You gotta wear shades...

What's vacation without a little drama? A little crazy? A few boo-boos, a few health challenges? After reading this post, you might begin to think that our vacation was a bust, but it just wasn't. It was awesome. We had a blast. Maybe I roll with the punches better these days. Act more like a seasoned parent, influenced by the addition of the third child - a little boy on the move. Who knows!

Not long after arriving on the beach, Pete and I had the big kids in the water jumping waves. Pete still had on his sunglasses. I pointed this out to him (shouldn't have - tempted fate or something like that). His comment further angered the gods of fate and not long after, he and Gavin got rolled pretty good. After throwing Gavin at me (in deeper water than Nora or Gavin could stand in), Pete actually quickly recovered his glasses. We got to hear about the miracle for a while and how much he loves his $5 Wal-Mart CHIPS-sunglasses. Oh, but he would have been mad replacing them in SC for $12! So, we all smiled and moved on (after I reminded Pete-again-that he had already left a pair of RayBan's in the waters of Myrtle Beach in the past - knock it off).

A few hours later, we were all back in the water. Trading big kids around on the boogie board. Gavin would go as many times as you would take him - literally! Nora on the other hand was being a bit of a scared-ie-cat about it. She would dramatically announce when she got off that water was in her eyes or that she went "too fast" or that she was afraid of the waves. So she only went 2-3 times in a row and then she would go back to the sand, surf, tide pool, whatever. There had been a recent switch and Nora was swimming with Gammie. I had Dylan out past the break so we could float. Gavin was being slung up the beach on the boogie board. Pete was out in deeper water and Papa was in shallow to "catch" Gav. So, then Gammie and Nora get tossed a round a little and Gammie loses her sunglasses in the surf. [Oh man - instant panic - Papa had just told her to take them to the beach. In her defense - she can't see her own hand in front of her, let alone Nora and anything else without them.] I heard her say, "they're gone!" They slipped away through her fingers down into the Atlantic water. Dylan and I moved quickly and lined up behind her (ocean, us, Gammie, beach - straight line) and began walking in. I shuffled through the sand. We all converged and I stepped right on them, caught them with my toes. I yelled out, "I've got'em!". Before I knew it, Gavin was going to Gammie and my Dad was diving under. He unfortunately swam down to the wrong foot and began to fumble in the sand. In the meantime, Dylan is hanging on to my hip and my foot with the glasses is sliding out to sea. My Dad has a hold on the other foot - I'm getting shorter. Through a few kicks and no recovery, Dad must have realized that he had the wrong foot. About this time (what 4 or 5 seconds have gone by), I turn to check the ocean. Yah, know, never turn your back to the waves. I was teaching the kids that one early that day. Well, so true. I mentioned my feet were getting further apart. I had no leverage in order to hold on to the glasses. And here came the wave. I thrust Dylan up in the air as far as I could as I had been doing all day but it wasn't enough. We got rolled-twice. It was short lived, no major undertow or anything like that but he came up coughing, spitting, snotting and crying. Poor baby. Little does he know that he was the hero of the day. Papa had recovered Gammie's glasses from the grips of my toes before we rolled up on the beach. WOOHOO! We laughed, rejoiced, enjoyed the excitement even. Another Tuesday, another day at the beach.