Fun for Free

You've probably heard the story about the kid who got a cool gift/toy but ended up having the most fun playing with the box. It's so true. In our case, we bought a piece of furniture, and Abbie found a cool use for the discarded box. She put it on a hill in the backyard and started sliding.
Then we moved it to another steep area and added more pieces of cardboard to make a longer run. Can you tell that she slides on the cardboard with another smaller piece of cardboard?
This is as much fun as sledding. I guess we are preparing for our snow adventure in December.
Fun for all ages!
Abbie gives Paul a push, but it doesn't take much - you go down pretty quick!

Our Beach Trip

Annie says she wants to hear about our beach trip. I haven't blogged about it yet because it was absolutely perfect, and I didn't want to gush TOO much! But, okay, I will!
It was a quick trip. We left on Friday around 2 pm, but unfortunately, due to the gas freak out, it took a while to find a gas station without a long line or that was not completely out of gas.
It takes about 5 hours to get to Charleston. After stopping to eat and stretch our legs, we got to our hotel at about 9pm. We immediately went for a walk on the beach. The weather was so nice despite the hurricane happening in the Gulf. The water was still warm; skies clear.
We had a wonderful moonlight walk in the waves and along the shore. Abbie skipped through the water, and it was a perfect night to hold hands. *I told you I would be sappy!*
On Saturday, we spent most of the day on the beach, in the water, and playing in the sand. I'll get around to posting pictures eventually. Later in the afternoon, we drove into Charleston and took a carriage tour of the town. It was only an hour long, but we learned a lot! Then we ate at Hyman's, a famous seafood restaurant and shopped at the open air market. By the time we got back to our hotel, it was dark again. Our hotel had a cafe/bar on either side and had live music outside each night. I enjoyed that. We took another walk on the beach, in the moonlight, holding hands and skipping through the water. We walked further this time in order to savor every moment on the beach that we could.
On Sunday, we spent more time at the beach and got the hotel to extend our check out time. Then we came home. :(
I like Isle of Palms so much better than Myrtle Beach. I grew up spending vacations at Myrtle Beach, and I've always enjoyed it and the many activities there. But now that I'm older, I enjoy the a more laid back environment. At Isle of Palms, there is no cruising down the boulevard, no rowdy teens (at least, not on this visit), no huge hotel skyscrapers, etc. At Isle of Palms, I only saw 3-4 hotels, and they were only 3 stories. The rest of the area was really nice houses on the beach.
This recent trip really got me to thinking about our upcoming big anniversary trip. We had planned to go to Atlantis on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Now, I'm thinking that we might have just as much fun renting a nice house on the beach in Florida. We've always wanted to stay in Seaside or at the Watercolors Resort (both of these are very close to Destin, and we LOVE Destin). So I'm doing my research, and we'll make a decision soon.

Juno Tic Tacs

September means that we are now picking up buckeyes when we take a walk around the neighborhood. Picking up buckeyes is an annual event that Abbie and I look forward to - I have to say that I get as excited as Abbie does. It's like finding Easter eggs or sharks teeth on the beach or any other unexpected treasure. When I see that dark brown chestnut color shining between the grass blades, I get a little tingle.
When we first started picking up buckeyes, we only knew of one tree in the neighborhood. A year later, we discovered another tree, and this has caused our finds to multiply. The trees are very different - one tree only drops a few buckeys, but they are really big! The other tree's buckeyes are smaller but way more plentiful.
Yesterday, I had to make myself stop picking them up b/c our bag was about to break. It was hard to walk away from the motherload!
Each day that we pick up buckeyes, we leave 3-4 on the doorstep of my friend's house. Abbie usually puts the buckeyes on the doorstep, rings the doorbell, then runs to catch up with us on our walk. My friend's children like finding the surprises. My friend decided she would start collecting them in a bowl for a fall display.
Yesterday, my niece was visiting and we decided to take her with us on our daily walk and daily buckeye pickup. (The location of the buckeye trees is a well guarded secret.) My niece started talking about the scene in Juno when Juno stuffs her friend's mailbox with packs of Tic Tacs. Needless to say, a lightbulb went off in my head.
We wrote 4 rhyminig clues and put the clues and one buckeye in a baggie. We snuck to my friends house and tried to be stealthy in broad daylight while we hid the clues. The last clue was supposed to lead them to their mailbox. We stuffed the mailbox with a gazillion buckeyes and made sure that they would all come tumbling out when the mailbox was opened. Abbie ran to the door and left the first clue and rang the doorbell. While she was running to our hiding place, she lost both flip flops in their yard, but the girl kept running!
It was really fun to stuff their mailbox, but it was also pretty exciting to be crouched down behind the hill waiting for them to make the final discovery. Sometimes, one of us would pop up to see which clue they were working on. We were like gophers! We have a lot of walkers in our neighborhood so we had to "act casual" while being stealthy and crouching - not easy!
My friend had a good laugh about her mailbox, and told her daughter not take the buckeyes out until she took a picture - it's a scrapbooking moment.
When we got home, we told Paul all about our adventure. He wondered what kind of "box" we hid the buckeyes in. I told him, "the federally-owned-you're-going-to-jail-if-you-tamper-with-it mailbox."

Amazing

It doesn't take much to amaze me (usually).
Today, I was typing the board minutes from a recent school board meeting.
I learned how to type in high school - on a typewriter, before keyboarding or computers were mainstream. It wasn't too hard to learn, but I was never the fastest or the most accurate.
It amazes me that I can look a paper (and not the keyboard or the computer screen), and the words race from the paper to my eyes through my brain and out to my fingers. And if I really, really, really relax my mind and don't think about what my fingers are doing, I can type fairly accurately. I am totally unconscious of what my fingers are doing yet they are hitting the right key every time. I just think that is nifty!
Of course, when I look at the screen or down at the keyboard, that's when my typing gets all wonky and slow.
It makes me wonder...if I really, really, really relax my mind, could I teleport like Hiro Nakamura? Hmmm...

Charleston

Believe it or not, we are heading out of town this weekend for an impromptu trip to the beach. We'll be in the Charleston area. It is only 5 hours from here. I didn't know that until I went in February with a friend to her beach house there. I wish I had known all this time that Charleston was so close. It is one cool little southern beach town!
If you've never been, the historic buildings are pretty awesome. After my February trip, I came home with a thirst for more knowledge about the civil war and slavery. I consumed several books and videos while trying to get answers to my questions. I love research (when it is something I want to know).
We'll be staying on the beach. We'll arrive Friday and leave Sunday - too short for me but better than nothing! Yay - I get my annual beach fix!
The coolest thing is that this was mostly Paul's idea (he's more of the stay-at-home type person). And Abbie gets some credit because she made a special wish on a "wishing fluff" and the wish came true.