The Last Beach Day

I now know why every single person I meet that has grown children feels the need to impart something like, "it goes so fast," or "you'll blink and they'll be gone." I've always believed that must be true, but now I am living it. We are becoming acclimated to these days of missing our Big B, then quickly seeing him through homework-dinner-bath-books-bed routine, only to wake up and do it all again. I am realizing that time is literally flying past me.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a real autumnal day, complete with a chilly morning. This is the beginning of so many wonderful opportunities for our family's outdoor living, but it also signals the end of the year's beach days. In a spontaneous effort to slow time down this afternoon, we put the now familiar post-school routine on hold, and headed to the sea.
The spontaneity of the day continued as we met our sweet neighbors in the driveway, and spent the rest of the early evening playing at their house and dining at their table. And somehow, at 8:00, the homework was finished, the children were bathed and in bed, and we will still do it all again tomorrow. But we'll have the memory of a salty, sandy, sweet afternoon, one that I hope to conjure up after I blink, and they're gone.