Beach Weekend!

Well, for the first time since we have been married, we took a vacation that had no other purpose than just getting away. We went to Va Beach. Not to check out a school. Not to see family (not that we don't want to). Not for a special get together. But just to get away for us. And it was great. Sound selfish? It was. We had a blast. We were unsure whether or not to go for a bit, because the weather looked like it was going to suck the whole time. But we said "why the heck not." And the weather was beautiful.
We went to the beach on Friday and stayed for a few hours. We tried to get Abby to go into the water, and it was cool for a bit, then when I tried to go further into the waves, she would say "Abby don't like that!" She would go down into the water some, then run screaming when a wave came. It was funny. She at least loved playing in the sand.
That night we walked out on a pier and watched a bunch of people fishing. We also got to see dolphins swimming around. Every now and then they would poke their fins out and Abby would get all excited. And the sunset was gorgeous.
Saturday was another great beach day. And Abby was a lot braver. Not only was she not scared. but she would go charging into the waves and want me to take her out into the deeper water so she could "swim"(kick her legs and flail her arms while I hold her up). When I would tire out and suggest we go in, she would get upset. She had so much fun. And we built sand castles, played on a playground, walked the boardwalk, drank the seawater, got tumbled by waves - everything.






Luckily, Abby was able to take a nap in her stroller during lunch so that we could stay at the beach and not worry about what to do for a nap.



On Sunday, we went to a huge park near the beach called Mt Trashmore. Oscar the grouch would love the name but hate the place - they beautified and built a park over what was a landfill. It had the biggest playground I have ever seen, along with a huge hill (full of garbage, presumably) and a pond with ducks.



Some of the ducks were very friendly, and quite gentle, too.


Abby was stoked. Unfortunately, we didn't see the sign on the other side of the fence that said, in big letters, DO NOT FEED THE DUCKS AND GEESE. Oops. Heh, sorry, we're from out of town. Jerk tourists.
The only problem with the weekend was the fact that I am a white boy. We shlackered Abby up with sunscreen, but applied only a minimal amount on me, because I'm no sissy boy. But, like a stupid tourist visiting the beach, I paid no attention to warnings and am now paying the price. I am pretty crispy all over. But that is a small price to pay for a wonderful weekend with my family.
So Abby started daycare today, while Jodi worked and I went downtown to test the buses and see how my commute was going to be. And she loved it. When I woke her up this morning, she was rolling away from me and grunting, then I said we were going to her new school. She popped up immediately and said, "oh, we have to bring my elephant and blanket!" (for nap time). Then she quickly cooperated in getting ready, only to be disappointed that she had to eat breakfast and wait for us to get ready. She was so excited to go. It was hard to leave her there - we kept asking "are we doing the right thing?" But I think we are, and either way, she was not turning back. And she had a really good day - didn't give them a hard time at all, got along great with the other kids, danced and sang, and just really enjoyed herself. She had such a good time that she didn't want to leave. But I let her know we would be going back and it went over okay. What? I have to convince my kid to leave daycare to come home with me? That doesn't sound right. Am I doing something wrong? We'll see how this goes. If nothing else, I am a little disappointed to know that my free time with Abby is going to be severely slashed. Maybe I'm the one getting separation anxiety.