Fun at the Beach

We've been having a very lazy, low-keyed vacation by the sea. I love the little town of Bethany. It is very quaint and relaxing, though also pretty crowded with lots of people relaxing along with you. Everybody is very friendly. Some vignettes:

• We have bunnies living in our yard. I am watching one graze on clover as I type. That is rather charming, don't you think? We've also seen numerous toads and a great big green bullfrog. Some seagulls but not as many as I remembered. I haven't seen any dolphins. Last time we were here we saw several dolphins swimming in the ocean just off the shore.
• Becky, Sean and Josh all love playing in the waves and running along the seashore.
• We got passes to use the pool at Sea Colony next door but only Sean likes to go. It has been beautifully cool here and the pool water is cold! Becky and Josh last about 10 minutes and then they emerge with chattering teeth and blue lips but this does not affect Sean who really loves swimming. He's like a polar bear. He doesn't even need anyone to play with; just being in water is enough for him. So out of 5 children I have one who actually enjoys swimming.
• We love being able to walk into town. Bethany has a really cute boardwalk. The kids like this independence a lot! Since we live in a neighborhood at home that isn't walking distance to anything really, like a store, we are isolated unless you want to walk for an hour or ride your bike down narrow busy roads. But here Josh is old enough that if he wants to go, Sean and Becky can go with him and they can roam around the shops, bookstores and eateries by themselves.
• Becky's been so busy. She's been into doing experiments. She says she can't decide whether she wants to be a nanny, a hairdresser or a scientist when she grows up. I bought sugar cubes at the store, something we very seldom have and first thing she did was put one in a glass of hot water and watch it dissolve. She was fascinated. Another experiment she conducted: She got two balloons from a pizza place here. She tied them to the lampost out front and she solemnly told me she was experimenting to see if the green or the yellow balloon lost it's helium first. Another thing she did and I have no idea where this came from, but she pretended to be a newscaster. She got some paper from Hannah and drew 4 screens. One was for reporting the weather. She drew a sun, a dark cloud and a cloud with rain falling. Next, on another piece of paper, she drew several cars lined up on a road. Then on another sheet of paper she drew a baseball game, with the batter in mid swing. Lastly, she drew a picture of what I think is a news conference; there is a stick man standing at a lectern while several other stick men sit in chairs and listen to him. After drawing all this she hung them on the wall in the corner and then proceeded to report the news. So she covered weather, traffic, sports and politics. Being her mother, I thought the whole thing was adorable.
• Sean has discovered Winnie the Pooh. This time he is reading it to himself or requesting Rick read him a story, and he's delighting in the tongue in cheek humor, which I don't think he got before. He keeps saying that guy who wrote Winnie the Pooh was a really good writer! The funny way he says things!"
• Josh has been reading too. He's read bits and pieces of several books. He read The Case of the Missing Cutthroats which is a middle school easy read by that author of My Side of the Mountain. Now he's been reading The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. I brought lots of books to read with us and we've also hit the local bookstores several times.
• Hannah and her friend have kind of been off in their own world. Hannah did take the kids out to dinner so that Rick and I could have a date. That was very nice.
• Will has been out of it because he's been recovering from a cold (I have a little touch of it as well), but yesterday, he, Hannah and Jean Marie (the friend) went to see Johnny Depp in Dillinger. Will's first uncensored R rated movie (He's watched a couple with Rick, but Rick edited out the unsavory stuff). He is 17 now. He's been playing lots of guitar as usual. Last night at midnight he went out to the beach to play guitar for a while. At 2 o'clock in the morning he was downstairs watching Spirited Away, a movie he brought with us to the beach. He's watched it a lot lately.
• Rick and his brother Steve have been hanging out a lot. It is nice for the kids to be with their uncle. I'm glad Steve can have a little vacation.

So that's the news from Bethany Beach. We go home day after tomorrow.