The Series of Unfortunate Events: A Weekend at the Beach!

I don't think I was born with an innate sense of adventure, but over the course of my adulthood, I have certainly learned to cut loose! This is one of those weekends. It started like this, "oh man, I wish I was going to the beach. . ." About 15 minutes later, Jenna called back. Her friend who was adventuring with her was unable to go and she had a home study scheduled for South Padre Island. We would leave at 4:00 the next afternoon on Thursday after Chase and Dylan got out of College for kids. Yahoo, I am outta here!





Thursday afternoon, roof bag packed, car full of gas, snacks and drinks in reach all we are off. South Padre, here we come. Unfortunate Event (UE) #1. Traffic. The kids were so great though. They were like little angels. They were so happy to be going to the beach. They were talking and watching movies. There was peace, despite a 2 hour delay, first in Fort Worth, then in Austin, then in San Antonio. We had Starbucks and dinner and the world was right. The stars were bright and beautiful. UE #2. When the stars are that bright you should have gotten gas in the last town, and there should be a sign that it was the last town. Fortunately Jenna has GPS, Unfortunately, it does not know that the station you will be pulling 2 miles off the road to get to closes at sundown and doesn't take credit cards. I think Mator was hiding somewhere. Fortunately there was a station 10 miles away, and we barely made it.





UE #3 The town where we got gas was experiencing a plague of locusts, ok, maybe they were crickets, whatever. They were stinky and crunchy and I bet the town folk had already referred to them as a plague as they were everywhere. UE #4 We did not leave the gas station without a visitor. Just as the last sleepy child had nodded off I was attacked by a cricket from a small town sleeper cell that had stowed away in the floor board at the gas station. I tried to contain myself, so as not to disturb the driver, but it was a bit unnerving. At this point with all the delays and strange things that have happened to us, we are wondering what else is in store, we couldn't help but chuckle. We finally pull in to the hotel around 2:30 with one very unhappy Cade who JUST woke up and quickly unpacked and hit the sack. It wasn't even 4:00am yet. Thank goodness for blackout shades, we giggled as we hit the sack.





I think we slept until about 9:00 the next morning and had a great free hot breakfast at the hotel. Then headed to the beach with all our gear. Guess what? UE#5 More traffic going to Padre Island. I guess everyone heads to the beach across one bridge on the weekends. I think we moved one mile in an hour and a half. Again, we couldn't help but laugh at our plight.





When we finally got there, we had a great time. We found two umbrellas that we rented with chairs and camped out. We ate "Sand-witches," and snack and drinks we grabbed at the store on the way to the beach. The kids had a great time playing all day on boogie boards hunting shells and digging in the sand. We all loved it. We were not even going to stay the second day after the home study, but the kids were just having too much fun. We decided we just had to come back. It was so much fun.





Saturday, Jenna headed out to do her home study. I got some funny looks hauling 6 kids down to breakfast. Such sweet kids. It is always nice to get compliments because your kids are so well behaved. The lady serving breakfast even told us she was going to miss us because she was off work the next day. We went back to the room and rested and repacked for another day at the beach while Jenna worked hard. Nate even got a nap. We were raring to go when she got back, complete with sunscreen. We got to the beach, well fed and rested with lots of food and drinks, knowing the ropes, ready to go!

UE# 6 We had not been there 15 minutes when we lost Blake, yes, you read correctly, lost Blake. Jenna and I were in the water with Cade, Dylan, and Nate; Bailey, Chase and Blake had been stuck like glue the previous day. They were not to leave each other's sides. Jenna and I looked up, and no Blake. We scanned the beach and I headed for Bailey and Chase. When I got there, I asked them where Blake was, they just shrugged their shoulders and said, "I dunno." I cannot even begin to describe the horror that I felt in that moment. I felt in that moment that the water was incredibly deep. The feeling that he was in the water was overwhelming.





I knew that was a not so uncommon reality. I have personally pulled two children out of shallower water. I looked at Jenna hoping that she had spotted him, but nothing. We quickly regrouped. I took Bailey and Chase one way, and Jenna planted Dylan and Cade under the umbrellas and took Nate the other way and we began to search the beach. When we had gone about the distance of a football field in opposite directions, we both called 911. We spent the next hour searching the water and beach for Blake. I cannot imagine feeling so many different emotions at one time, but I couldn't break down. I had to help.





I wondered how Bailey would feel, how Bryan would feel, how we all would cope, how Blake felt, I was thankful for the time I had with him after his surgery and wondered if I should have just been grateful for the extra time that I had been granted with him. You name it. As I rode up and down the beach on the rescue vehicle my emotions ran the gamut. People kept running up to us, our hopes up, only to be dashed by people asking for directions to the barbecue pit. Can't they see this is a rescue vehicle with a mother looking for a lost child? I thought I was going to be sick, but couldn't, I thought I wouldn't be able to get my breath, but had to. I had to find my son.





The police officer told me that he was probably just playing, "you know kids," that didn't help. I do know kids. My kid listens. He was either very lost or way worse. That was the longest hour of my life! The next time we passed Jenna, she pointed to her phone. Blake was two miles away with a mother who had a cell phone. The current had carried him down the beach far enough that he had gotten turned around and in panic had walked the wrong way. He called home and miraculously, Bryan came home and checked the messages and called Jenna to let us know where he was.





It felt like forever driving to get him. What a relief. The officer told me not to spank him when I saw him. Apparently, some people do. I was so relieved, I didn't want to let him go. He looked like he had been crying, but he didn't really get what all the fuss was about. The sweet lady from Sugarland, Texas, almost got a similar hug, but my head overruled my heart. Poor Bryan. He was wanting to drive down and escort us home. I still have to make myself let Blake out of my sight.





So here we were, at the beach, day two, found Blake, take a deep breath, or two or three. Unbelievable. We had a great day despite the trauma, but if we had not been ten hours away from home, I would not have stayed. I am glad we did. We played until the sun started to set. Dylan was an excelled sport getting buried in the sand! We shampooed the sand off before we head to our nice clean car and say farewell to the beautiful blue sky and white sands of South Padre Island.





UE #7 I beat everyone to the car to give curbside service, as all are nice and clean, and, it is buried up to the side steps in the deep, deep sand, ba du bup! Perfect. Fortunately there were some sweet men nearby who saw us fashioning our boogie boards in MacGyver like fashion to drive our way out. They then meandered over and explained how if our vehicle was not 4 by 4 that we were going to need a tow, but they thought they thought they could find a truck to pull us out. Ahhhh! Thank you Lord. Believe it or not, when we realized the car was stuck, we were laughing once again. We laughed even harder when we were unstuck in 5 minutes.





Ahhhhh! We are on our way to the blessed trashy souvenir shop on our way out of town. After much angst, the children are satisfied. Boys with knives with their names on them thanks to Bailey who tracked down every last one, even Dylan's hanging in the wrong location, and Bailey with some coral and a little finger bling. Yes, you guessed it UE # 8 Before I could even tell Blake not to open his knife until he had a little knife safety lesson with dad, he sliced his hand. Don't worry, only a flesh wound. We all even got cute little shell necklaces for free. Yeah us.





Sleep, breakfast, Jenna and I successful installed the roof bag ALL BY OURSELVES (only took an hour to pack the car), and off we go! First stop, (almost), Chipotle, San Antonio, Mmmm. It was like heaven on earth. We had A LOT to talk about on the way home. We talked about how everything happens for a reason, and how maybe our kids just needed a big time first hand example of how not to gripe and complain when almost everything goes wrong. We had an unbelievably great time despite the UE. We sure were glad to see those daddies though! Home sweet home. Next time daddies need to come to the beach. . . Thank you Jenna for the awesome weekend!