I have fond memories of camping trips and vacations to the beach from my childhood. Building a campfire, setting up our little pop-up camper, surfing on the waves, going to the Pavilion to ride roller coasters next to the ocean. I want Sawyer to have the same.
I'm trying to keep our beach trip an annual tradition. Again this year, we rented a great house just a block from the beach from a friend's family. It was a fairly low-key week. I promised Ray I wouldn't try to pack a zillion things on our to-do list. And I decided to not kill myself photographing every move we made. Ray spent several mornings dealing with work stuff, so Sawyer and I headed to the beach, where we'd spend a few hours playing in the water or digging in the sand. We took walks and filled up a bucket with seashells. We dug sea snails out of the sand.
High tide left us a nice river of water and creatures to explore.
But Sawyer mostly wanted to play in the sand ... and throw it.
Getting him to actually smile AND look at the camera has become impossible.
I really need longer arms to get myself in the picture.
Possibly my favorite photo of the week.
The waves were quite rough, but we got to play in them a bit.
When Daddy came, he and Sawyer flew a kite for the first time. Then they went out in the big waves, which were too rough for me to carry Sawyer in. Besides, I'm not tall enough to get in that deep with him.
I have to work hard to capture a smile like this ... especially one that's not moving!
It went back and forth from overcast to sunny. So we were hot and then not.
After doing a little business, Daddy came to fly a kite with us.
Sawyer wants to do everything himself.
After I cooked dinner Monday, I was too restless to sit in the house, so Sawyer and I took a moonlit stroll on the beach up to the pier and back.
Tuesday morning was very overcast, but that was delightful for someone who burns as easily as I do. And it meant the beach was even more empty than it had been ... the best part of going so late in the season.
Mostly, he enjoyed digging.
The extremely high tides left great pools of water to play in.
He must run everywhere.
The sun was just bright enough to get a reflection.
We'd occasionally find cool shells or crabs in the tidal pools.
After the rough surf, Sawyer did not venture into the waves without a hand to hold.
I'm glad he's not scared of everything. Or too squeamish to touch stuff.
It's nice to have a beach buddy.
We had a couple rainy afternoons. On one, we found an old arcade and played games for a bit. Then, we drove up to Calabash, N.C., for dinner and took a spin over the new bridge and causeway to Sunset Beach.
We lucked out with a terrific table by the windows and a great waitress.
At dinner overlooking the boats on the Little River, a little girl at the table next to us struck up a conversation with Sawyer. We practically had to tear them apart. She was maybe 5, but she was hooked on Sawyer. After dinner, we walked out along the docks to see the boats and bumped into her and her dad. She and Sawyer danced and giggled for a good 15 minutes while we sat in the fish cleaning hut.
The lovebirds
Ray had offered me a day to go shopping without Sawyer, if I wanted it. So Wednesday morning, they walked a few blocks down to the pancake house while I hit some cute consignment shops. The black clouds loomed and I decided if we were going to play mini golf ... the only activity I really wanted to do ... we'd better take our chance before it started raining again.
So we hit mini golf just as the sun came out and the humidity was through the thatched roof. Sawyer made it through about 24 holes before starting to melt down (literally and figuratively). We headed home for a nap and I went back to shopping.
Mini golf ... We naturally chose the place with an airplane and a "helicocker."
Sawyer needs to work on his form a bit. He'd putt a few times ...with the club upside down ... and then just move the ball next to the cup for the final stroke.
It didn't get sunny and hot until we pulled up at mini golf. It'd been cloudy all morning.
While Sawyer napped, I took an early evening walk on the beach. I was surprised to see so many surfers.
That night, I was really in the mood for Italian, so we found a place and went in. It was a bit fancier than we wanted, but we really didn't want to drive around longer. Among the kids meal choices, Sawyer was insistent that he have spaghetti and meatballs. Except when it came, it was just one giant meatball. Sawyer didn't know what to think. "WHAT IS DAT?" he kept asking.
I quietly sang a couple rounds of "On Top of Spaghetti," hoping to calm him down and keep him quiet. Thankfully, our waiter was the father of a nearly 2-year-old son so he didn't think we were totally crazy.
After dinner and a few more rounds with Sawyer accompanying me on what became known as "The Meatball Song," we stopped for ice cream. Spaghetti + ice cream + warm beachy night + slow eating 2-year-old = Definite need for a bath
Mmmm, ice cream dripping off his arms and face.
Sawyer wore more than he ate. His shoes were chocolate-covered.
On our last morning, I dragged Sawyer out of bed early and we hit the beach for our annual "portrait" session.
Early morning photo shoots in a beachy outfit have become our tradition since our first trip. It gets harder and harder to get him to be still. I miss those days of plopping him down and just snapping cute pics, but chasing him for a good one is fun, too.
Here's the best of our walk on the beach:
And last, before packing up and heading home, we fed the ducks and turtles in the pond behind our house. Or as Sawyer called it all week, I think in his effort to clarify from our regular house ... "our house ... at da beach."
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