Saturday, July 29, 2006

Back from the Beach


My family and I returned from the beach yesterday, and I have to say it was a welcome break from just about everything. I’d thought my wife and I might do a lot of writing while there, but work in any form wasn’t on the agenda. We got there and realized we wanted to do just one thing: rest.

Things started off pretty eventfully, unfortunately. We seem to have a habit of courting disaster on all of our vacations. This trip proved no exception. I never got to sleep before we left (I had worked overnight), and we left hours later than planned, because my wife got held up at work. Our car didn’t even pull out of the driveway until somewhere close to 2:30pm. Oh, and to make matters worse for my sleep-deprived self, I am incapable of sleeping in a car, no matter how exhausted I am. So with me desperate for sleep, we didn’t reach the beach house until 10:15pm, and in less than fifteen minutes we were on the road again… searching for a hospital.

My little boy Liam learned why it’s a bad idea to run through an unfamiliar house. He fell and struck a small table. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much blood spill out the side of my son’s face. My wife gets the credit for realizing first that we needed to go to an emergency room (a decision the doctor confirmed was most definitely the right call).

I’ve included a few pictures of our trip, mainly the best pictures. The first shows off my boy’s “war wound,” two days after the incident. You’ll see how lucky he really was. A little further left, and he could have lost an eye. As it is, he ended up with two stitches, a popsicle from the hospital staff for being brave and some rather successful practice at flirting with nurses (That’s m’boy!). By the way, I finally got to bed about 2:30am, and slept close to twelve hours while my even braver wife dared a first trip down onto the beach with both kids in tow.

There’s a picture of Frank in here, too. I’ll save the rest of his adventures at the beach for future entries, and I promise they’ll be worth the wait.















5 comments:

Sandra Ruttan said...

Looks like you had a great time!

Patrick said...

Great pics. Welcome home.

If I had been Liam, I think I'd have been too focused on my suffering -- and in my case, even a little would be "dire" -- to worry about flirting. Way to go!! :)

Bill, the Wildcat said...

Sandra, I can't begin to tell you how much fun we had. We've gone two years without a real vacation, so it's been long overdue.

Thanks, Patrick! And yeah, soon as Liam figured out the nurses were smitten, he started hamming it up. Like his father, he just loves to have an audience.

Heather said...

Glad to have you back! Looks like you sure had fun - and what a gorgeous family you have. I'm sure it was nice to spend time together.

DesLily said...

Welcome home!!.. I'm not sure why we all say that when in reality no one wants to leave a fun vacation!!.. but welcome home anyway!