Day 6, Wednesday

We thought we were going to spend another full day on the beach, but the weather had other plans for us. We got all set up on the beach around 10:30 AM....after packing up enough for a full day on the beach. At first, it was a little chilly, but not terrible. About an hour after we got all set up the cloud coverage got pretty heavy and the wind became much cooler. The kids were all sitting down with towels wrapped around them. Soon after lunch we felt some light rain and decided to just call it a day. But, as we were packing up the kids started having a great time in the really loose sand near the dunes. The sand in that area is always nice and warm from the sun so the kids were running around and then jumping into the sand. They were playing so well together and having so much fun we decided to stay a little longer. Steve took the bulk of our stuff home and we only kept the neccesities.

For a cold, miserable weather day our time on the beach turned out to be alot of fun. The kids and Steve made up a cute game. They lined everyone's shoes up and then tried tossing a small ball into the shoe. Each shoe was worth points (Steve's shoes only worth one point, then AJ's shoes were worth 5 points). It kept them busy for a little while, at least.

Kaeli eventually started saying she was ready to go home. Jokingly, Steve said "you know where it is--go ahead". She looked really surprised and said "really?" Steve and I looked at each other and seemed to know what the other was thinking-sure, why not, let her do it. Now, I should say the house is right across the road from the beach and it is not a busy road AT ALL. There are a few cars here and there, but the biggest obstacle is usually bikes. So, we let her go home to get a headstart on showering. We were only about 10 minutes behind her, but that little bit of freedom seemed to mean the world to her!! She was so proud of herself. I can't believe how grown-up she's becoming!

So, she handled that little bit of freedom and responsibility so well that we took it a step further a little later. Kaeli has become incredibly attached to Bailey (our dog) lately and has been wanting more responsibility for his care. She's been asking and asking to take him for walks and we've always said no because he can be very hard to control when he sees another dog. So, today we gave her the end of the leash and let her give it a try. I watched anxiously from the deck. There wasn't a single problem and she definitely seemed to know how to handle him. So, I gave her the go-ahead to take him for a quick walk around the block.

We didn't do much the rest of the afternoon. We cooked a big dinner and just played around and watched a movie.