As I combed Kylie's hair after her shower tonight, I saw that her scalp was still filled with tiny grains of sand. I laughed thinking it may be until November before all the sand is our of our hair, off our floors, out of our cars. But each time we see a speck of sand it will be a remembrance of this wonderful summer we shared together.
We spent this weekend soaking up as much last minute fun as possible. Thursday was our last BIG beach day. . . we loaded up the cars and headed for Mayflower Beach in Dennis. In all my years as a Cape Codder I had never ventured to Mayflower before even though it's one of the most popular beaches. The sun played tricks on us throughout the day, hiding behind the clouds, causing the kids to dive under their beach towels and bundle up, then coming back into the open, making us all shed some layers and seek out the cool water.
We finished the day off by finding a completely "rustic" Cape Cod seafood place called the Sesuit Harbor Cafe. Run down with old unpainted wood it looked like a fishing shack at the end of the dock. Inside was bustling - a long line of beachgoers curving around a baby grand piano. There were only picnic tables outside and finding one was tricky, but we finally settled ourselves next to a large group - turned out to be a wedding rehearsal dinner. That is true Cape Cod for you. . .the more rustic, unsuspecting and off the beaten path it is - the better it is. We watched the sunset as we feasted on our fish and chips and BYOB drinks. . .
Saturday was Kylie's first soccer game with Sandwich Soccer. She is on team Australia and actually has the same coach she had when she played for the Y. She knows many of the girls on her team and she showed amazing improvement over the last time she played. Now she actually went after the ball and kicked it in the right direction and to her teammates. We were very proud of her and went for ice cream after.
Saturday night we gathered with several of our friends for a bonfire at Sandy Neck. Lots of good food, drinks and fun was had by all. The kids had the most fun - running, screaming, laughing and playing. They even put on a show for us at 10 pm. . .way past everyone's bedtimes.
Sunday we managed to drag our tired selves out of bed and go to Falmouth to try out the Shining Sea Bike Path - another first for me. Melanie had learned to ride her bike without training wheels at the beginning of the summer and Kylie had been working on it (but wasn't quite there yet), so we thought we'd try it. Melanie was nervous about the narrow, busy path at first but eventually fell into a comfort zone (until she got run over by another biker while she was on foot - ouch!) But we settled her back and and she and her friend Kate actually finished the 4 miles ahead of everyone else.
Kylie pooped out pretty quickly with those pesky training wheels. She needed A TON of encouragement to keep going and we finally finished. Next time as Amy says, we will make a date with our hubbies and do the bike path without the kids. Riding along the coast is just breathtaking and taking a pit stop at a beach with our picnic sounds so romantic. . . :-)
The nine year olds still have some energy after two miles
The six year olds look a bit pooped. But Ben had the easiest and most sought after role - the one who got to ride in the baby seat. . .everyone envied him!Today was the day we decided to take off from activity and just stay home and get ready for our big first day of school. We had accomplished all the goals the girls set for themselves at the beginning of the summer, except for the training wheels on Kylie's bike. Well, I told her, we have a few hours left, wanna try it? She was up for it, so away we went and within a few minutes she had the balance down well enough for me to let go of her, but then getting her to steer for longer than 2 or 3 seconds wasn't going well. But we stuck with it and an hour later she was riding down the street in a straight line without stopping. Woo-hoo! What an accomplishment. Check out the videos below.
It was truly a perfect ending to a perfect summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment