We enjoyed our black-eyed peas on New Year's Day. Carrie shoveled them in methodically with an alternating fistful approach, a favored technique. Melina skeptically prodded her food, and then set to slowly eating out all the celery, then the carrots, then the chicken, lifting each bite to inspect it before daintily putting it in her wide open mouth.
Before putting Grammy and Grandpa on a plane back to California, we celebrated the last day of 2012 at the beach. We'd been getting up each morning and checking the weather. Shaking our heads, we'd declare that today was "NOT a beach day", being too windy, cold, or cloudy. New Year's Eve was perfect. When you live 15 minutes from the beach, you have to take advantage.
More specifically, when you have one adult to hold each of the children and a fourth to hold a camera, you'll actually get a few pictures to remember the day.
The day was breezy but only slightly cool. Every time we go to South Beach, the color of the water and character of the waves is always different.
This time a yellow flag advertised moderate intensity waves, but the water seemed pretty calm. The kids got bolder and bolder, duck-dodging the surges and laughing crazily.
Of course, this was the inevitable result. Melina was surprised by a wave and doused up to her armpits. Mommy and Grammy, just a few feet on either side of her, kept her upright as she sputtered at the surprise bath. Soon both babies had shed all inhibition and were running as far into the surf as the restraining hands on them would permit.
This was our second December beach visit, the first being a cloudless, eightysomething-degree Christmas Eve. As we were finishing our pancakes at Cracker Barrel, we decided to take full advantage of the "good beach day" and the thousand-odd extra calories we'd each just eaten and head to the beach. Usually people dislike putting on a swimsuit right after overeating, but the kids didn't mind.
Craig brought the Nikon and captured a few shots of each of the kids. Somehow, it then got left on the tripod and Melina's sandy fingers found the lens when nobody was looking.
We're not sure what this year will hold for us. We came to Vero Beach knowing that the job that brought us was temporary and we wouldn't know when we'd move on. We've already been here longer than we thought likely. These perfect days at the beach are bittersweet. As a flock of leggy white birds flew over us, startling the kids with their nearness, I felt a stab of loss thinking that someday we may not live here.
We don't know the future more than anyone else does. In the meantime, we're making the most of our time here in Vero Beach.
And that means enjoying every beach day.
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