Goodbye, Summer

School starts Monday. I have mixed emotions about that. And mixed involvement. The girl is going to be homeschooled again. The boy is starting high school. For a number of different reasons, we have decided to send him to school this year. I have a number of different emotions about that, but most of them are positive. I hope this will be a good year for all of us.

We didn't do any vacationing this summer, so we headed out to the beach Tuesday.

I'm not much of a beach person, but we have to make our annual pilgrimage. We went to Surfside again this year.

Our beaches are not pristine. Too much run off from the mighty, muddy Mississippi. But they are our beaches and we love them.

We have plenty of wildlife to enjoy. We have a healthy population of brown pelicans.

We also saw Ridley sea turtles, dolphins, sea gulls, sandpipers, hermit crabs, and a lot of little fish. Don't know what they were.


Sandcastles were made. Holes were dug. And there was sand on everything. Like I said, I'm not much of a beach person.

But it gave my baby girl a chance to fish with her daddy. Something I always loved.

And it gave my boy and me a chance to walk along the beach together. We looked for shells. He showed off for me. We talked. Just a little. He's not much into serious conversations right now. I will brave all the sun and sand for the chance to let us just hang out a little before he takes on this great adventure called high school. Life will be next. I know I will blink and he will be grown.

We came home with a sunburn, a slight case of heat exhaustion, and a lot of sand to clean up. Oh, and the memory of my enormous baby boy showing off in the waves trying to make his mommy laugh. Why does that make me cry?