It's always hard for me to say goodbye to the beach...even though I know that regular-ordinary life is piling up back at home so we need to get back to real life. It's just so beautiful...
Our last beach day was a beautiful one.
When we got to the beach we found that the shallow waters were filled with jellyfish of sorts, so we were a little hesitant about getting into the water. Eventually we caught one and identified it as a brown comb jelly—so not a jellyfish at all. While jellyfish often have stinging tentacles, jellies are typically harmless.
Here's Benjamin holding one:
The kids had their first swim meet of the season this afternoon. It was drizzling when we arrived and soon started a veritable downpour. The chairs that I brought got completely soaked. All the children's towels were drenched. Everything was soggy.
I had Andrew bring an extra canopy for the kids when he came. I should have brought one when we set out, but ran out of time to grab it. Next time we'll be better prepared. It would probably be good to set up the canopies when it's sunny outside as well, truth be told, so it's good we dug them out.
Here's Alexander doing his warm up (he's adjusting his goggles—you can see "A Heiss" on his back):
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Zoë woke up early on Friday morning and convinced Grandpa and Darla to take her and Alexander to play pickle ball. So by the time I saw her she already felt like the luckiest girl in the world.
After breakfast we headed down to the beach, where we found so many creatures. Brown comb jellies, sand fleas, clams, fish, crabs...animals were everywhere.
Here's Zoë pretending to pop a clam into her mouth:
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I hardly took any pictures this day. When I got up, Phoebe was already wide awake, watching video montages on a phone. Sunrise was at around 5:45 every morning, so the day was already bright and well under way by the time we were getting up.
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Andrew didn't actually have to work on Wednesday, so he came to the beach with us in the morning for a quick splash in the gulf before playing tourists. It was another red flag day and the waves were just right for boogie boarding again.
Here's Phoebe enjoying some snuggle time with Daddy (she sure likes being held):
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The water was much choppier on Tuesday, which made it perfect for boogie boarding (but less perfect for Phoebe, who has given everyone a real arm workout this trip). Here you can see Phoebe in Grandpa's arms, along with all the kids (except for Alexander) and Darla:
We went in to St. Andrew's yesterday to visit the Panama City Publishing Company Museum (which was fantastic, by the way), but we arrived a little bit early so we did a little self-guided walking tour to see the Oaks By The Bay park and to look at the marina and things.
On the boardwalk just behind the park, Phoebe spotted a baby (doll) that had been left by the garbage can.
"I need to rescue that baby!" she said. "Can someone help me to rescue that poor garbage baby?"
Benjamin went to pull it out of the weeds. It was a little waterlogged but otherwise in pretty good shape.
Phoebe is always so happy when Daddy finishes his meetings (teaching classes is what he's mainly doing) and joins us at the beach. Look at her grin when she gets in his arms!
I've decided that I'll upload videos later since there are a few more steps to that and I...miss my desktop setup. So for now pictures will have to do.
We spent the entire day at the beach on Monday. Grandpa and Darla headed out to the beach with the littler ones as soon as they got up in the morning—which was quite early because the sun rises at 5:45 am (and not until 6:30 in Atlanta). The sunset feels early as well. And I'm still trying to figure out the tides because...what is happening tomorrow? Some kind of reset button or something?
Here are the tides for Panama City Beach:
Look how small the difference is between the high and low tide! We have hardly been able to notice when (and whether) the tide is changing—it only comes in/out 2 feet over the course of the entire day!
We left for our trip quite uneventfully. Alexander and Zoë rode with Grandpa and Darla. Our van was quiet with the rest of the kids in there. We listened to Hamilton until Columbus, where we stopped at the Infantry Museum (which has been declared America's #1 Free Museum for several years in a row). It was a pretty good stop to make, especially on such a rainy day—we had plenty of space to stretch our legs inside and by the time we were ready for our picnic lunch things had dried up a bit.
Phoebe and I were snuggling in bed the other morning and I decided to ask her about her favourite things. Just to make conversation.
"What's your favourite colour?" I asked.
"Umm...all of them!" she said.
"I feel that," I said...because she seems to have inherited my own dis/satisfaction with everything in the world. I simply don't understand how to choose a favourite colour. That feels like too big of a commitment. I admit to feeling drawn to certain colours of certain items at times, but I don't feel like I often seek out specific colours for things...if that makes sense. All colours are beautiful.
"What's your favourite animal?" I asked next.
"Ooooh! Dood question...all of them!" she said.
"All of them?" I asked.
"All of them—dogs, cats, horses, giraffes, lions. Just all of them."
"So what about spiders?"
"Not spiders! I do not like spi...well...nice spiders. I still like nice spiders."
"And snakes?"
"If they're nice."
"So you just like animals in general?"
"Yup. Hey, Mom—you know, like November, January, February, April, June, May, July and August?"
"The twelve months of the year? Yes, I'm familiar. Should we sing them?"
"Yes. But first, what's your favourite schedule?"
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Something else that has been taking up a fair bit of my time lately has been getting all our paperwork in order to apply for proof of citizenship in Canada for the kids. They've all been citizens since birth...I've simply never registered their births with the government...if that makes sense. So they are Canadian by right...but had no evidence of it.
It was not unlike the process we had to go through to get Miriam her American citizenship of birth abroad record. She was never not American, but she doesn't have an American birth certificate. She has a record of birth abroad. Her birth certificate is Egyptian. But she doesn't have Egyptian citizenship.
I submitted her birth abroad certificate when I applied for Canadian citizenship, but that didn't count. I had to send in her Egyptian birth certificate (along with a translation...and an affidavit from the translator...who was Andrew). It worked out fine.
Other than that we had to provide:
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| All the important information is on the back of the certificate (sorry, scammers) |
To say nothing of Andrew's work schedule (which doesn't always populate on my calendar), today...
It's not unusual to see some swimming regression in young children at the start of the swim season. Typically I've made my kids pass a little "swim test" before I unleash them in the pool, but with a season of competitive swimming under their belts, I wasn't too worried about Benjamin, Zoë, or Alexander this year. In fact, I told Benjamin that he's 100% in my worry-free zone (along with Rachel, Miriam, and honestly Zoë). Alexander was a bit of a grey zone for me, but he jumped in the pool and started swimming like a champ so I think he's fully confident.
Phoebe, on the other hand, who has been asking "When's it gonna be May?" and begging to go to the pool since the beginning of October (the pool closes at the end of September), was a little less confident when she dipped her toes into the chilly water earlier this month.
And then we had a spate of unseasonably cold weather that prevented us from going to the pool at all...so we've only been to the pool three times this month (maybe four)!
The first day Phoebe would hardly do anything. Yesterday she saw some of her little friends from co-op (who are a bit older than her) doing things like bobbing under water to look at each other and they invited her to join in their game...and she did! They'd count out—1, 2, 3!—and then all the little girls would go under water, blow some bubbles, and bounce back up to yammer about how good they all were at holding their breath. It was cute and really helped Phoebe feel brave again.
Today she declared that she "can swim now!"
And she's really doing pretty well—she even held a back float for a few seconds!
Yesterday we were going around the table, asking the kids what they'd learned in church that day. Phoebe was first. And sometimes (like yesterday) she's just not in the mood for discussion.
"What did you learn at church today?" I asked.
"I dunno. You tell me," she retorted.
"I can't tell you what you learned, because I don't know what you didn't know before. Only you know that."
She eventually told us that they played a game in class, but she doesn't know the name of the game or how the game goes. And she didn't want to mention a favourite part of the day, either. So...we moved along to Alexander...
Phoebe had some iPad time while I was taking a nap after church. Technically Daddy ended up having a nap after church as well (only he napped on the couch).
She took many, many pictures of the carpet before deciding that she was a better subject—not in a vain way, I'm sure, but in an artistic, self-exploratory sense. Probably.
Her curls...still smite me...
Turns out graduating is pretty low key when you're a homeschooler.
While Andrew was in his meeting on Monday afternoon I walked the kids up the street from my building to the natural history museum (after sending Rachel outside to wait with the other kids while Zoë helped me in the book room for a little while).
It's a pocket (of a) museum—a tiny little space—but the kids had a good time and learned some things.
Zoë and Alexander did the little scavenger hunt they have for kids:
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As I suspected, the playground at the botanical gardens was a huge hit with the kids.
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This afternoon Phoebe was recounting our trip to campus...
"Yesterday our whole entire family went to Mommy's campus and there we saw an amount of bugs!"
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Seminary graduation was held early this year—May 4th!
The girls have been attending seminary in the Roswell Stake. We're in Lilburn Stake, but are geographically closer to a lot of buildings within the Roswell Stake than we are to buildings in the Lilburn Stake and when it comes to early morning seminary, commute time matters. Plus, these seminary kids were kids that we met when we first moved here (before we were split off of their ward and then off of their stake), so...anyway...
Last year was the first year Rachel and Miriam attended in-person seminary. Grandpa was their teacher, along with Brother Moser—who is being released at the end of this year after four years of teaching early morning seminary. This year it was Brother Moser and...someone else.
Here's Rachel with Rachael:
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On Saturday night the girls had (almost) all the young women in the ward over to play games. It was a little difficult for Benjamin to be excluded (but if he wants to plan a games night with the young men, he's more than welcome to do that). Rachel and Miriam have just felt like the younger young women were in need of some...fellowshipping...so that guided their invite list.
We had a big storm that evening.
Phoebe woke up when most of the girls were leaving (and so many other times—she hardly slept that whole night, I feel like, so the night's events were even more of a surprise to Andrew and I, the guardians of the night, who took turns putting her back to bed and putting her back to bed and putting her back to bed).
Anyway, Phoebe woke up when the girls came up to the entry way to put on their shoes.
"Goodness gracious!" she whispered to me from her bed. "They are going outside right now?! In a thunderstorm!!"
"Well," I explained. "Yes, but only because they're going home. Their moms and dads have come to pick them up so they're just...running from our house to their cars really quick. They're not going out to play."
"Okay, good!" Phoebe said. "Because that would not be safe.
It was very thundery on Saturday night. And Phoebe, as I mentioned, had an awful time sleeping.
Getting up for church on Sunday morning was a real drag, especially because I woke up earlier than my alarm when I heard the power shut off. I checked the area to see if there was a power outage, but nothing was mentioned, and soon enough the power came back on.
We got ready for church and headed out the door.
Our neighbour texted me just before I went in to primary to tell me that Filthy (Fil) the Clown's house had burned down! She had driven past on her way to mass.
Evidently, Andrew and his phase of church-goers (the prelude players) had seen firetrucks and things.
My phase of church-goers (the stragglers) really didn't. Or at least I didn't. My passengers report seeing a few vehicles.
We drove home that way on our way home from church and were shocked—shocked, shocked, shocked! It was so much worse than I imagined. There's just...nothing left inside.
Once upon a time (within the last year) we were driving to Grandpa and Darla's house when Phoebe excitedly squealed, "Ooooh! Lookit that parking lot!"
We were, at that moment in time, driving by the parking lot of a golf course. It wasn't the most exciting thing should could have pointed out, but we have enjoyed sporadically pointing out parking lots to each other ever since.
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Today we had a BLFA (big long family adventure), which culminated with a trip to campus so that Daddy could use my office for a meeting that he couldn't miss and for me to meet with one of my professors.
Soon after we crossed the street from the parking lot (!!!) Phoebe gushed, "Oh, yay! Dumpsters!"
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"Dumthurth" not being on my mind, I wasn't quite sure what she had said, so I asked her to repeat herself.
"Dumthurth!" she said, pointing. "Look!"
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All that is to say, I suppose, that life itself is such a wild adventure for little kids. You don't have to concoct wild, magical adventures...though those can be nice as well, sometimes. You just need parking lots and dumpsters.
And hopefully some ladybugs and cool leaves, too.
On Wednesday morning we finished reading our last school novel for the year, and a few of the kids had to finish up some lessons, and I had to do some work on a few projects...but Phoebe also wanted to know if I would read a story to her in her little tent.
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