Odds & Ends–beach edition

• We spent the last five days or so at the beach–Ft. Morgan, Alabama, on the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay.  It’s directly across from our usual beach haunt, Dauphin Island, and just as lovely.

• On the Saturday before we left, our robotics team competed locally with 20+ public and private schools in BEST robotics.  It was a great day, and we ended the day with a second place over all finish.  However, we learned on Monday that the scores had been miscalculated, so we finished fifth instead.  That was a bummer, but by all accounts (we had already hit the beach by the time the word broke) our team handled it with lots of grace and understanding.  Perhaps this was a better lesson than the engineering and marketing lessons they learned.

• The weather this time of year on the Gulf is glorious!  It was in the upper seventies on Monday, and the temperatures were pretty consistent with that all week.

• We spent nearly all of our time on the beach, building sandcastles, splashing, digging holes, hunting seashells, and generally just enjoying ourselves.  Oh, and reading just a little bit.  🙂

• Benny liked the sand more than I expected.  He called it “sams,” and once he warmed up to it each time, he enjoyed playing with his “diggers.”  He started the week with what I finally decided must’ve been a “crick” (does anyone else call it this?) in his neck.  After a morning nap and a bit of ibuprofen, he was good to go and his usual happy self.  I was very thankful we didn’t start the vacation with a sick Benny!

• The DLM was in his element.  Boy + water + sand + shovel.  Need I say more?  Louise’s seashell obsession continues, so there’s no place better for her.  Lulu enjoyed playing in the water and building sandcastles.   It was just a great week, all the way around.

• We did venture out from our condo and beach a few times–once to go shopping, once to visit another beach, and once to visit some trails at Gulf State Park.  We did visit the nature center at Gulf State Park, which surely deserves its own post.  The trail experience probably deserves its own post, too, but Steady Eddie would probably rather forget it.  😉

• Our condo had a small stash of games and puzzles, so our girls were introduced to the joys of Trivial Pursuit.  🙂  I’m happy to report I haven’t lost my trivial  trivia skills.  Between Uno and Trivial Pursuit, our own games were left in the suitcase.  🙂

• Louise was my walking partner on this vacation.  That’s my favorite thing to do at the beach.

• We had a lovely private beach at our condo, but it was more crowded than I prefer.  (In truth it wasn’t crowded at all, really, but I like a practically deserted beach. 😉 )  We drove down the road a piece to the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge beach and found our paradise.

• Now it’s back to regular life.  I’m slowly trying to re-orient myself.  In addition to coming home from vacation, we are also coming off a very busy robotics season.  I feel like I’m re-inventing our schedule, which is a wonderful feeling!  Oh, and we only have about eight formal school weeks before we take our Christmas break. (You’re welcome. 🙂 ) It’s time to get to planning!  I don’t mean to let it sneak up on me like it has the past few years.

Happy Friday, everyone!  How has your week been?