Yesterday was visitation. I was questioning the wisdom of planning a beach trip the same weekend as visitation. Emotions were all over the place yesterday morning. Excitement about going to the beach. Excitement about visitation. Fear that mom wouldn't show up. And it was one of the worst visitations ever. I was hoping that the beach trip would temporarily ease the pain of visitation.
You can't believe how much work it is to do a one day beach trip. Maybe, that is why it has been two years since we went.
I told the kids I would get them up at 5:45. We would have devo at 6:00, breakfast at 6:30, chores and leave at 7:30. I was up there long before 5:45. When I touched the doorknobs of the rooms at 5:45, they began to pop out of bed. I sure don't see that at 6:45 other mornings. At the end of devo, I said we would eat, and do chores. Then I said the homework this morning was really long and really hard and as soon as everyone was finished, we would leave for the beach. I expected everyone to groan and argue with me. Instead, they sat in stunned silence. When I said, "just kidding", there was a roar that could have been heard at the beach. Chores were done in record time and only one person had to redo his chore.
We were delayed leaving because the van had a flat and that had to be fixed. The van and white mitsubishi pulled out of the gate at 7:50 for what should have been a two hour drive to the beach. Matt was driving the car and I was with him. Any puked. We stopped. I unloaded all the little kids out of the car and we cleaned everything up. I don't do puke very well. I was a nervous wreck with the little kids out of the car. When we are finally loaded and on the road again, the car overheats. To the side of the road again. And Any pukes again. And Jackson pukes. We need dramamine for the next trip. We found out there were two pukers in the van as well. Adventures in Honduras. When we finally got enough water in the radiator and got the engine really cool, we had no more problems. We arrived at the beach about an hour later than expected. The kids were amazingly patient.
We went to Amapala, which is an island. We have to take a water taxi, which is my least favorite part of the whole trip. Loading 21 kids and all of our stuff in and out makes me sick. I am so afraid of a kid jumping off the side or tipping the boat.
Loading the water taxi
Most of us have been to this beach before. As we rounded the bend and started to enter the cove, there is a big cheer as the beach comes into sight.
Cris liked the sand much more than the water
Someone had given us some money to do something special for the kids as a whole. We decided this was the day to do that. We bought a fried fish dinner at the beach for all the kids and the staff that went with us.
Little Miss Any was an eating machine
We went back in the water for another hour. Then the 40 baleadas we brought with us were devoured and the snacks the kids had purchased with their allowance. I was thinking everyone will be puking for the trip home.
The last time we went to the beach was two years ago. We went with the whole town. On Holy week. It was so hard to keep up with all the kids. This was so much fun today. There was hardly anyone else on the beach or in the water. It was a great Casa day. It was a long day. But a fun day. Some didn't make it far after we got back to the cars.
I think we all wished we could have done this.
After we got home, I let my employees start showering and feeding the kids. I knew they would soon be in bed. I went to the pila and rinsed a couple of tons of sand out of the wet clothes and then threw everything in the washer. I decided everything else could wait until tomorrow to be cleaned and put away. And now it is time for me to go to bed, too.
Terri
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