Monday, April 28, 2014

Sunday Fun

On weekends where when we actually have two days with nothing organized (e.g. birthday parties), DH and I take turns letting each other sleep in. It was my turn on Sunday and I got a great lie in before a boy came and jumped on me and said,

"Mommy! Mommy! We're going to the beach!" It was Eldest who said I might be able to go too but he had to check with Daddy first to make sure it was okay. Cute kid.

DH was a Scout and a military man. Can you tell? Nice tee pee!
I got up and got ready without really checking the weather outside. I'm glad I didn't because it was misty and I probably would have balked at the idea of taking the boys down on the beach for a cold outing and that would have meant us missing out on an absolutely fantastic day.


There was a bit of mizzle (that's mist and drizzle combined. Like the Inuit have many, many words to describe snow, Newfoundland and Labradorians have a lot of different words to describe rainy weather conditions) when we first arrived but the boys were happily decked out in sweaters and rubber boots.


Any trip to the beach entails packing a change of clothing for each of them, which we needed. Eldest learned that rubber boots fill up with water! He was pleased to put on a warm and dry pair of socks and his winter boots after that.


What began as a simple trip to the beach turned into a fire and picnic at the beach before we'd left the house so DH had a box of dry wood, matches and starter (aka cardboard) ready to go. We brought hot dogs (I'm not a huge fan but there's nothing like a fire roasted hot dog), baby carrots, snap peas, apples, homemade peanut butter cookies and, most importantly, marshmallows! No one went hungry.


After a wonderful time around the fire and really, really appreciating its heat (it was 4C yesterday) we headed out for a hike on the East Coast Trail heading in the Torbay direction.

You can barely see a brown trail head sign in the distance up
on the grass.

During the summer of 2008, DH, Eldest, Middlest and I walked from our house along the trail headed towards Middle Cove Beach where we stopped for a picnic.

Looking back at Middle Cove Beach and an impressive fog bank
rolling in.
We managed to make it to the section where we'd previously turned around so have now completed the Motion to Middle Cove Beach section of the trail in its entirety.

Youngest was a little trooper, holding onto DH's hand and singing the whole time to and from.


I had a vice like grip on Middlest (the runner/escape artist of the family) for most of the trip. This picture gives a good indication why.


I can't wait to go back and see this on a bright day.
Youngest kept looking for whales and screaming that
he'd seen one each time a wave crested.
Our section of the East Coast Trail really shows off some of the coastal forest that we are lucky enough to live next to and one that I grew up with.

Lichen covered branches.
I am so happy to be sharing this with my former British Columbian husband and making this landscape a part of our children's childhood too. I really think that the landscape you grow up with shapes your soul and has an impact upon you your entire life.

The Spruce trees are stunted and moulded by the wind.
The longer we stayed, the more the fog rolled in but the mist let up after the first 45 minutes or so at the beach. It was neat - an extremely foggy day but dry, dry, dry. Eldest even stayed outside to play more when we returned home.

Before.
After. Still dry though.
Sadly, Middlest started to feel off during our picnic, did the hike well but then spiked a fever when we got home. I think it's another ear infection. That poor child and his ear infections (he has his second  (and third set on one side) of tubes in his ears).



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