A Week's Recap

Life has been a bit crazy recently to write anything particularly thoughtful or profound. The combination of a beach trip, packing a house and Brian out of town this week has more than occupied me. So you'll just have to settle for a recap.

Our beach trip this past week, was supposed to go the full week, but didn't...never-the-less, we had a great time. Last Saturday we headed out to Ocean City , MD where my aunt and uncle graciously let us use their beach condo. Our good friends Jenn and Barrett Kirwan joined us with their two kids, Ella and Sam. (Yes, that is correct, our children have the same names...theirs are older so I guess we were the unoriginal ones. The Kirwans were also the first to bring to our attention that it's important to refer to the kids as "Ella and Sam" rather than "Sam and Ella" since the latter sounds too much like a common bacteria. Important point.) As far as I’m concerned, the beach with friends is the way to do it. The kids entertain each other, and evenings consist of quality adult time that doesn’t require the use of a babysitter. My parents also came and joined us for a day with my nephew, Josiah, who was visiting from Spokane, WA . We had terrific weather and managed not to get too sunburned. This was also Samantha's debut at the beach...she was intrigued by the ocean and decided that sand didn't taste very good. Some images from the beach:

Ella has officially fallen in love with the beach. Last year, she was rather tentative…afraid of the ocean and the sand was a huge nuisance. But this year she fully embraced it. We couldn’t keep her out of the ocean and she played freely in the sand. Since she’s not strong enough to brave the waves by herself, an adult had to be with her—and she outlasted us all.

Brian and I kept remarking all the things we had to do at home in preparing for the move—had we known we would be moving the end of this month we probably would not have planned the beach trip. But I’m so glad we did. Sometimes you need some forced relaxation or it will never happen. For our mental health, we needed the time away from the house. However, Brian found out last week that he was again getting sent off to Idaho for more depositions. So he took off on Tuesday. The Kirwans were headed off to Utah for the summer and they left Tuesday evening. The girls and I stayed put at the beach another night and then made our way back on Wednesday. Although I would have loved for Ella to have more time at the beach, I did feel the pressure of getting the house packed and wasn’t quite sure how to balance Ella, who was always wanting to be in the ocean with an infant, who enjoyed the beach for about 15 minutes at a time. So we loaded up and headed home.

Friday, Ella and I had a mommy-daughter date to see a Washington Mystics (WNBA) basketball game. We took the metro downtown, which is always a hit with Ella, mostly because she gets to “take the train like Daddy”.

Although I am in full support of a professional womens’ basketball league, and love and applaud women's athletics, I have my doubts about it's sustainability. I would guess only about a third of the arena was full...people just don’t come to watch them. Probably a combination of the fact that it's women's sports and because basketball games aren't really a traditional summer activity. There's also this weird combination of trying to masculinize the game, but still keeping a feminine touch on things. For example, the players congratulate each other by spanking butts and bumping chests (seems painful). But yet, they handed out picture frames to everyone as door prizes. What male sporting event have they ever handed out picture frames? Anyway, it was still fun, and furthered my goal of getting Ella interested in basketball.

We cheered, ate ice cream, danced and tried to get on the big TV. In the last few minutes of the game, when it was apparent the Mystics would win the game, Ella asked if they would get a prize for winning. I mean to a four-year-old, what's the fun if no prize is involved?

My task-master was calling for me to keep packing, but I guess he gave up and went to bed. I guess I'll join him.