Beachin'

Well, we are now back from a week at the beach with the grandparents. The number of funny lines were probably too numerous to cover here, but I'll do my best ...

On the first evening we were at the beach, I took Xavier and Miranda down for their first sight of the ocean (or, in Xavier's case, his first chance to lie flat on his back in the surf.) On our way back to the house to get Xavier something (dry) to wear, my father offered Xavier his hand to hold, but Xavier replied, "No, I want to hold Mommy's hand." I took his hand and teased, "You're just a mama's boy, aren't you, Xav?" "Yeah," he replied. Then, after a moment's pause: "But I'm not Grammy's daddy!"

The morning after that, Miranda, Xavier, Grammy, Grandpa, and I all headed for the beach. The surf was pretty rough that morning (actually, it was every morning we were there) and when Miranda first ventured into the surf to fill her bucket with water, a wave knocked her down and started dragging her down the beach toward the water. My father and I were alerted to her predicament when my mother started to cry, "Grandpa -- hurry! Grandpa -- hurry!" and Dad and I grabbed for Miranda. As we helped her to her feet, my mother cried, "Oh, you're too late! I wanted you to go after the bucket!" The little purple bucket bobbed out of reach for quite a while before finally being swept out of sight, but I think it was more replaceable than Miranda.

One morning, picking up seashells at the beach, Miranda decided that she wanted to seek larger shells than the battered pieces we normally found crushed into the sand by the surf. Avon is not the best place to do that, but I had noticed some (relatively speaking) larger shells over by the signs that indicate that motor vehicles are not welcome on the beach. Xavier joined us on this quest, but midway there he picked up a small sea shell and handed it to me. "Xavier," I said, "I can hold this for you, but it is pretty small." Xavier replied, "That's okay, I like small things." After a short pause, he added, "I'm a small boy."

We found a large horseshoe crab on the beach the morning we left, and we flipped it over and let it drag itself back into the sea. Miranda was very afraid to go back into the water after the first day when she got knocked over by a wave, but my father managed to lure her close by telling her, "The horseshoe crab is a very old animal, dating back to prehistoric times." A few minutes later, Miranda chirped to me, "Mom! Guess what? This crab was alive during the time of the dinosaurs!"

My nephew Riley (three years old) is an avid golfer, and his parents told us this story. I am not an avid golfer, so I will have to substitute the real names of famous golfers he sited with the name of the only famous golfer I know (Tiger Woods). One day, my brother-in-law comes home from work and finds Riley playing golf in the front yard. "How's it going, Riley?" my brother-in-law asks. "I played the PGA tour today with Tiger Woods and another golfer," Riley replied. My brother-in-law nodded and asked, "Who was the other golfer?" Riley replied, "Meow-meow Kitty." I'm guessing I don't need to tell you who Meow-meow Kitty is, since the name says it all.

OK, that's all for tonight. I arrived home at 14:30 today, so I got my BLOG in before the beer-buying limit (for those who play that game, and you know who you are!) Joel, you still owe me chocolate for not blogging fast enough after that race you did with Eileen (the Flying Pig Marathon, was it? Of course, it seems to me there was pretty slow turnaround after the Country Music Marathon. :)