We went out to lunch after the service, and Grammy went with us. The Oldest Princess was on her way home from the beach with our Youth Pastor and his wife and a friend, and Poppy was preaching out of town, so it was just My Prince, the Young Prince, the Youngest Princess, Grammy and I.
After lunch, we came home and I looked over my Bible study, My Prince did some studying as well, and the kids went up to their rooms to watch TV and rest until it was time to go back to church.
As we were walking out the door to go to church the Oldest Princess was walking in the door. Grammy had her car, so we let her stay home and wash a few things and repack, as we were leaving for the beach immediately after church.
For the first time in a while, all of our Sunday night group was going to be able to be there, so we met at our usual time. It was great to be back together again! And after one more small delay this coming week, we should be back into our regular schedule. I love our study, and I do so much better at actually getting it done when we are on a regular schedule. So I am looking forward to being back in the routine again soon.
We had the Lord's Supper in our Sunday night service. It was a sweet time of remembering all that Jesus did on the cross, so that we might have eternal life. I always love the Lord's Supper services.
After church, we came home, changed clothes, picked up the Oldest Princess, and headed to the beach.
I refer to the Young Prince as having "go-go gadget arms" (a throwback to my days of being a huge Inspector Gadget fan during my late elementary years) because he is so long and lanky. Well, we were in the car, and the Youngest Princess can not reach the cup holder when she is buckled in. So she asked her brother to hand her her drink. He replied with something like, "Are you completely helpless?" To which she quickly replied, "No! I just don't have go-go agit arms like you do."
We made a pit stop about halfway through our trip, and the Oldest Princess picked out Corn Nuts as her snack. My Prince does not like Corn Nuts, and makes no bones about it. He fussed about the smell of them for pretty much the rest of the trip. The Youngest Princess tried them for the first time, and decided she was on her daddy's side.
We made it to the beach about midnight. We loaded the cart (it looked like we were staying for a month) and headed up to the condo. After we unpacked everything, the kids were begging us to just go down to the beach and see the water for just a few minutes. So we decided that we would. The way this particular condo is set up, you come out the door, and have to go down the steps (or elevator), to the ground. It is parallel to the beach, so you walk beside it, or under it down to the end near the beach. There is a gate you have to go through to get into the picnic/restroom/pool area that is under the end nearest to the beach. We got as far as the gate with no problems. But as we were nearing the gate, there was a man standing there. I could hear water hitting the concrete floor. My first thought was that he was pouring out a water bottle or something. But when my brain registered what was actually happening (he was using the restroom - right out there in front of the whole world), with my whole family walking up to him face to face, I was pretty much in shock. I just grabbed the top of the Youngest Princess's head and turned her to redirect her away from the man. The rest of the family followed suit. We walked a few steps in the other direction while the man finished his very private business in a very public way about 5 to 10 feet away from a restroom. Then we heard him going up the steps, so we turned to go back and go through the gate and continue on to the beach, when the man said, "Hey! I'd watch my step if I were you! Someone just peed all over the floor over there!" Um, ya think?!? We definitely watched our step, and and we talked about how when you drink alcohol, it becomes what controls you. You are no longer in control. The alcohol is, and when that is the case, you do things that you most likely would never do if you were not being controlled by alcohol. Like what we had just seen. I never want to be controlled by anything, but the Holy Spirit. We also talked about what my parents used to say, "Nothing good ever happens after ten o'clock." We have heard it said different ways..."after dark", "after midnight", whatever, but the principle still applies. At night, it is best to be inside, in your home, with your family. After that, the Oldest Princess made sure we were inside by ten o'clock each night, except for the last night, and she stayed in while we went out crab hunting. She did not want a repeat happening of the first night. And I don't blame her.
Anyway, we did walk on down to the beach, and we saw tons of crabs. As we were walking back up to the condo, the Oldest Princess saw a really big crab. She yelled for us to look at it and went running to keep her light on it so that we could see it. At one point, it changed directions and headed back toward her. She yelped and did the best dance I've ever seen her do trying to get away from it. Oh, how I wish I had been videoing at that point in time. I would have given anything to have it on video! After that, we went back up to the condo and climbed wearily in bed.
Monday, July 25 -
I love to get up and get out on the beach early. In the past, I have done it alone, and My Prince and the kids sleep in and come later. This time, the two oldest children asked me to wake them up so that they could go with me. I told them I would. I set my alarm so that I could be on the beach to watch the sunrise, and when it went off I got up and got ready. I woke both of the older kids up, but only one was still up to going with me. The Oldest Princess opted for a little more sleep.
So the Young Prince and I went out and walked and watched the sunrise. We saw one of those big crane type birds watching some people fish. I think he was hoping for some breakfast. The Young Prince took his camera and got some pretty good pictures. I took my phone, and got some okay pictures.
We stayed for about an hour, and then we went back in to put away his camera, and to get chairs and my book.
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| The Young Prince enjoying some early morning waves. |
Eventually, everyone else came out and joined us. The Youngest Princess and I played in the waves for a few minutes, and when I was done, she talked her big sister into going out there with her.
It showered on us off and on pretty much the whole time we were out there. It's not too bad, because the rain cools you off. But My Prince did not enjoy it nearly as much as I did. He had grabbed a towel and was holding it over his head, and the Oldest Princess got my attention and wanted me to take a picture of him. So, of course, I did...
All was peaceful for a while. Until they came out. You know. That family. The one that thinks they are the only ones on the beach. They had a son named Adam. I know this, because they parked themselves in front of us, and screamed at him for every move he made. He might have been 2 or 3. His sister was trying to build a sandcastle. She would build, he would knock it down. She would wail, "MOOOOOOOMMMM!!!" Mom would scream at the top of her lungs, "NO! ADAM! THAT IS NOT NICE! THAT'S A BAD BOY, ADAM!!!" Then she would turn and talk to grandma, while the sister would build again. Adam would go over and knock it down again. Sister would wail again. And mom would scream again. And then the whole thing continued over and over. You get the picture. I wanted to step up and give her a couple of friendly parenting tips. Things that would make her day (as well as everyone around her) go a little bit better. But I refrained. It took just about all that I had in me. Then grandma got out a cigarette. And the wind was blowing right at us. I figured that we would inhale more of it than she would. But thankfully (and probably with some help from prayers said by the oldest princess and me) her lighter would not work and she had to go back to the tent that they had set up behind us to smoke.
It was getting to be close to noon, and we decided that we would go in, get cleaned up and go to lunch, and then come back out later in the evening. That way we would miss the heat of the day - and the rest of the Adam's family show.
So we went in and all got cleaned up and decided to go to a place that we had been in the past. It was monumental to make a decision. To get a family of five to totally agree on anything is quite a feat. Well, we finally decided on a place and walked in. There was an elderly lady who was getting our menus and going to seat us. I saw another employee walk over and lean in and say, "Did they ask for them? Then, no! Don't give them one unless they ASK for one!" I figured she was talking about a kid's menu, because the Youngest Princess is right on the edge of not being able to order from the kid's menu any more. Still. The whole situation did not sit well with me. I felt like they were trying to take advantage of us before we were even seated.
But then, the elderly lady sat us, and told us that she would bring us a kid's menu. So that was not it. As I looked at my menu, I realized that it was a dinner menu, not a lunch menu. So that had to be it. We came at lunch, and they gave us dinner menus, so I told My Prince what I had heard them say, and he asked for lunch menus. They brought them to us. We ordered and ate, but it will be the last time that we go there. If you want to know where it was, just ask me, and I'll be glad to tell you. I do not agree with people who try to take advantage of others. It shows a lack of character, and I don't/won't support it.
After lunch, we went to a couple of little stores. My Prince bought a little football for them to throw around on the beach. We bought a bucket so we could take the youngest Princess crab hunting that night. We have a family tradition that when we go to the beach, the girls and I get anklets. We could not find ones we liked, so we gave up on that for the day, and went back to the condo.
When we got there, I was very sleepy. I had only had about 4 hours worth of sleep the night before thanks to getting in late, and then getting up early. Maybe that is why Adam's family got on my nerves so much? So, we all took about an hour's nap.
Then we got up and went back out to the beach for a few hours. It was much less crowded. A lot of people had gone in to get ready to go out to dinner by this point.
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| The family tossing a football, while I sat in my chair and relaxed and read. |
It continued to rain on us off and on. And God sent a beautiful rainbow for us to enjoy.
The kids played in the water, and dug in the sand. The Youngest Princess did not like to go to the water and get her feet wet, and then come up to the soft sand and have it stick to her wet feet. So she filled the bucket with water and came up to wash her feet. Her sweet daddy got a towel and helped her dry her feet, so the sand would not stick to them. He's such a good man!
The Youngest Princess and I took a beach selfie.
I took a cute picture of the Oldest Princess.
We all got hungry and decided to go in. We sent My Prince out for pizza, and ate pizza in the condo for dinner. We watched American Ninja Warrior (my first time to see it), and waited for it to get dark so that we could go out crab hunting. The Oldest Princess opted to stay in instead of going crab hunting with us. So the rest of us went out in search of the giant crab that the Oldest Princess had found the night before. When we got to the beach, there were a ton of people crab hunting. I figured there would not be any crabs left for us to find with all of those people already hunting. But, we did pretty good any way. We did not however find the giant crab that we were looking for. But here is a picture of our night's catch. Don't worry, we released them all. None of them came home with us.
After releasing the crabs, we went in and went to bed. Sunrise comes early the next morning. This time, the Youngest Princess said that she wanted to go with me. I was doubtful that she would get up, but I told her I would wake her up and see if she still wanted to go with me.
Until I blog again...
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