Beach Week - The First Full Day!

The first night was rough. 

Shane and I were quartered upstairs. All the adults stayed up late talking and we could hear every single word.

Shane could not sleep. He blamed all the voices. "I wish I could tell them to shut up."

"Sure, if you want to go home," I said. "We can drive back in the morning. It's Nana's beach house, so she can talk if she wants." 

That pumped the brakes on the complaints, but Shane still wasn't happy.

"I had to learn to sleep with noise in a big house. If I wasn't talking to you I'd probably already be going to sleep. You can learn, too, or we can go home," I said. "You know, your mom falls asleep with the TV on all the time. It's on both sides of the family, so you'll be fine."

Everyone went to sleep after 11 PM and Shane was zonked within minutes. I don't know if he learned anything about sleeping, but hopefully he learned a little bit about resilience.

I got my resilience lesson in the morning. Shane's eyes popped open at 6 AM and he bounced out of bed. He was too excited to sleep a minute more!

Shelby, Stu, and Matt were already up and moving. Shelby was working on a peanut-butter and jam pancake bake. Ka's crew are early risers and there was a breakfast bunch before long.

Nearly everyone woke up early. The kids weren't loud. It must have been mutual excitement!

Pop illustrated the trick to holding Graham: Don't let him face you! If he can see Matt or Renee he assumes he's with them.

The older boys quickly formed a squad.

None of them understand the concept of personal space.

With electronics in hand, you can attempt conversation, but don't expect them to remember a word you said later!

The girls clung to Kathleen while the boys clung to their devices. Sammy free roamed wherever he saw something interesting. He and Aiden parallel played some, so they may be a future pair of buddies.

By the way, Kyle was one of the later risers. He never stood a chance. He was parked on an air mattress in front of a prime gaming TV. He gave up sleeping and went for breakfast after he put his mattress out of the way.

The kids spilled out across multiple floors. The younger kids tended to hang out upstairs.

Sammy's footfalls thudded like thunder as Pop chased him around!

Megan and Kathleen tried to find corners to attend their online work sessions, but they never went undiscovered for long. Both were well acquainted with the mute button.

All in all, I think we had 8 cars crammed into the driveway before lunch. Dennis and Melissa had a hotel room near by and joined us after the morning chaos.

Cole came broke off from the boys at some point and had trouble rejoining them (and it wasn't from Pop tackling him!).

"Did you look under the mattress?" I asked.

Found em!

 The younger kids played together while the older boys played below.

Pop was playing chase!

I saw Evelyn smile more this year than any previous. She's really come out of her shell around the family.

Dennis joined in the chase game and the kids kept smiling.

The little ones got their exercise in!

Pop needed a break before they did!

I went between groups. I wasn't always an active participant, but I was happy to be around and taking it all in.

I pulled Shane from the video game club to make sure his beach shirt fit. Matt and Renee had shirts made for everyone for a Father's Day gift.

The shirts were for Pop, but through Nana. They was much discussion over what the "family motto" would be beforehand. Nana wanted "Blessed to a be a blessing," last year, but none of us heard that growing up. We heard more of, "Ruin my nap and I'll kill you!" and "Bananas make you happy" and "Leave my pink cup alone!"

I liked Patrick's idea: "Great joy! Great joy!"

Matt decided to suck-up and went with Nana's choice. She was happy (and may have shouted, "Great joy! Great joy!").

Shane didn't rejoin the boys quietly!

Kyle was coherent by that point. He introduced Aiden to "playing bat."

I half expected to see Dennis dangling one of the younger kids upstairs when I switched levels.

The chase game will still going on and off, but no one was playing bat!

Dennis was in the mix, though! That hadn't changed from when I was young.

Things started to quiet down around lunch time.

Patrick came upstairs to read and be around everyone.

Graham got ready for his nap of the day after tummy time with Renee.

Lunches tended toward being early. There was leftover sphagetti from Shelby's cooking last night and lots and lots of snacks.

I was destined to gain weight at the beach. There were Hawaiian rolls, peanut butter balls, and all the other favorites.

I stepped out on the front balcony while the kids ate. The kitchen was on the third floor and let me see the beach.

I could even make out the pipeline. I'm curious about the construction, but haven't gotten around to looking it up yet.

We were scheduled to get another up close look after the kids ate and B brushed his teeth (Good job, Megan!).

Beach preparations included tracking down shoes and sunscreen. Shane proudly announced he wouldn't need sunscreen. I let it slide this time, but it's going to come back up later.

Then it was fill the wagon and gather everyone out front.

Everyone clumped together so it made it easier to keep an eye on the kids.

There were people on the beach, but it wasn't bad. People tended to group in their own 'clumps.' I took pictures from a few different angles and settled on this shot. If I'd walked to the left, I could have made the beach look less crowded by hitting the spaces in between dead on. If I walked to the left I could have made the beach looked more crowded by lining the groups up to fill spaces.

We walked south to where few tread. We may have put twenty people into one house, but we were being cautious however we could!

That included floaties!

Cole brought a kickboard, but he abandoned it once the waves wrenched it from his grasp.

Shane tried to use the kickboard as a shield against the waves, but he was bowled over multiple times for fun!

The boys loved the rough waves. Shane started to yell "Armageddon!" Cole and B started to scream with him.

They yelled and yelled in a happy cacophony. It took me a moment to pick out that B's yell was a little different than the others.

"ARMADILLO!!!!!!!" B roared!

I'm going to be telling that story for years to come! I eventually had to put away the camera and venture in as Shane pushed further and further out. He pushed beyond where he could stand until I convinced him he was past where the waves were breaking.

Stu hung near the water, as well. Tenley possesses the fearless gene and it can manifest at odd times!

I don't know why I don't have any pictures of Evelyn in this grouping. She was much braver about the waves this year and delighted in running through the shallows. She told Kathleen she was being brave if I recall correctly. I think she was slower to come to the water and my phone had to be stored before I dived in.

I did catch a photo with her until everyone came out of the water and was digging in the sand (I caught Kyle on camera, too!).

We let the kids play for about an hour once they hit the water. Then it was time to pack up, head home, shower, and get out of the sun.

Unless you wanted to get launched in the pool! The other kids went inside, but Shane was ready for more!

As long as there were people out, Shane wanted to be out. I caught Patrick juggling!

I did make Shane shower off and come in after a little bit, though. His skin is far more resistant than mine, but he's not invulnerable.....and he was a wuss the last time he was tinged pink.

Shane's shoulders and cheeks pinked while the boys played video games. It was a slight burn and the perfect amount to teach him the value of sunscreen without harm. He agreed to lotion up from then on and forgo feeling a real burn!

Throughout the day (and the week) I read a book I found at the house: Moneyball. 

It was an easy and fun read. I enjoyed it and I don't watch baseball. I'd plop down with the book near some action and read intermittently. I didn't like how it was written in the present tense, but the story carried it. I skipped a couple of chapters on the history of analytics which let me finish before the week was up!

There are some life lessons in the epilogue about how people reacted to the book that are telling.

But back to the beach.

The group decided to take the family picture before dinner. We wanted to get everyone before kids messed up shirts or individuals moved on.

Only the weather didn't want to cooperate. A storm was brewing. We got outside in time to say, "This isn't going to happen."

The wind whipped up and shook the trees into a frenzy. Aiden wasn't able to hang on to his balloon.

"Hey Matt," I said. "There goes..."

We retreated upstairs as the sky continued to darken and the storm approached.

"All the tall people stand behind the couch!" Nana said.

"None of us are tall!" was the reply.

"I'm the tallest one here and I'm only 5'10!" Kyle said.

There are some perks to being in the back row.

Note: Neither set of arms was me! It easily could have been, but I was busy taking pictures of Dennis and Patrick causing trouble!

Matt was blame free, because he and Renee were too busy.

It took a little bit of work, but we all piled in.

The kids were starting to get restless as Matt worked on the timer...

...and he got it right just in time!

Our true colors came out for the silly shot.

Mission accomplished! The kids could got back to playing and dinner could be served.

B plans on being "one of the tall ones" one day (And he will be if his dad's genetics hold sway).

The storm had started by that point. We were right to take the picture indoors.

Dinner was my favorite meal of the trip: Korean beef bowls by chef Renee and lackey Matt!

It looked and tasted delicious! (Notice the 'Debbie tray' to avoid dirty dishes?)

Shane was a big fan, too. He's a way more open eater than I ever was at his age.

It was a full day. The younger kids were the first to go to bed.

The older boys got to hang onto their Switches.

I offered to help them all get on Minecraft together, but they didn't have a moment to spare! There was Pokemon, Zelda, and cousins!

All the kids went to bed tired and slept soundly. 

Meanwhile, the adults got to hear stories of how Dennis used to throw snowballs at cars ("Was he looking for you the second time?" "No...., but the third time when the cop was behind him..."). The stories escalated to hanging tape in the middle of the street ("And when the headlights hit it it would reflect back! It came out of nowhere and they wouldn't know what it was and have to swerve. You'd sit there and watch until someone could turn in time and took out the tape.....then you went back out and did it again!").  

The twins, Kyle, and I were some of the last ones awake and talking before I turned in. I knew there wouldn't be any hope of sleeping in!