On Monday afternoon we went to the beach. We were gifted a free week by Kathryn's brother and sister-in-law. We made it up to Ocean City at 3ish and took possession of the key.
We waved good-bye with heartfelt thanks and rushed off to the beach. I say we, we did not include David as he had to work Monday and hypothetically Tuesday (the day of the big snow).
click to embiggen
The kids chased seagulls and waded in tidal pools. It was 40 something degrees and we knew that was going to be our warmest hour at the beach so we took full advantage of it.
We spent a quiet night in the very nice beach house, that reminded me very much of weekends at Massanuten that I used to spend with my grandparents.
The next day it got cold and we played in the indoor pool and worried about David and the snow.
Well I worried...the kids mainly splashed. We watched the weather channel a great deal and were deeply relieved to see his car pull up as we scurried back to the beach house after pool time.
We spent the next 24 hours watching the inlet freeze over and spotting cool marine birds.
Kiernan began his transformation into a cat.
He took up the appropriate napping in the warm spot positions and would only get up for games and food.
On Thursday morning he woke up a 5 year old.
He got the two gifts he had really been asking for: a red RC truck and a t-ball bat (also red). He told us all about how good it was to be 5. This after the evening before saying that he wanted to stay 4 forever.
We celebrated all day.
In the morning we went to an indoor Safari mini-golf place.
Mom got a hole in one on the last hole. She won a free game anytime at the beach and she managed to get a tiny golf ball into a tiny hole in the above yellow mask. It was amazing. She gave the ticket to Kiernan as a bonus birthday gift.
For those of you keeping score of David and my mini-golf feud let it be known that he won this round.
{Shakes fist dramatically.}
We went back to the beach house for Megan's nap and moms parting (she had to be back to work on Friday). It was really very very cold. Behold the frozen over bay.
After Megan got up we went over to the Nature Center on Assateague. After learning about local marine biology and splashing happily about, we got back in the car to see if we could find some wild ponies.
We found many wild ponies, more than I have ever seen there. Megan was especially impressed.
There were a number of foals and I felt so sorry for them in the subfreezing temperatures. I also was on the look out for the great snowy owl that has been seen down there as it is an irruption year, but no joy on that count.
On Friday morning we got up and said loving goodbyes to the beach house.
We cleaned up after ourselves.
Grabbed a bagel for breakfast..
And drove home for some splendid driveway clearing.
Welcome home daddy! How's your back?
tomorrow will be Kiernan's birthday party, expect another post soon.
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