the ocean

I don’t get in the ocean. It’s lovely and amazing and beautiful and terrifying. Like a million people got bitten by sharks this year. That’s all anyone heard about all summer. Shark bites, shark bites, and the devastatingly substantial increase in the amount of shark attacks. The crazy part is according to the research C and I did on the subject there was a similar amount of shark attacks last year and the year before. At least that was what we found on the internet, and C’s phone has since gotten a weird virus so maybe that website was sketchy to say the least but either way… I don’t know what the truth is about the amount of shark bites but I’m not getting in (and neither are my kids) so it doesn’t much matter.

C and I debated the subject – he assured me the probability of me getting bitten by a shark while at the beach was probably statistically about the same as me winning the lottery.

I laughed at him and told him the following; 

I am as scared of sharks as I am many items in the ocean. My fear is equally divided among these oceanic atrocities;

  1. sharks
  2. zombies
  3. sink holes
  4. rip tides
  5. sting rays (and skates)
  6. seaweed
  7. jellyfish

All that stuff is both appalling and while maybe not factually accurate, I am a relativity reasonable human being and while I logically know there are no zombies in the ocean fear cannot be rationalized. I’ve seen far too many under sea movies of frothy faced carcasses grabbing peoples legs and pulling them down to Davy Jones’s locker not to be able to visualize that happening to me while waist deep. No thank you.

OBX Family Vaca

8/2014

I wait all year for this trip. 1 week in the Outer Banks. It’s amazing. No work, the sun, lots of shopping, never having to cook… I could get used to living like that. Too bad I’m not independently wealthy and have to work for a living.

Last time W was at the beach she was an infant so I was a little worried how this trip would be with a 16 month old running around. When O was around that age she wouldn’t touch the sand, which made it very easy to hang out on the beach since she confined herself to the beach towel. I doubted I would be so lucky again with Miss Independent pants (W). So I just planned on lots of baby pool time since it was fenced and I wouldn’t have to worry about the girls getting too far if they decided to run away.

w pool

pool O

We did end up venturing to the beach. I may have mentioned I have slight paranoia about certain things, like the ocean, so I brought a baby gate with me for peace of mind. As crazy as we looked it was so worth it. And several passer-byers came over to give us parent of the year awards.

fence beach2

O loved the ocean, a little too much for my taste but what could I do. She did wear her life jacket.

beach    ocean

Counting down the days until next year!