"Summertime, and the living is..."

The next line in that song is "easy".  Summertime is not easy, my friends.  We have many wonderful memories made each summer, but I spend literally months planning so those magical moments can happen.

(It's funny that I'm thinking about summer while we're coming off of a "polar vortex" and having wind chills of -36 degrees F.)

We are blessed to have family that live in places that are full of fun adventures, and blessed to be able to travel adventurous pathways to get there.  But all of that travel takes time and money, which means I start planning in January at the latest for the coming summer.

This next summer we have the following adventures coming up:

20th High School Reunion (NJ)

Scout Camp (OH)

Nerd Camp (OH)

MS Camp (OH)

Youth Conference (IL)

Wedding (NJ)

Family Reunion (WY)

Possible other family Reunion (GA?)

Cousins and Kids Camping Trip (UT, but it's just over the border so we pretend it's still in WY)

Ballroom Dance Camp (UT)

Some of those things happen on top of each other and will necessitate plane trips from regional airports in order to hopefully get to the next thing in time.

And I've only listed the things that require some level of travel.  There are other things that will happen locally.  (Dance Recitals, plays, concerts, possibly high school summer gym, etc.)  But this is why in the summer, for the time that we are home, we try to spend our time either working or playing.  We have projects that have to happen around the house and yard and if we don't get them done in the few weeks we're home, they don't get done at all. 

But the other times, we just relax and and enjoy and soak up the pretty green all around us.  The all too rare Ohio sun shares it's rays so sparingly, we have to enjoy while we can, and there is much time spent at our neighborhood pool, swimming and catching bugs and playing/chatting with friends.

And then when we arrive at our destinations, and are able to spend a few days with our family and dear friends in the beauty and sunshine of their various locales, it is worth all the hours of planning.  Most of my children have really happy, wonderful, memories of our summers.  Even the parts that I'm grouchy for. ;)  They're still having fun and enjoying one another's company and making happy memories.

Lilyanna and Caleb watching the seagulls on the beach in Santa Cruz this past summer.  They loved this trip to the beach and have been talking about it ever since.

What to do...

I need to go to the beach. NEED!!!

I've mentioned my issues of feeling trapped in the middle of the country before. I need an edge. Nearby. There must be annual sighting of a coastline.

I got both coasts in 2009, so I was good. But we are in a new calendar year, people, and it is TIME to plan for a beach!

So, the question is: do I load up my 5 kids and drive the nearly 12 hours from Salt Lake City to San Francisco this summer while we're out west anyway? OR do I drive the only 10 hours from Worthington, OH to anywhere on the Jersey shore some other time?

Pacific pros:

I can take my kids around my favorite west coast city and show them the beautiful CA coast.

I love the bay area. love love love.

We get to visit with wonderful friends that we wouldn't otherwise get to see.

Fabulous food. Everywhere. For cheap.

Pacific cons:

driving across NV in the summer. with kids.

Atlantic pros:

We can go see the place where my Grandma and Great Aunt (the sisters Lilyanna is named after) lived and visit the beaches I spent lots of childhood time on.

It's closer.

Lots of friends and family to visit.

Good pizza.

Frozen custard.

Atlantic cons:

It's the Jersey shore.

And I'm not sure if I'll make it out to CA any other time this year if I don't go this summer.

What to do??

Naked Beach

There is a beach that I always go to in San Francisco. (The one pictured at the top of this blog, in fact.) It has great views of the GG bridge and beautiful rocks, both for collecting and climbing on.

It also tends to have lots of naked people down on one end. My children think this is the funniest thing they've ever heard about, and even before we left for SF, Nathaniel asked if we could go there and if he could be naked, too.

I should note that I think the idea of a nude beach in a place that is always cold and always windy and has even colder water is silly. Just plain silly. But also, I like that my son is still free enough of body image issues that he would consider doing such a thing. So, like any mother trying to avoid the question, I said, "We'll see."

Nathaniel playing in the water on the more conventionally clothed side of the beach. This water is so cold that it numbs one's toes nearly upon contact.

This is my friend Damian who picked us up and drove us to the beach. Which makes him an accomplice. (He looks in the picture as if he is just barely tolerating me taking it...which is probably not too far off. He should have been grateful, though. Usually when we're at points of cold water, I make sure he gets good and wet. I was really nice this time. Mostly because I was tired, but still.)

See? Great view of the bridge! That's probably why everyone and their dog gets their engagement photos taken on this beach. I've yet to be there when there's not a professional photographer there. The couple being photographed while we were there had wandered a little too far down towards the this side of the beach, though, and had to dodge the naked guy who was walking back and forth along the surf and right into their pictures.

I would just like to say, I would LOVE to get that wedding announcement. Can you imagine? Cute couple looking all lovey dovey with the Golden Gate Bridge and a 40 something, average looking, naked white man behind them. Picturesque, indeed! I would be equally excited to attend their reception. If they've got the guts to send out that wedding announcement, I'm thinkin' the party could be a little more than just a chocolate fountain and wedding cake!

Here are the pretty rocks while the sun is setting.

And here is the picture that I plan on pulling out to show every single girl that Nathaniel ever even thinks about bringing home to introduce to me. My son, building a "sand toilet". I can't wait until he's 16!

By the way, in case you're wondering how Nathaniel received permission to be naked on what he now calls "Naked Beach", he wore me down until I finally said, "Fine. But you have to be the one to tell your father about it."

Well, what did you expect from someone who sends her kids to the hippie-commie preschool where even clothing is optional? (Though they do ask kids to at least wear underwear while at school, strictly for hygiene, but underwear nonetheless.)

Love in the Sand

Not that kind. This is a family blog, people.
Minus the "s" part of my initials, that's what was scribbled all over the back cover of my freshman year algebra notebook. I also would spend time mixing our initials up to spell different words. Like meats, beats, steam, beam, same, mates, bates, etc.

This may explain my grade in Algebra that year.

In my defense, I've gotten a lot more mileage out of loving Todd Smith than I have ever gotten from Algebra. *

*To any of my kids who try to use this story to justify lousy math grades: Don't Even Think About It!!! There will be concentrating in class and NO mooning over silly girls and lots and lots and lots of studying!!

The NJ Shore in April

What does one do on a chilly, but sunny day in NJ? Why go down the shore of course. We went to Sandy Hook, which is not my favorite, but was closest and we weren't swimming anyway since the water was so cold there was actually pain when I stuck my toes in. (The water feels dirtier there since the New York skyline is visible from the beach. I've taken the ferry often enough across the Hudson to know what's in that water. It's not something I want to swim in.) Okay, first up. The guys went for a walk down the beach and came back with a toy tug boat, a bouquet of flowers and some oranges and bananas.
Caleb stomping about. Because that's what Calebs do.

J making a sand angel. Of course.

Closer inspection of the toy tug boat revealed that three saints had been glued to it. I am SO curious about the story behind this. 100 points to the person who can explain it to me!

Caleb, chasing the sainted boat in the painfully cold water.

Right after I snapped this picture Todd, J, and my father in law started running and singing the "Chariots of Fire" theme song. They warm my frozen little heart sometimes.

Nathaniel. Not only in the freezing water. But in the freezing water with nothing but shorts on. There was screaming and crying involved upon heading back to the car. We are mean, mean parents.

Boys playing in the sand on a sunny day!

Brrr

This week in Ohio there is snow on the ground and it smells fully of winter.

10 days ago in Florida was this:

My niece dozing on her Daddy's shoulder.

Frolicking in WARM waves!

My nephew serious about the sand.

Caleb with a sand castle moat emergency!!

A Fierce Day

After dinner, there was more walking and talking and visiting and then Marc arrived at the apartment! Marc is a good friend of Sukhvinder's from her lab days in NYC. I hadn't seen him since Caleb was a baby, so it was fun to have a chance to get to know one another better.

Sukhvinder had to work the next day, so once Marc and I were up and dressed we headed out for a walk. A very long walk as it turned out. We walked two miles down to Ocean Beach and followed the coast all the way to Baker Beach. It was a wonderful time! The weather was perfect and the company sublime. And I'm still speaking in a German accent, because I spent the entire weekend imitating everything Marc said.

These are what's left of the Sutro Baths. I had seen an old painting of them years ago, but didn't realize that's what I was walking all over until after we came back up. There are horrible warning signs all over the place, but they don't keep you out. Which made Marc comment that they should just make the signs universal and say, "People Die Here!" (It sounds even better in a German accent.)
Me standing on the edge of a wall at the edge of a cliff on the edge of the country. I like edges.
Seriously, the hottest clothed man on the beach. Although, the naked ones weren't all that much to look at. It was a chilly day.

Water Babies

I love water. Swimming makes me all sorts of happy. Happily my children have inherited that tendency. Yesterday at the pool there were all these wonderful moments that I have to write down so I don't forget them.

1) Benjamin doesn't look for me to watch him every single time he does something anymore. It made me a little sad as I tried to get his attention to tell him what a great job he was doing with his swimming. But at 8 years old, he's starting to figure out that he's his own person independent of me.

2) Nathaniel after years of temper tantrums PUT HIS WHOLE FACE IN THE WATER ALL BY HIMSELF!!!!! He loved swimming before, just not putting his face in. But yesterday he had a pair of goggles and it was a whole new world for him. He was holding his breath for the first time ever and having a great time spying on people's feet.

3) Caleb was very excited to show me how he could sit on the bottom of the pool. He is by far my most adventurous child in the water. No swimming lessons and barely 4 and jumping in the pool to sit on the floor and then swim up is VERY impressive to me.

No pics from yesterday, but here are some from the beach a couple weeks ago that made me laugh.

Happy as a clam.


"Be one with the sand."

For a kid who hated everything about the beach for the first 4 years of life, he's come along nicely. ;)
My construction crew standing in what they referred to as "Lake Smith". There was a whole lot o' Smith, but not so much lake.

Beachy Updates

Being at the beach totally rocks!...except when it rains every afternoon. I don't mean soft and gentle little rain. I mean the kinds of thunderstorms that send all three of my boys running from the TV (!!! Yeah, I was amazed, too) into the bed to cower under the covers.

Yesterday at the beach it started thundering and lightning while we were in the water. So we got out to leave. It seemed like the sensible thing to do. 10 minutes AFTER the first lightning strike the lifeguard finally called everyone out of the water. And not everyone would come!!! So she had to drive down along the beach and yell for people to get out of the water and THEN the beach patrol finally came and kicked everyone off the wet part of the beach altogether.

Benjamin kept looking at the silly wet people nervously, saying, "Mom! Don't they know that water conducts electricity!!"

Personally, I think that if you choose to play in the waves or lay on wet sand during an electrical storm, the human race stands a better chance if you get whatever's coming.

Beach Memories

The surf was rougher today than it has been all week, but Benjamin and I had lots of fun playing in the waves. He kept jumping on my back every time a big wave came, which reminded me of this story from a beach trip 10 years ago. My darling friend Mark, whom my children now refer to as Uncle Mark, and I went to Seagirt with a my roommate and one of her friends. This was the story that I told Benjamin of that long ago trip:

Mark said, "Emilia, let's be pirates. I get to be Columbus." To which I replied in a perplexed tone, "but Mark, Columbus wasn't a pirate...he was an explorer!" Ignoring me, he said, "I will be Columbus and you will be my Santa Maria, so I can ride you". At which point he jumped on my back and clung as tight as possible just as a large wave was coming. Unable to hold us both above water, we got mouthfuls of the wave. Disgusted, he climbed off and said, "I must have mistaken you for the Pinta. She sank, you know."

Benjamin found this story all sorts of funny and didn't stop laughing until a wave hit him full in the face. (Which I must admit made me giggle...just a little bit.)