We've gone to the beach a few times this summer. Our beaches are still nice and clean. I hope it stays that way but I'm not sure how it can with all the oil pouring into the gulf. Braden has always been a big fan of the beach. He loves the sand and LOvES body surfing.
This year is the first year that Ashlyn has really enjoyed the beach.She's still not ready to surf but she will let the waves splash her and she's all over the beach. I spend most of the day chasing her down.
Friday night we went to the beach to watch the rocket launch. This is the first time we've gone out to the beach to watch a launch (rocket or shuttle). Usually we watch the coverage on TV until they start the countdown and then we just walk outside in the front yard and watch it take off. But since Mom & Greg were with us this time we decided to check out the beach for the launch.
It was really neat and I'm sad that we never went out to see the shuttle during a night launch. When the shuttle launches at night the show is amazing from our front yard. I can't even imagine how awesome it must have been from the beach without houses and trees blocking parts of the view. The rocket formed a glowing ball that darted across the sky. When the shuttle launches the whole sky turns orange and then a glowing ball emerges out of the orange and darts up across the sky. We might never have the opportunity to see one. Not only is the shuttle about to retire soon but NASA has said that they are not going to be doing anymore night launches as a safety precaution.
When Nanny & Greg come to visit we always seem to run ourselves ragged trying to cram in as much fun in the 2 or 3 days as we can. This past weekend was no different. We started of the weekend by going out to the beach Friday night to watch the rocket launch. It was a really neat to see it appear over the water and float up across the sky. I wish they could have seen the shuttle launch. It's by far the coolest thing I've ever seen.
After watching the rocket launch we all were in a space mood so Saturday we loaded up and drove out to the cape to the Kennedy Space Center. My kids love the space center as long as we skip the bus tour. It's just too much time in the bus for them.
Yesterday we took my mom and Greg to the beach. Before we hit the sand we stopped at a little beach shop and Braden bought his first board. They had a lot of different designs to choose from. I liked one with flames down it and Mike liked a pirate one. Braden didn't really care for opinion though. He went with a Taz board.
At first he was scared to use the tether cord. I think he thought it would pull him under the water. He did GREAT! He's not afraid of the water but I think he's cautious. He had a lot of fun body surfing. Maybe next summer we will check out some surf schools. Of course then we'll have to buy him a long board. So maybe we'll stick to body surfing and short boards for a little longer.
We thought last weekend was our last weekend of summer so we took the kids to Disney. We didn't know that TS Fay would push back Braden's first day of Kindergarten to Monday. So this weekend actually was our last weekend of summer. We didn't want to go to Disney again because my mom and Greg are coming down next weekend and we will be going to Epcot. Three Disney weekends in a row might be too much. I don't want my kids to be spoiled! (yes, i know everyone is yelling TOO LATE!!!)
So we decided to go to CiCi's and then hit the beach for just a few minutes. We didn't pack up for a full day because we weren't sure what the beach would look like after Fay. I heard on the news that it was going to cost about 3 million to restore the beaches. It really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. There was one large washed out area at Indianatlatic and there was obviously less beach to stretch out on but it wasn't too bad. The kids loved the "cliff" as they were calling it.
I think it was a good way to spend our last weekend of summer. Both kids had fun. Braden of course was disappointed that he couldn't spend the whole trip in the water but he made due with the sand.
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