Dog Days

With the Dog Days of summer in full swing and “Ice Cream Night” already behind us there was only one way left to deal with the heat; EMBRACE IT!  It was that or treat it like a blizzard and stay indoors.  So we headed to the beach… not “The Beach”.  If you tell people around here that you went to the beach they automatically assume that you spent the day at an outdoor water amusement park.  I actually went to a beach with sand and water… and it was free.

The heat index was 110.  We drank two gallons of lemonade, a gallon of water and a 1/2 gallon of milk (must have milk) while out in the sun.  We had plenty and then plenty more to rehydrate once we were home again.  We brought not quite enough sun screen and came home with a couple of minor sunburns.  Everyone donned hats including myself.  Apparently I shop at the wrong stores for myself but I finally found a hat that I LOVE in a box of clothes that my sister-in-law sent.  It is reversible with a small pink and green plaid pattern (my favorite colors) on one side and it has a huge brim.  The fabric is not flimsy and keeps its shape while keeping the sun out.  I am not usually a hat person even in winter but I can wear this one; maybe not through the cement canyons of downtown, though Rick thought with a grin that might be just fine.  It was perfect for a summer day at the beach though and I’d have been fried without it.

We were lucky enough to find a tree for shade and we ate our lunch overlooking the beach area.  Our fresh dill pickles were a real treat.  Kaitlyn told Haley they were “best buds” now.  They spent a lot of time playing around together.

We got out the inflatables from our camping boxes.  Nathan thought the frog one was fun but wasn’t sure what it was for.

This isn’t the most scenic beach ever but beggars can’t be choosers… there aren’t that many actual beaches around here.  This one was close to an hour away past Miami where Rick attended and earned his Master’s Degree.  It was fun to see the old campus stomping ground and college town again that he frequented for so many summers while delivering pizza in the evenings to help make ends meet for our young little family.  Sometimes the leftover reject pizza he brought home was the only way we ate or had food in the house.  Memories…

Nathan wasn’t sure if he wanted to go in the water at first… the sand was so attractive to him.  Then we put him in the baby floaty that we had brought along and he loved the sensation of floating.  Rick and I loved the freedom it gave us.   Nathan moved around and went all the way out to the farthest buoy, with one of us right next to him the whole time.  When I was tucking him into bed last night we were talking about the day.  He said to me, “I go swimming in a….. (had to think for a minute) BALLOON!”  I thought that was so cute.  I told him his balloon was called a “floaty” so he corrected his statement but that was the context which he had to describe it at first.

Kaitlyn tried one of the floaties but in the end it was too much of a hindrance for her.  She wanted more freedom in the water than it allowed for.  After a while the kids moved up to the beach for some fun in the sand and to get hats and cover-ups on.  The sand was so hot, you could not walk on it without shoes or you had to stay on the wet part.  There wasn’t much wet sandy beach because, well, there are no waves at all.

The lake water was like a bathtub; nothing like swimming in the St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario, the icy gorges in Upstate NY or the beach off the coast of Maine.

Nathan loved helping his Daddy make a stream through the sand extending down to the water.  This kept him perfectly occupied and it was nice that he wandered back and forth between the blanket and the edge of the water but no further.  I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Tristan and Lindsay got their own castle and moat going, only to be destroyed by Nathan shortly after.  Kaitlyn and Haley hung out and did their “best buds sister” thing.

While Nathan played close to shore getting more water in his can for his sand creation my other four were back out in the water playing games together.  We’d been out in the sun for a while so I MADE them put hats back on.  They had fun filling their hats with water and dumping it on each other.  It was all good fun but I’m not sure how much sun protection those hats provided for them.

Nathan decided to put the sand back into the water.  He was having a grand time.

The sand castle destroyer visited and “Oh Well” was Tristan’s reaction.  Tristan is a good big brother; very understanding.

Notice the sand on Nathan’s head… he decided to fill his little bucket with sand and then dump it on his own head.  “Sandy” was an understatement by the time he was finished.  I had to give him a good dunk before we headed away from the beach and changed his clothes.

Nathan was having a ball.

Before heading for home we made our way back toward the car and sat under a friendly shade tree to enjoy some Rocky Mountain Cookies.  My best description of these cookies is to say they are a cross between my Cowboy Cookies and my Just the Best Cookies.  They were what I had ingredients for on hand when I got up in the morning and they were good.  VERY good!  I brought just under 2 dozen so the container would fit into the cooler on such a hot day so we each had three.  Then we packed the car (I shudder at the thought of packing for an actual trip) and drove home, absorbing the cool air of the van, to enjoy the bountiful harvest of our garden for a late dinner.  It was a wonderful “Dog Day” afternoon.