beach | OUR LIFE IN 3D

Archive for the tag “beach”

03 Sep 2018

Happy Labor Day

I hope you had a relaxing and enjoyable Labor Day weekend!

First, my thoughts and prayers go out to those in South Florida and on the Gulf Coast with Gordon making things wet. But I know you have all seen this drill before. Best of luck!

Can you believe its the end of the summer already? It won’t be long until we are carving turkeys and trimming trees it seems.

But I digress…

Well we finally got caught up on everything life had to throw at us this weekend and with the 3 day weekend we finally..FINALLY, made it out to the beach.

I say Finally because I do not think I even made it out to our own beach last year. And this was our first trip to the beach, here at the end of the summer, this year.

We made it out to my school’s Beach House again.

If you remember, once upon a time, we used to frequent this beach house A LOT!

Do any of you remember all those blog posts?

We played, we swam,

Or a little of both…

we burned, er, tanned, marinated a little. We sautéed in the sun listening to Jimmy Buffet’s Tin Cup Chalice.

Or took my greyhound for a walk and let him chase seagulls.

But then things changed a bit and child number one, and then number two made going to the beach a little more challenging..

And then the pool…

And trips to the beach just seemed more like work than an escape.

What I have been missing is the spiritual essence of the coast however.

Sometimes we just need that escape. And this week has been one of those weeks.

This week, and actually the last few months, have been tough for me though, with a lot going on at home and at work and personally. It has taken its toll. And so this day I thought I might take another long walk on the beach, talking with God and hoping for answers.

Have you ever felt a need for that?

It was a good walk. Not too hot or sunny.

I spied the usual suspects along my beach that had been there before.

Sea vultures

…Pelicans looking for food.

The waves were nice size since we are in September.

and the surfers were out.

Touristy fishermen…

even more pelicans

Everyone was with me it seemed… but the One I was hoping for.

….

At the end of my walk it was just me; along with other flotsam and jetsam.

Alone. By our self.

No answers found. Not even a greeting. Or a reply.

Maybe that is an answer also.

Back at the Beach House young Skylar found a friend and was loving the sea.

She gets that from me!

She cracked her collarbone this week on our bike ride to school.

She’s tough.

She gets that from me as well.

We both love the sea!

Oh, to grow old on the beach!

Just give me oysters and beer
For dinner every day of the year
And I’ll feel fine……I’ll feel fine

I want to be there
Want to go back down and lie beside the sea there
With a Tin Cup for a Chalice,

fill it up with good red wine
And we’ll be chewin’ on a honeysuckle vine

Yeah now the sun goes sliding across the water
Sail boats they go searching for the breeze
Salt air it ain’t thin
It can stick right to your skin, and make you feel fine
Makes you feel fine

I wanna be there
Wanna go back down and get high by the sea there
With a Tin Cup for a Chalice,

fill it up with good red wine
And I’m a chewin’ on a honeysuckle vine

Yes and now you heard my strange proposal
So get that Truck up and let’s move
I wanna be there before the day
Tries to steal away and leave us behind
I’ve made up my mind..

That’s it for now knuckleheads!

I will try to do a better job next time!

Thanks for dropping by!

Posted in Archives and tagged adrift, beach, beach house, Cloudy, empty, God, Jimmy Buffett, lost, prayers, robbed, thanks Jimmy

20 May 2017

6 Comments

Catching up

And now for something completely different.

Godzilla terrorizing downtown this week:

“We saw a dinosaur walking down the street,” Gary Shelby said.

“A person dressed as a Tyrannosaurus rex (Godzilla, right?) startled a pair of carriage horses in downtown Charleston on Thursday, injuring one of the horses and the driver.

Shelby Salvador and her husband, Gary, watched the scene unfold from their corner table at Tommy Condon’s Restaurant.

When the carriage got to 160 Church St., the dinosaur stopped and began making growling noises at the horses. This spooked the horses and they began backing up. The carriage then struck an unoccupied vehicle and caused minor damage to its bumper.”

The driver lost his balance and was thrown from the carriage during the incident, he said. One of the carriage’s wheels rolled over one of the driver’s legs.

Gary said he decided to confront the costumed carnivore and noticed that the person underneath was a female.

According to Phil Bailey, a public relations representative retained by Palmetto Carriage Works, the carriage was nearing the end of its tour route and the driver shouted at the T-Rex, warning that its antics would scare the horses. But the theropod’s alleged snarling spooked the horses, causing them to back up and jackknife the carriage, Bailey said. One horse, named Yogi, fell, and the driver was thrown out of the carriage. The other horse, Boo Boo, was not injured. Source: Post and Courier

For more info click Here

And that may have been the most blog worthy activity around these parts since our ill-fated Disney Cruise.

With apologies, I and we have been busy. My new job is a real challenge and the girls are getting busier and busier. But the words that fly out of their mouth these days are not nearly as cute as they were 4 years ago.

Still, a lot has happened. For instance, we all got a year older over the last 3 months. Its been a birthday parade, one after another about every two weeks. It has been confirmed, I am now old as dirt.

But, instead of giving you a lengthy play-by-play after the news clip above, let me ‘catch you up’ in pictures over the last 3 months.

Dylan had her birthday in March, It was her turn to have a party this year

She wanted a skating party at the local ice rink again.

She’s getting bigger!

Do you remember her when….

When this was as old as I wanted her to look..

Some of us think it is ‘scary’ how big she is getting!

Gosh, this 3rd grader invited more boys than girls!

Skylar’s birthday was next. She is turning 7.

And while her birthday was not as extravagant this year Aunt Sue and Grandma made up for it on their visit for Easter.

Getting Bigger too!

Yes Easter… and the girls got spoiled all over again. Like ‘multiple’ Easter Baskets?

Skylar also earned ‘Student of the Month’ in April

Look at her, “I’m so cool’!

While Dylan won a bike at a Science night that same week.

Dylan also earned a Daddy Date Night after her excellent report card and blowing away her reading goals.

She chose a place where they have a chocolate fountain.

We even caught a movie or two.

This one really rocked. It was a good, funny, ‘family‘ movie; after you got past all the bad language

Then it turned May and it was Mommy’s birthday and just recently Daddy’s birthday. But Dylan could only think of one thing:

How soon would the pool be open?

Has it been 30 minutes yet?

And it has been for about a month now.

I have been working hard on putting in more tropical landscaping, trying to make this a tropical escape.

A place where the kids can play without looking elsewhere.

To do something nice for them that neither Mom nor I had growing up.

Where every Saturday or Sunday it feels like a vacation around 4 or 5 o’clock.

Washed in the ocean; dried in the sun

So that more and more Saturdays can look like this for Mom and Dad.

Life in the fast lane

And that is it from the Spring. Consider yourself Caught Up!

We are now getting ready for summer and sadly this self-proclaimed beach bum may not see the beach any time soon as the pool gets warmer and warmer and a heck of a lot closer.

Have a great week knuckleheads!

I’ll try to do better this summer!

Posted in Archives and tagged beach, birthday, dinosaur, free bike, godzilla, i need to fly to St. Somewhere. I'm close to bodily harm., pool, t rex, That's weird!

05 Jul 2014

6 Comments

King Of Somewhere Hot

This past week somebody reminded me I was the King!

Yea, the king of someplace hot!

The king..

like every man should be!

The king..

the king of someplace hot!

Cause I am melting right here in my spot….

the King of someplace Hot!

So its the weekend of the Fourth of July and I wanted to take you on a tour of my Kingdom….

My Kingdom is adorned and kept with my favorite Wild Flowers to surround me with beauty….

Actually this is the path on the way to our beach where we spent the better part of the morning on the 4th of July. I know, we must be CRAZY to go to the beach on such a touristy weekend. But I was off and so was she. So we loaded up the sled and we drove to the beach at 9am.

We love mornings on the beach. The sea and the weather are more peaceful. We can often beat the traffic and the crowds. And can often find a front row, ocean side seats to the great big blue sea.

Our youngest, Skylar, had a great time playing in the sand and tidal pools

She may be a Princess but she is not afraid to get her hands a little dirty..

This past week she had just ~~finished~~ graduated her first swimming lessons. (Hurray!) Accordingly, she had no fear tearing off to the much larger and louder waves armed with new found confidence and her old reliable floaties…

She had buckets of fun! She even humored Daddy and danced a little jig to his Pineapple Wine Song (she thought she could dance to it better than Daddy)

When it comes to dancing, or looking cute or just being silly old Skye is a natural!

We spent about 3 hours or so along the edge of the continent and when the beach started to shrink with the incoming tide, and Dad started to get a little crispy (no lotion for this beach bum) and the crowds started to fill in we decided take our ‘turn key’ beach gear and head back to civilization

I saw this South Carolina Gamecock tent on the way out. I mean, Really? A tent, tables, chairs, bartenders? Geez? Even the the tourists at the rivaling Clemson Tiger tent had to give them a stare an a “What’s up?”

So some of my faithful readers may wonder where was our oldest during our beach fest?

Well last week her grandparents and Aunt sue came down to see and spoil them a bit…

Christmas in June

The girls were spoiled with gifts and goobs of attention.

Skye’s new summer wardrobe…

And then like typical grand parents style they picked up and left, but not without taking our oldest with them.

So she had to endure the pains and dining with her grandparents for a week. I mean how much fun can that be?

Oh yea, they bought her a horse… meet Hildago everyone…

She is REALLY going to be hard to live with now, isn’t she?

Its OK. Do you know why?

I am the King!

I don’t care how hard you look
you won’t find me in a book
I could melt right on the spot
I’m the king of somewhere hot

Have a great HOT weekend everyone!

Posted in Archives and tagged 4th of July, beach, Grandparents rule!, Hitting Publish now, I embellish a bit, I'm the King! King of someplace Hot, Jimmy Buffett, Just kidding about them buying her a horse, Kept sunsets for retirementt, Life's A Beach!, my pretty wild flowers

26 May 2014

9 Comments

To all those that have served: Thanks for this day!

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! I hope you had a chance to relax or have some fun or do what ever you like to do on your free days off from work.

We decided to take the kids out to the beach for the first time this season. I don’t think they had been to the beach since about June of last year.

I really hadn’t been out to the beach in almost a year as well, except for a glorious time or two when I only could spare minute.

Our visit was ideal and instantly reminded me of vacations and beach visits from the past…

It really was a wonderful day. Even Mom remarked on how perfect everything was; the water was crystal clear, the air temp, the wind, the crowds. It made for a nice escape.

Like I said, even given it was a holiday, a 4-day weekend, the beaches were not too crowded.

Of course we did leave our house at 10:15 to avoid the beach swarm to the coast.

But we had our usual good time. The girls were a little slow to embrace the beach, forgetting where they left off at last summer. They quickly found themselves at home in the tidal pool. They made a few friends there. Poor Skylar, she had to lug around her inner tube swimmie all through out the 8 inch deep tidal pool; kinda like her purse. It was too funny!

We arrived as the tide was going out. The vacated sand made for a nice wide, flat beach. There weren’t many waves due to the low tide so you could just wade out and keep going. Eventually I lured Dylan out to go for a swim with her ol’ dad. As you can see, she really didn’t care for that too much…

The girls had a good time playing in the water and ocean again.

I had a great time acting like a kid in the ocean again. It was fun. It was relaxing. A great time for some little pondering with the Big guy. It was a nice escape. And it felt good to be in my old beach chair again.

Here is a brief look at our day on the ‘Isle Of Palms‘. Thanks for taking time out of your hectic Memorial Day to drop by my beach here in 3D.

To all those Veterans, who helped secure our country and way of living so that we could enjoy a purrfect 3 day weekend (and get paid for it) I want to say THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Posted in Archives and tagged beach, Happy memorial day, I need a holiday, Jamaica, ocean, the water's warm

30 Jul 2013

20 Comments

Happy Beach Day Skylar!

Our trip to Ocean City was good for our little Sandy Monster. While Skylar had been there 2 years ago she was sick for most of that time and really had a misaerable time of it. This time she was older, healthy (!), and a little bit more independent. Not unlike a 16 year old with a new driver’s permit, Skylar took a lot of joy and pride in being able to do new things this trip.

Skylar, has always been ‘her own child’. While our oldest can steal the scenes with a lot of her heroics, bravery, perceptions, and personality, Skylar has never tried t be like her older sister. She maybe be more outgoing or friendly at first, with the cutest smile ever, and very very loving.

She is the opposite Dylan when it comes to bravery however. And that’s OK. We may worry less with this one! While Dylan likes to jump off 5 stairs, into Daddy’s arms in the morning, Skylar may only jump two steps and that is when she is already holding onto Daddy’s arms to start. She is very careful!

So it was joy to see Skylar come out of her shell a bit this trip, do her own thing, and genuinely having a great time.

First, one more advertisement for Ocean City, New Jersey. I found an amazing thing at the beach. When it comes to calling itself ‘America’s Favorite Family Resort’ it goes to great lengths to be so. This included replacing the feisty sand crabs with bunnies in thd dunes! That’s right I said bunnies.

“Happy Easter Bunny Day!”

While we didn’t see a single sand crab on our trips to the beach, every evening we saw a bunny or two eating in the sand dunes. On a vacation that came to be known “Happy Beach Day” by our youngest, when she saw the rabbit it became, “Happy Easter Bunny Day!” Too cute!

And how does OCNJ do this?

One of the things that led to Skylar’s ‘coming out’ was that she was finally able to get on some rides this year and have experiences like the other kids; even if she had to cheat to get on some…

On tippy-toes

Here she is trying hard to reach the height requirement to get on a ride. She naturally tried to stand on her tip-toes; no one told her. Honest!

Her stoic look is what she carried on to most of the rides. All these things were first time, brand new expereinces for her and I think they left her in kinda awe. If she got on a ride a second time she would crack that award winning smile. But first times she was always kinda emotionless in her face. She was waiting to hear a “No” or “You’re not tall enough”.

She wasn’t scared to ride the huge, sky-scraper of a Ferris Wheel with her sister, even though it was windy and cold that night..

Yes, they are sweaters they are wearing…in July! It was cold that night.

Skylar wan’t afraid to ride the rides (very unlike herself), spin around on the tilt-a-whirl, or fly high in the ballon ride. She even braved Jaws at the putt-putt course and wasn’t scared of the big shark…much:

For weeks she was asked if she “was ready to go to Ocean City”. Not knowing exactly waht that meant she equated the boardwalk as ‘Ocean City’. So at night she asked if we were going to go up to Ocean City. Then she called the amusement rides. “Games”. She enjoyed the ‘games’ at ‘Ocean City’. She really enjoyed the ‘games’. 🙂

I think she had the most fun, or best experience, of her life so far and it did our hearts good to see her enjoying herself so much. Did you see that smile in the Jaws video?

So here’s a look at a typical “Happy Beach Day” in the life of our Sandy Monster. You can see here brave the (cold) ocean, experience the under-toe at her feet, have some fun driving her own bumper car, as well as just going “Up, down, up down, up” …