Tuesday, March 14, 2006

A Little R & R

On Sunday we felt the need to head to the beach with lots of little stops along the way! Shane and I were talking the other day and I discovered that all work and no play makes for one crabby girl! How profound, right? Anyway, I thought I would practice what I preach and take some time out to do something I love and something we all enjoy. i love family time and Sunday was just the best. First stop was a little park in Lakeland, a quick stop for Slurpee's and then on to Great Explorations Chilren's Museum in Tampa where we can get in free with our Lakeland membership.

Since we were already in the general area we drove over to Downtown St. Pete to see how the area had changed since our last visit. We drove through BayWalk there and look forward to going back when we can actually walk around more. Then on to one of our favorite spots~ Pass a Grille Beach~ where we went on our first date.

Landon was so excited to be at the beach and had even asked last week to go to the beach just out of the blue. When we actually made our way to the beach Landon started wanting to be held and asking to go home. This turned into crying and whimpering while sitting on the beach towels with us. We didn't just want to turn around and go home so we did our best to get his attention off the water and waves. I guess this would qualify as gradual exposure or systematic desensitization. Anyway, we got to stay and enjoy the beautiful scenery and gorgeous weather.

First, Landon and I had a race to get to Daddy who was on the beach. Then, Shane held landon and they just walked around and talked about the water and told the waves to "Stop Right There" and they did! They jumped on a few sandcastles and Landon was actually invited by a group of young people to destroy their sandcastle which they had spent quite a while on. It's Ok, I took their picture in front of their work. At first, Landon was shy trying to knock it down with one finger but within a minute or so he was playing with water in the moat and smashing what was left ot it. As the water overtook the castle, he ended up getting quite wet which lead to lots of splashing and ultimately jumping into oncoming waves!!! He was so proud of himself and I was amazed as he said "No Go" when we tried to get ready to leave the beach. He was such a happy boy on the way home just singing and talking away. When he saw Mrs. Arce on Monday the first thing he said was "I went to the beach." I guess it was what we all needed.

3 comments:

Mary said...

That sounds so nice. I'm so glad you were able to have such a rewarding day trip. They are so needed sometimes.

Joyce said...

Children are so amazing. Sometimes they know what we need more than we do....

supershane said...

When I'm in the middle of one of these "Amazing Days" I think about how it must have been in my dad's shoes when I was Landon's age. I was the kid who was shy and anxious, much like Landon was on this day. Once Landon was in the water he did not want to leave. The change was a full 180. What an amazing day!

It's at times like these I can't help but to think about my dad and it's like I can just barely see through a window on to what life was like on my dad's side of events. Dad always knows how to have fun. Fun like launching us through the air and across the pool. Throwing football. Playing ping-pong. Vacations. Wrestling. Shooting hoops. I'm so blessed to have such a Dad. I hope I can pass those same fun memeories on to my boys.