Two Weeks of Awesome Beach Time

We headed home for about six days and prepared the trailer for our next jaunt out. This one was going to be for two weeks to a beautiful bay that we had heard much about. We pulled in and found it nearly full, but I discovered a nice spot that was on the far side of a playing field. Many wouldn’t have liked this because it wasn’t lake front, but I did because it gave our children room to play, a playground to play in, plus the lake on the other side. It was a bit of a walk to the lake, but we got into a routine and it was simple enough!

The boys quickly filled up all the air toys we had purchased: mid-summer sales = ½ price toys! And then we headed down to the beach for a little late afternoon fun.

That night it turned out that it was the last time to have a fire because there was a fire ban on and there would be no more campfires. The girls had already gone to bed (they sleep longer than our boys, still, and so go to bed earlier), and so it was only the five boys. They had a wonderful time chowing down on s’mores until the coals burned out.

The next morning, not knowing if the beach would pack really quickly, I took advantage of having a large family and delegated. I had two of the children take down my deck chair and a box of toys and claim a spot! It was only about 8:00 am and noone was around but a couple of dog walkers. Perfect! Now I could arrive at my leisure.

As it turned out, we were down there by 9:00 am for our first *long* day of sunning and swimming and what a day it was!

During the day I asked Raine to hang up some shirts because they were wet. I expected her to hang them on the back of a chair because that would be ‘typical’. *smile* The next thing I know she is down the beach hanging them on some guy’s boat’s anchor line!! *laugh* I had to tell her it was not a washing line!! It is so funny when you see the little ‘gaps’ in their knowledge.

At some point that day Austin found a cell phone and brought it home. Later on Dane heard a girl’s name and he came running home to tell me he thought it was the girl that owned the phone. He turned it on and sure enough it had her name. Dane returned the phone and told her that his little brother had found it. She was so thrilled!

The next day her family let Austin and Dane ride the Sea Doos. They had a blast and did extraordinarily well!! Austin did not fall down once and Dane, who was out longer, only wiped out at the end. What a blessing it was to be rewarded for their honesty!

This was not the only time they were able to help someone out. Another day, Austin and I found a girl’s MP3 Player. When one of our friends returned it to the campsite that she lived at she was crying in the car, devastated at the loss. It was a neat lesson to a small boy the feeling you get when you do the right thing!

The children became so good at swimming!! Raine and Savannah learned to float on their tummies and backs without a lifejacket, and Briton got comfortable doing a starfish (front float) with his life jacket on. Whereas a week earlier he would not get wet, suddenly he was throwing himself into and under the water.

If you think back to the old days when children were thrown into the watering hole to learn to swim, my children learned in a similar method. *smile* Not that they were thrown into a swimming hole.

I have seen the results of swimming lessons: they slowllly move through the lessons and the levels. My older four didn’t get anywhere for years. It was a lot of money down the drain. And yes, it was down the drain because they simply didn’t get comfortable in the water.

I have found that where my third and fourth oldest sons gained confidence in the water was in hotel swimming pools – no lessons, simply immersing themselves as they came off slides and horsing around. This led to Cassidy taking lessons last year and flying from Level 3 Red Cross through Level 7, in ten lessons! He was comfortable and ready.

In the case of the younger four, my expectations of them caused them to do it. I was not going to own a trailer and have to worry about them all the time. So each day, they spent a few minutes doing what I ‘expected’ them to do. I found they were willing to try it and I think my confidence in their being able to, rather than being sweet and having a ‘we can wait til you are older’ attitude, caused them to believe in themselves.

Briton Loving Doing His Star Fish

Before we left that two week holiday, Raine, Savannah, and Cooper were all diving to the bottom of a three to four foot depth to retrieve rocks! They were all confidently swimming 30 + feet out to the buoys and back in their life jackets. And they were all floating on front and back with no difficulty. Not to mention, that one day Savannah surprised us all. The little one who was so reluctant became the frog. Literally!!

She was in the water one day swimming past me and I was floored. Her arms and legs were going rhythmically and she was shooting through the water. I asked her where did she learn that? She replied, “I watched a frog.”

What do you know! She seriously had the frog swim down pat! That was *exactly* what her movements resembled. Who’d a thunk you can learn from a frog! *grin*

The children got used to having bucket baths most nights. Sometimes, they got their hair washed as well. I don’t think they were too fond of the icy lake water!

Sleeping Hard After a Long Day

Within a few days of arrival we saw a girl coming around collecting pop bottles. I thought she belonged to the park, but then a few days later I realized she was just a camper! So I gave the kids the idea that when she left they could pick up her business. The first morning they were up bright and early and headed out on their bikes. It didn’t take long before people began leaving their bottles out for them.

They got into a system that Cassidy sorted the bottles into: beer bottles, beer cans, pop cans, water bottles, and wine bottles. They bagged them up and left them for their dad to pick up when he came to visit us. I don’t think he was that impressed when he saw the stack. It meant mess in the yard and it surely wasn’t going to give them more than a few dollars. So what was the point. Plus there were bees!

Cooper was always the first one up in the morning, ready and anxious to not lose a bottle to another ambitious child that might see what they were doing. He was bold enough to approach people at the lake where they might just throw their bottles into the dumpsters.

We had a busy time at that campsite with different friends showing up for a few hours to a few days.

The kids had lots of fun visiting with their cousin, Jaymie, who they haven’t seen for five years. It was wonderful to see her and they had lots of fun digging a pit and excavating a trench to the sea. When her dad told her it was time to go she was not ready.

Uncle Carl With the Girls and Jaymie

Cousin Jaymie with the Boys

Then the children discovered that some new friends they had made at the beach happened to fill the site next door to us. Previously to this some friends of ours had been using it for a few days. Now it was vacant and it turned out that a group of six children and their two sets of parents had moved in. New friends! The kids quickly became fast friends and spent all hours together playing games, DS, cards, and swimming at the lake.

Frog hole that the children made and contained their frogs in.

I held out for many years on the Nintendo DS front, but last year I gave in. I saw how the children could link up and play together and how it really was a social toy. I told Ray how it was a good ice breaker. He said how when he was a kid they had to rely on good looks! *laugh*

Ray Came Down on the Sunday.

They were also so kind as to give our children rides on tube behind their boat. Another friend dropped by and we had a blast that day. Sadly, I didn’t have my camera with me. But suffice it to say, memories were made. They had a high powered speed boat and a six man tube. Ray and Dane are both crazy guys, so when it was their turn for a ride, I made sure to tell Robin to “lose them!!” He worked very hard at it and we were laughing *so* hard!!! Eventually, the tricks that he was pulling with the boat did the job and they both went flying left and right! Too funny! We were busting our insides.

Hungry children waiting for dinner. Poor, little Briton (not) wasn't tall enough to see into the pan when all the kids were oohing and aahing at weiners and beans! *laugh*

We thoroughly enjoyed our two weeks at the lake and when we were done we headed home for a rest from all the relaxing!! *grin*

The boys loaded all their bottles into Ray’s truck and headed to the depot. We told them we would double whatever they got, because they are saving for a Sea Doo. Well, even Ray was grinning when they came home and showed me the wad of cash and the receipt. By the time they were done they had $374 in their Sea Doo fund! Not too shabby for four days bottle collecting! They know what they are doing next summer!

All the Boys Bottles From Those Few Days

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