and so it goes

After that fantastic first day at the beach, things went a little…well, downhill.

As many of you know already, thanks to my husband’s ubiquitous emergency room tweeting, on the very next night I cut my finger quite badly. Somehow, that sentence doesn’t quite do the experience justice. Neither does telling people that I got 6 stitches. All I can figure out to say about it is that it is the scariest way I have ever managed to hurt myself. It’s not the worst injury I’ve had, or even the most painful. But it was jolting – from how quickly it happened, to how it looked, to the way that I had to tell the adults that I needed to go to the ER while not upsetting my kids. Using a knife is something I do every day; but now my stomach flutters each time I reach for the handle.

I know it will get better in time, just like the cut is healing now.  That night, after the doctor, I went straight to bed. Tomorrow is a new day, I thought.

And it was. One that came with rain. As did the 3 after it. That’s right! Four days of rain in a row. I can’t remember the last time that happened at the beach. So, we had to get creative. Our family, who has never been to see a movie whilst at the beach, saw two. We shopped – or rather, wandered through shops. We drove to Seaside, which seems to me like Destin’s hippie cousin, if it were the most adorable little hippie ever. I took exactly one picture of Seaside:

I can almost hear you wondering – why would she put this picture up? Why didn’t she take more? This one’s a mess, there’s all that stuff in the foreground cluttering it up, couldn’t she bother herself to even move around the tree trunk?

Lemme tell you, that Airstream was so cute with all the flavors listed on the front. There was a whole row of them, and believe it or not this was the best shot I could get with my camera lens jammed up against the barely open car window. Because I couldn’t get out of the car, because it was Raining So Hard. Plus, did you notice the irony? The word ‘bites’ is right there in the photo!

We also visited the redbox a lot, and one day Elizabeth got to stand next to this nice lady while returning our movie:

Elizabeth is wondering exactly why I’m taking a picture in a parking lot. I’m wondering if someone inside the redbox machine is yelling “FREEZE!”

There were a couple of mornings where we were able to go down to the beach for a while before the rain started for the day. On Thursday, our next to last day, I took my camera with me, deciding that gray cloudy beach pics are better than no beach pics at all.

First, we visited with our friendly beach clean-up team:

The guy in the white shirt was in charge. Orange shirts sweep, green shirts hold the bags. They are paid, not volunteers, have to be residents of Okaloosa County, and the money comes from BP. We found it all extremely interesting. Thought you might too.

I tried to brighten things up by taking a picture of happy colors and evidence of the ever-present Texan (one of the best quotes of the trip was when Bryan tried to get Will to wear the hat – Will handed it back and said, Dad, I’m not from Texas, YOU are. I’m from ARKANSAS.).

And some of us might have been doing the same thing with our choice of hair scarf/bathing suit combo. You have to love that flair.

At this point we’d bought a kite, and Elizabeth tried valiantly to get it into the air:

But strangely enough, there wasn’t much wind.

The only way she could keep it in the air was if she was running. With the youngest brother racing behind…

Lest you think that I enjoy documenting her frustration, let me say that what I love about these pictures is her optimism that just refuses to quit. She is just like her daddy that way - life is good, and this is going to work. And if it doesn’t, well then let’s do something else. It’ll be fun!

So unlike me, who would probably give up on the kite. No – more likely I would cry and then write a poem about it all. Ha! You would not be likely to get a picture of me, racing my bright kite against the dark clouds. I am so lucky to have one who does.

And then, a grandson and his Poppy headed off on a walk, and made me remember that even under darkening skies, there are things that make me smile…