisted on going out in paddle boats.

All safe in lifejackets.

The hotel key fell out of my pocket somewhere out there.  The river then became known as “The Lost Key River”.  And about every river we went over from that point on was called that- so hard to keep rivers hundreds of miles apart straight.  The hotel was very understanding and didn’t charge us anything. 

We made those poor children go out to eat and then FINALLY let them go back to the hotel room….and watch T.V.

We did spend time on the beach- stay tuned!

Going down the trail.

Peeking to see if we’re coming.

Having a good time.

Miss Sunshine has been quite frightened of thunderstorms.

Granted there have been a few unsettling things happen during last years thunderstorms- branches breaking off, eletricitiy going out, trees breaking in half.  Stuff like that.  But she does go a bit overboard in the frightened department and, in typical for her fashion, will not listen to any reason becuase she is too busy making noise herself.

A few weeks ago we had a thunderstorm roll through the hills around us.  We had a meeting in town so the kids and I headed out to the park where the meeting was being held.  We looked at the gray skyes and hurried through our meeting as the kids played.  There were a few flashes of light in the distance that Sunshine commented on as we drove in.

“What was that?”

What?

“That flashing?”  sounding nervous.

Oh, probably nothing much. 

We went to see some friends afterwards and a few flashes were seen and a few low rumbles were heard.

On the way home Sunshine’s high voice proclaimed from the back:

“There was a thunderstorm, and I wasn’t afraid!”

Oh that’s good news honey!

“…because I’m five now!”

Makes all the difference in the world.