Play Day

Yesterday, Tuesday, we went to Busch Gardens - Tampa. A while back a bunch of the kids had a series of yard sales to raise money to offset the cost of big field trip to Busch Gardens. This was a case where they thought of something they wanted, it cost a bunch of money, and they made it happen for themselves anyway. Well, on that trip some of the kids took the opportunity offered them and upgraded their tickets to a yearly passing expiring on Dec 31.

This trip yesterday was what's known as the final hurrah.

I was fortunate enough to have some free tickets given to me by my mom (thanks Mom!) and was able to go and invite Heather and Ivy. I love free theme park tickets. Free is good.

We all headed out early in the morning and had a great day. Makenna could hardly settle herself down to sleep the night before just thinking about the roller coasters. It was one big, scary, thrilling ride after another. The kids essentially just ran around all day in a big pack - it was Sadie (thank you Sadie for being the wonderful adult for a lot of this) and Cheynne, Nic C, Gareth, Eliot, Ivy, Amalie and Makenna. Cynthia, Heather and I watched a lot of rides, hit the beer tent, um, Hospitality House a couple of times, and strolled around, a lot.

Cynthia and I did the Sandstorm ride. I was reminded how, in my aging, that I no longer tolerate the round and round so well. Ohhh, it makes me sick to my stomach. I can go forward and backward much better than round and round. Makenna and I did the Scorpion roller coaster. That's the only one I did. Ever since I've become claustrophobic being in a harness is intolerable to me. Little cars spaces. Anxiety about the ride. Ugh. It's all a bit more yucky than fun now. But I did it. And it was fun. Except for the extreme spiral at the end, I could have done without that. Round and round.

Oh, we did the train ride around the Savannah and the Rhino Rally, which is a safari tour in a car and the bridge goes out and it's all gloom and doom, but lots of fun. It was fun having a whole car full of just us, just people we knew. There were some wonderful animals, giraffes and lots of zebras, hippos, elephants, and lots of other more exotic animals that I cannot even remember the name of but loved looking at! It was a great day to go, the weather had hit a cool spot (lovely lovely) and it was hardly busy so the kids could go on any ride over and over and over. That's a bonus. Time spent in line is time not spent going round and round and whip it up good, so..well, you get it.

We stopped at a Jason's Deli on the way home for some comfort food. I'm so glad we didn't have to eat at a Steak and Shake or some equally awful place. Jason's has complimentary ice cream. And muffins on the salad bar. Complimentary that is. And baklava, not complimentary, but they had it. Amalie loved it. It was a good end to a great day.

I hope Sadie sends me some of the pictures she took!

change

I'm not reporting much.

I'm just saving the space of a day.

Life changed today. Maybe life changes everyday, but Life with a capitol L changed today. Truths were spoken. Illusions shattered. Maybe honesty is setting in.

We are well and not well, strong and weak, we are. We just are.

We are living this life, and at times I am not sure how I got where I am.

Sunday

I haven't posted in so long, and it's the beginning of December....so, new month, new commitment to try to keep posting.

But then you knew that, didn't you?

Yesterday, Makenna and I had a beach day together. We went to Flagler Avenue at New Smyrna Beach. It was a gorgeous day. Unfortunately, the red tide wasn't fun to deal with, but it was a great day nonetheless. Makenna was mostly driven to go to the beach because she is always looking for an opportunity to ride her skim board (see previous post), and because she just loves the beach - her words, and I do too and love to be there with her - my words.

We had a discussion on the way to the beach about how, because I grew up in the north, once summer is over I forget a bit about going to the beach. Around here in Florida we mostly avoid the beach in the heart of the summer, it's just way too intense of an experience, so things are a bit backward in that regard. It seems to me that remembering where I live might be a good thing at this juncture.

Some memories of our day at the beach...sniffling, burning nose, coughing, nasty taste in mouth, sore throat...Thanks red tide!

Other memories...cool sand drip castle which looked more like a forest of wild wacky trees than an actual castle.
Getting washed out on our blanket by a rogue wave, then going into the ocean with the quilt to rinse it off, trying to hold onto it as the waves came and went, carrying Makenna like a little boat, then wringing the quilt out playing tug of war.
Tiny little olive shell given by older man-shell seeker. I love olive shells.
Makenna and I finding interesting ways of writing our names in the sand, piling the letters inside each other, attaching letters to other letters.
Just sitting in a beach chair, feet in the sand, watching little sandpipers and gulls, people, reading my book. sigh.
Makenna doing hand stands into a bridge, then laying down to get out of it.
The joy, the buoyancy, the energy. Just watching M run, skip, cartwheel through the waves and the water just for the sheer fun of it.
Playing the "add one word, make a story" game waiting for our food at Breakers.
Going for a walk, window shopping, looking in a shell shop at all the cool shells and dried sea life.

I guess that's mostly it. It was just a very nice day, even with the red tide, and I'm thankful for getting to have it!