Beach Trip Gone ... well it's raining here :-(

Going to the beach in the summer is something we all look forward to at one point or another. Even if we don't really enjoy the sand stuck in places we'd rather not reveal, we love going to the beach during the summer months. This year I agreed to join three other moms and their children in a house in the Outer Banks, North Carolina. There were 15 of us total and here's the breakdown: 4 moms, Boys: 1-18, 1-16, 1-15, 2-12, 1-3; Girls: 4-15, 1-7 years old.

Day one, driving day. Took three hours to get there, no traffic, no issues in the car, no whining kids, I mean the perfect ride on a beautiful day. We unloaded the vehicles and headed for the waters right away. After an afternoon/evening getting sandy we all came back jumped in the pool, ate dinner, played some games and went to bed.

Day two, another perfect day, super hot but beautiful. We spend a good 30 minutes applying sun screen on everyone before hitting the sand again. We found out that our beach has a valet service. Never had that before but was glad they had one. There were college students everywhere driving little golf carts to the beach and dropping your stuff exactly where you want them. That was fantastic. Then we rented umbrellas and they set those up for us and take them down every day...again, fantastic. Couldn't be better.

Day three, better weather, a little cooler, the water was warmer, it was the best.

Day four, things went down hill fast. The weather went from sunny to raining, thunder storms, torrential rain at times and flood warnings in the area. If you've never seen the Outer Banks on the map, go take a look. It's a strip of land with one way in and one way out with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the sound on the other. A flood is not something I care to experience here.

However, here we are, no flood, still raining and us moms sit here trying to figure out what else we could do to entertain 11 well behaved children. I think walking in the rain is not such a bad thing. All in all, it's great to be here with friends, having fun and enjoying each other's company.

Pictures coming soon! Have a great weekend!

Back to school but not for long

I realized this morning as I was seriously enjoying my early morning time alone, that there are 3 weeks left before school lets out. This is good and bad. I always look forward to having the kids home and not getting up so early, eating breakfast together, doing stuff around town, etc. But then for some reason the younger kids never do sleep in when they should. It seems like on the days they don't have school, they get up earlier. It's a pattern I've learn to accept. My teens on the other hand would sleep until noon if I let them, and I do sometimes.

Flor (my mother in law) asked me what we had planned for vacation. I always feel a little awkward answering this because I think she thinks we should do something. Apparently it is an American tradition to plan a vacation away from home during the summer months. Growing up in the Dominican Republic, where I was born, when school let out for the summer simply meant that the kids would play all day outdoors, eat fruit ripened on the tree, make home-made helado (like italian ice),go down to the river for the day, hang out with the neighborhood kids and come home before the sun goes down. There were no major trips planned, no money sucking adventures to go to, just a simple summer. We did occasionally go to the beach, which for us was about 3 hours of away. We also visited family members who lived a little further away but that was it.

We have gone a few summer vacations, the American way, summer house rented by Flor and Dulce and another time we rented a Condo in Florida and it was fun, I will admit to that. Although I felt like I needed a vacation after my vacation. I don't ever feel the need to begin planning a week-long summer trip. I just take each day as it comes and if I see an opportunity for us to go do something fun and we have to spend a couple of days there then we go, if not, we're not too far from the beach, 2 major rivers each with a beach area as well and a few amusement parks.

Then there's our back yard. it's not huge and it's not fenced in but we have great neighbors and a lot of kids in the area. So this summer I plan to turn on the water sprinkler, fill up the water balloons, fill up a kiddy pool, and enjoy the outdoors right here, where it's free, fun and full of smiles.