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You are here: Home > Vacation > Life is a beach! Summer vacation part I

Life is a beach! Summer vacation part I

Posted in Vacation | June 19th, 2012

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Life is a beach! Summer vacation part I

By Darci Jordan

| Monday, June 18, 2012, 10:27 AM

As I write this, I am beach-front: toes in the sand, drink in my hand (ok, maybe not toes in the sand. I don’t think salt water is good for a laptop).

We are vacationing (by now you know my equation: vacation+kids= “trip”) in the very place we’ve been vacationing since I was a child: Ocean Isle Beach, NC.

When I was a kid it truly was a “vacation” – swimming, sand and sun burn, eating everything in sight, crashing before the sun set and sleeping later than necessary.
Not much has changed, except now I’m the parent.

We made the drive in two days; any more than 10 minutes in the car together and my kids start picking at each other and I am ready to leave them on the roadside.

Needless-to-say, I get a lot of Motherhood material from family trips and this one is no exception (and we still have four days to go).

During the drive we watched at least 14 movies, my husband changed the radio stations like TV channels and we had some serious conversations, too.

Son 2: “Mom, what are we going to put seashells in?”

Me: “A bucket.”

Son 2: “We should have brought the throw-up bucket. It’s the biggest one we have.”

He later amended this statement to clarify that the throw-up bucket should be washed first.

When we arrived at the hotel after driving on day one, my husband left me to tend to our over-energized sons (thanks, dear) and took our daughter to pick up dinner from a bar.
Apparently, this is frowned upon; especially when your daughter is the eating orange slices intended for Blue Moon and playing on the gambling machine while waiting for her dinner.

When we finally arrived at the beach we discovered quickly that our daughter is terrified of the ocean. Terrified. Like screaming, won’t put her feet down, tantrum throwing, “NNNOOO! The water is coming! The water is coming!” terrified.

She hasn’t left the porch or, even once, let us change her into her swimsuit.

Thank goodness for the closet full of toys and games we discovered in the house; and at least I’m not worrying about her getting a sun burn.

Of course, careful not to break the Rule of Threes, our daughter also ran a fever for the first two days of our trip (ear infection+stomach flu+fever-at-the-beach = THREE. I think we’re done with bonus points.)

Did I mention the rain? Yeah, it’s coming.

Again, I’m thankful for the toys and games in the closet, my youthful cousin who can keep up with my boys (although I’m pretty sure he’ll not have any kids of his own now. Ever.), the pantry full of cookies … and wine.

Contact this contributing writer at Motherhoodcolumn@yahoo.com or facebook.com/motherhood CTC.

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