Tonight’s posts are light on text but heavy on pictures. I’m tired and don’t have much to say at the moment. I also just noticed I lost my side bar. I don’t know what happened, but I’m hoping maybe if I ignore the problem for a few days it will return on it’s own. Maybe it went to the beach today too.

We went back to the Atlantic today, this time with Julie and kids. The weather was beautiful and we had a great time! The kids played nicely together and even made friends with other kids on the beach, the mommies got to chat and life was good.

At the beach

Lunch time.

The water was cold, but that didn't stop Lex!

Body surfing

We got there when the tide was coming in and the waves were huge! He had a blast.

Eve preferred the sand.

They had the best seats. (ok, the only seats!) :)

Pretty baby. She did great at the beach.

The tide went out and suddenly it was a long walk to the water.

The kids made friends with some older kids who were building very deep holes. At one point I glanced over at Lex and saw this.

He was head first in the hole and loving it! Funny boy.

Low tide = big beach. The kids are out there somewhere, washing out the sand toys.

Smiley Miss Molly.

We stopped for candy on the way home. Seriously. I was falling asleep at the wheel so I stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break and we all picked out candy. I let them each get their own and they were overwhelmed with the idea and the options. Lex just mindlessly manhandled every thing on the shelf until I realized that he had no idea what any of the candy options were. He eventually decided on plain chocolate (Hershey’s milk chocolate bar, something he’s had before), Eve went for a brightly colored Skittles packet, and I went for my old standby, Reese’s peanut butter cups. Yum! There was no sleeping on the road after that!

When we got home Eve fell apart. No surprise there. A long day at the beach, no rest, and candy for dinner will do that to a four year old. I showered her and put her to bed in tears. Lex had a nice dinner and stories with Alan. Overall a nice end to the day (for most of us).

I was thinking about posting some of the really impressive local pictures I’ve seen on Facebook, but I’m too lazy for that right now. Instead I’ll just post a few I took yesterday. We had to go out in the afternoon for a doctor’s appointment and it ended up being really quick, so I took the kids for a little drive down town to see what we could see. We ended up parking for a bit and walking around. So much for my earlier comments on disaster tourism.

Yesterday we went out for a morning, post-hurricane walk. I was tempted to hop in the car and do some disaster touring, but… well, that’s kind of morbid and probably rude and didn’t seem appropriate with kids. So instead we packed the backpack (by “we” of course I mean “I”) and headed out for an adventure on foot. We decided to walk down the hill to check out the river and the dam, to see if we had any flooding within walking distance.

We had a great time. The weather was beautiful, we met a few friends along the way, the water was calm, the dam was releasing and therefore quite interesting to see, and I let them eat ice cream along the way. What more can you ask for?!

Here are some photos from our walk:

We found an unusual plant. Big orange flowers (in her hand) and green.... fruits?

What are these? Any ideas?

We found a little pavillion by the dam so we sat and watched the water. The kids loved it and wanted to go home and get some toys and books and lunch and come back. I need to remember that for another day.

I have never been to the dam before so I have no idea if this is impressive post-hurricane water or just a normal day.

We found a bunch of flipped over soccer goals. The kids had fun guessing what they were.

They had even more fun walking and bouncing on them.

Then we went down to the boat launch by the river. The water was very low and calm.

Then we started up the hill again. Eve took this one on hands and knees :)

Across the tracks... the bridge there is a work in progress and fun to watch.

Our walk involved lots of balancing on various objects.

We stopped at the store and bought ice cream to fuel the final uphill part of our journey.

I doled out bites and hummed the Klondike commercial. When the kids asked about it I sang the jingle for them. I can't remember the last time I've seen a commercial, but they do have a catchy jingle.