manrymission.com

On our way to Louisiana, we stopped to see the Gulf of Mexico at Dauphin Island, Alabama. I was “missing the beach.” I occasionally find myself in a state of longing for sand, waves, shells, and the breeze off the ocean. Years ago, my Hawaiian friend, standing on the coast after a year of being landlocked, described it best to me.  “I can breath again,” she said.

We drove the length of the island admiring the brightly painted houses on sticks. Large piles of blown sand and puddles of ocean water covered the two lane road. Dale maneuvered the van slowly forward until we arrived at the end and the undeveloped beach. The parking lot was under a significant amount of sand, so the coke machine in the distance looked a bit out of place. If a hurricane came through there, I don’t know how any of those houses would withstand it. Such beauty, but so perilously lived.

The beach was fabulous. Undeveloped white sand, lots of shells to find, and calm waves. Gabe and Zeke were soon soaked through. I had them roll up their pants at the start, but they figured when near the water, it’s best to jump in.

We had the red bucket with us, and it was soon so heavy from shell collecting, it had to be left behind while we explored further. There were a few other families and their dogs on the beach and one guy fishing.

When we had finished looking on the other side of the island, Dale and the kids raced back. As usual, Josiah heard “race back” and missed “to the bucket.” Josiah raced directly to the opposite beach. Everyone else raced to the bucket. Dale finally beat Josiah in a race. He is certain he can beat him again. He just needs Josiah to run the wrong way.

My children periodically invent games for competition. The other day, Zeke wanted to play a game using his bucket of various super balls, ping pong balls, and nerf balls. So, the object of the game became to divide up the balls and attempt to roll them under the small table in the sun room. Whoever had the most under the table when all were rolled was the winner. The obstacles of the game were the chairs, table legs, and Patches, who sat under the table and periodically swatted the balls away. Having observed the creation of all the different games, Zeke has decided to invent a few himself. Today, Josiah was the unwilling participant in a game that Zeke named Verja. In it, you must spin a crayon and the crayon that spins the longest is awarded “points and stars”. As the points are awarded, they increase by whatever amounts Zeke can think up: “a million two thousand eight hundred and forty”, “million one hundred seven zero eight two zero eight”, “eight O two zero three hundred forty one”. Josiah would respond with a higher number than Zeke and would occasionally declare “Infinity”. Zeke always came up with another number that he felt bested infinity. Once Zeke spun his crayon and it stopped. He proclaimed “I don’t lose,” and spun it again. “I win! You lose!” is his mantra for all games. His favorite real game is animal go fish. At the end of play, both players count their cards. When he played with his cousin Jake, Jake counted the number of pairs instead of total cards. Now Zeke counts the number of pairs. He is not happy if the opposition has more cards then him and he must say “You win. I lose.” He constantly tells me, “I don’t want to lose.” or “I don’t want to be last.” After Verja, Zeke wanted Josiah to play bowling with him. The crayons were set up as pins at the end of the hall. Zeke then gave Josiah the little earth ball which fits in the palm of Josiah’s hand. Zeke chose for himself the big earth ball which is a giant inflated beach ball. If you don’t want Zeke to tell you “I win! You Lose!”, it’s best not to let him set the rules.