Day one we went to the beach
I was ready for a relaxing day of fun in the sun, on the beach, with my new book. Unfortunately, the seaweed was very thick. Audrey sank to her knees in the seaweed at one point. The water was black from all the sea weed floating up. I decided to give it a try anyway, what else could we do? I begin unloading the car and setting up. Audrey informs us if you go far enough out in the water the sea weed is not bad. Getting out that far is the hard part. I set everything out, Aaliyah was having a snack of Cheetos puffs on the blanket and I was ready for some peace. Audrey walked up, and I noticed her swimsuit was bloated. I pulled a little of the fabric up and realized her suit had filled with sea weed, as soon as she realized what happened she began screaming. The weeds were itchy and she wanted them off of her. There was no way to fix the problem at the beach, and she would not just "get over it", so I had to start packing the car while she continued to panic. I was picking up stuff and packing, Amanda was playing on her phone, and Aaliyah was dumping Cheetos Everywhere. As I ran to the car for my first hurried trip I yelled at Amanda to do something about the Cheetos. Amanda decided to kill 2 birds with one stone. Get rid of the Cheetos and distract a melting down Audrey. She gave both Audrey and Landon 2 Cheetos and told them to feed the sea gulls. They took 2 or 3 steps away from Amanda and threw them in the air. As I turn from the car to make my second trip I hear blood curdling screams. A swarm of about 20 birds attacked Audrey and Landon as they fought for the four Cheetos. The birds also realized the blanket was covered in Cheetos and the growing swarm of about 30 began to dive bomb and attack Amanda and Aaliyah to get the rest of the bag. Amanda jumped up from the blanket and ran away screaming. The 3 of them were in the middle of a swarm of crazy sea gulls screaming. The birds were dive bombing, hitting them and flapping at them with their wings. I ran to the beach from the parking lot screaming at Amanda to get Aaliyah. Aaliyah was on the blanket laughing hysterically at the chaos, ( she better get used to it). Amanda grabs Aaliyah as I get to the blanket. I grab all four corners of the blanket and start running to the car. Much to my relief the birds did not attack me, but every time I turned around I would see one hit Amanda on top of the head, as Audrey threw sand at them to try and scare them away. The confused birds thought Audrey was continuing to throw food. Once safely in the car, I looked back at the area we were sitting to make sure we did not leave anything. I realized because of the sea weed, the beach was full of bored people sitting around not going in the water. They were all laughing. One guy was laughing so hard he fell out of his chair. Our dignity, that is what we left at the beach.
Day two, The Water Park.
The beach was a total bust, we were only there a total of 30 minutes. I decided to take everyone to the water park, a safe relaxing day at the water park. We set our stuff up in a pavilion in the Kiddie Cove. Everyone played with Aaliyah in the water for about 10 minutes. Audrey and Landon decided to go try the water slides. I got my new book, found a lounge chair and was ready to RELAX. Landon showed back up, a little annoyed. They got to the top of a slide and he was to short. Audrey went down without him. I was trying to explain to him how to measure himself at each slide when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. A very serious looking park official, and a police officer heading into the Kiddie Cove. Let's be honest, I knew they were looking for me. We all know they were looking for me. Even before I saw her mischievous little grin, walking a little behind the police officer, but holding his hand, I knew they were looking for me. I put my book down, got up and walked towards them. The super serious woman asked me my name and asked Audrey if I was her Mother. Audrey acknowledged that I was in fact her Mother. The woman informed me that Audrey had filed a missing parent report and they were following their procedures for the incident. WHAT?? Evidently Audrey went over to the police officer and told him she was lost. He took her to Guest services and they were all attempting to locate her lost parent. Cringe. I apologized to both of them and looked at Audrey. I said, " Audrey you knew where I was." Officer drama was offended by my reaction. He went down on one knee, grabbed Audrey by both shoulders and said, " You did the right thing! Anytime you need help you ask a police officer. You thought you were lost and you asked for help. It is always the right thing to ask for help." He stood up and gave me a condescending, disapproving look. Wow. I was to stunned to even speak. Super serious park official informed me they consider all of these incidents serious, even if the parent do not. Duly Noted. I needed some time to process what had happened, so we all got in the lazy river. I tried to rationalize, Audrey is taught social skill lessons. They have spent a lot of time teaching her what to do in crisis. Maybe she was just practicing her emergency preparedness. I looked at Amanda and said" I can not believe she did that." Amanda looked at me a little sarcastically and said "Really, you REALLY can not believe she did that." I look over at my princess and realize she is doing the international sign for drowning as we go past the life guards. If you do not know what that is, you count to 3 with your fingers as you come up and go down in the water. She has gotten the hideaway lifeguards with it twice already. I yelled at her to stop. Fortunately, I saw it before the Life Guard. She laughed her mischievous laugh and swam out of reach. Later I asked her why she told 'officer drama' she was lost. She said I told her I was staying at the kiddie pool. She could not find a sign that said kiddie pool, therefore she was lost. I asked her if she looked for me. She said she looked for the kiddie pool. Whatever, We all know she just wanted to know what would happen. Now we know. The rest of the day Officer Drama gave me a dirty look when I walked past him.
On a side note, Aaliyah loves the water park. I am sure by the end of the summer they will know Audrey by name. I will await my apology.