What A Day This Has Been

After my exam on Friday, I sped home, threw some clothes in the car for us and we skipped town.

(That sounds so romantic, doesn’t it? A quick getaway, spontaneous and exciting. It didn’t actually happen like that. Instead, I’d been setting things aside and making lists for weeks and, even with all that advance planning, it still took us three hours to get everything together and out of the driveway.)

It was a 12 hour drive and I was a little uneasy about how this was going to go. I didn't grow up with road trips but have grown to love them over the last ten years or so. But I know nothing about taking kids along on this sort of trip. Patrick, who did grow up driving all over creation, was encouraging and so I thought to hell with it, let's get out of this hick town and go to the beach. And, I'm sure you'll be shocked, it was really not bad at all. Colin was great and we had no problems. We are on vacation!

We are now in the magical wonderspot of Destin (I just typed in Desitin, the diaper rash cream, out of habit.) and we are having one heck of a good time. This is Colin’s very first time to the beach and our first family vacation.

This is Colin’s overall reaction to this trip so far:

I know, I know. That hair is crazy. But I LOVE IT! It isn’t usually quite that crazy, the beach and sand and wind helped with today’s styling. Patrick has been bugging me to cut it for weeks, but I couldn't wait to see what it would do on the beach. Squeee!

As with all babies, the newness of the experience was a little shocking for Colin, who already despises his Crocs (God, I love that kid.) and was then forced to walk on weird, unsteady ground in them by his mean, mean parents who obviously hate him and want him to suffer.

But then he discovered the infinite joy to be had in the sand. Namely, putting sand into a bucket and then dumping it back out. Ad infinitum.

He was even less enamored by the ocean initially, I think feeling that the waves and the splashing and the noise and the salt were just not really his kind of thing.

But he eventually came around.

Today, however, the ocean reminded us that She is not to be trifled with. I took Colin out in my arms and he was doing great. Splashing and laughing. Patrick brought over the Floaty Turtle guy that we bought for the sole purpose of keeping Colin from drowning.

I put Colin in – he didn’t care for it much, he is too big and made the thing top-heavy – just as a larger than expected wave came up and swept Colin away from us, turning over the Devil, Good-for-Nothing Turtle guy and dumping Colin into the surf, under the churning surface where we couldn’t see him. I screamed “PATRICK PATRICK COLIN PATRICK PATRICK” which got the whole beach’s attention but didn’t bring Colin back to the surface or anywhere we could see him or get to him. Luckily, Patrick kept his head, reached into the water, and plucked Colin right out. Colin didn’t even cough or cry (which made me think he was dead, but he wasn’t) and was not really phased by the whole ordeal. I emerged from the water with a shock of white hair and a stunned look on my face as I clutched him to me and didn’t put him down for twenty minutes. The only useful thing I managed to do during this whole ordeal was not allow myself to drown as we (immediately) exited the water. Ah, family vacations.

We went to the pool this afternoon, which Colin hated and said “OUT! OUTOUTOUTOUT UUUUUUUP!” for the entire thirty minutes we forced him to swim with us. So we went back to the beach for Colin to play in the sand (but not the water, nosiree).

The weather is lovely, the beach is gorgeous, my boys are so much fun, and we have nothing to do except love each other and play outside. With the notable exception of the near-drowning this morning, this has been the most perfect day of my life.