Sunday, August 19, 2012

We Love Fripp.

Our one trip out of town this summer was to the beach. I'd been to Fripp as a kid, and my dad grew up around Beaufort, so he used to take us all over the low country down there. But, Matt and Ella and Summit and Evie Sue (I know that's not really her name) had never been, and that made our time on Fripp even cooler.

We hunted crabs on the beach at night, armed with iPhone flashlights (don't worry sea turtle lovers, they aren't that bright), a net, a bucket, and beer (don't worry DSS, we don't let the kids drink it).

We hunted crabs on the docks during the day. We failed.

We went for long walks on the beach and went swimming in the ocean.

We relaxed.



We saw friends we needed to see.
We did not feed the deer, to the lady who talked smack about stupid people feeding the deer.

We found time for each other.
We found cool stuff.


We saw beautiful things.

We love Fripp.





Summit's Summer Story

After Evan was born, I knew that life would be a little tricky. Just a new baby throws kinks into a daily routine. Add on a house for sale that has to be in showing condition 24/7 and the utter volatility of a schizophrenic real estate market, and things escalate from tricky to maddening. Toss in a broken arm (what?!) on a 5-year-old fella, and it'll knock your socks off.
And, that's what happened. Just when we decided that things had settled enough to book a beach trip, my little buddy's ulna and radius lost out in a shuffle with some monkey bars. My sweet Summit... who'd just a month earlier learned to ride his bike without training wheels, who may as well be a fish for the amount of pool time he gets in, who, in his own mind, plays basketball like Jordan, who really needed to practice writing his name before kindergarten... ended up in a cast all the way up to the top of his arm right smack dab in the middle of July. Talk about taking someone down for the count. We kept trying to tell him that it would make a good story one day, but he failed to see the benefit. And, when the doctor said he'd have to have surgery to place a pin to hold the bones in place, I was like, "What?! But, we have a beach trip!" And, he was like, "But, we'll do it first thing in the morning the day before you leave." And, I was like, "What?! But. But. But." And, he was like, "You'll all be fine. And, be sure to stop at the Shrimp Shack on the way out to Fripp." He was like...this is so easy. And, I was like...no, it isn't.
And, it wasn't so easy. It was awful when he ate the brick on the stairs in my parents' garage in an attempt to protect his broken arm when he tripped a few days after the monkey bars fall. It was crazy when I looked in his mouth to check out the damage, and I saw the teeth that had shifted back from their proper position. I was relieved when the dentist said his x-rays showed no root damage. Only, his mouth looked like he hopped straight outta Honey Boo Boo's family tree. Great look for kindergarten pictures, no?
When we finally made it to the beach after the doctor's and dentist and hospital visits, we thought we'd made some progress away from the crazy. Luckily I'll be doggoned if the first morning we were there that boy didn't wake up with an ear ache that sent us to the Urgent Care where the kid was diagnosed with severe swimmer's ear. The irony. He'd been swimming maybe twice in the two and a half weeks since he'd broken his arm, and had half as many showers (don't judge until you've walked a mile, people). Awesome. Swimmer's ear at the beach. Broken arm at the beach. Summy Poopers felt like total doo doo for the first three days of our impromptu vacay. Eventually we made it through the doo doo, which helped make the decision to extend the trip for a couple more days a good idea.
 
Finally, my boy is feeling better. He's still got a cast, though it was downgraded to one that stops just at the elbow. This should help for his first days at big kid school. Unfortunately, the handwriting practice that never happened and the jacked up teeth may do him no favors. However, he's got a story to tell about his summer...all about how he had to learn to sword fight with his left hand.