girls day

so ok, here's what i won't be accomplishing - blogging every day. easier thought about than done with 3 boys age 4 and under around i guess.

today i did something i haven't done in... well, forever. forever as in since i've had kids. i spent a whole entire girls day out with my cousin and her sister in law.

so.much.fun.

sure, since the kids i've taken a few hours here or there to do stuff, but a whole day? never. it's not that i never had the opportunity, it's more like i never let myself take the time. and today was great.

got picked up after breakfast, we cruised around town a bit - which brought me back to the times we were teenagers and my cousin would pick me up and we would just drive. she knew Everybody it always seemed like. made a few stops, then we were at the beach. without.kids. that's right, we have 8 kids between the three of us and today was just about us.

we set our stuff up, took a long walk down the beach... chatted, gossiped and laughed alot. i think for a long time i've tried to tell myself i didn't need that... but i so did. they even got me in the water after i swore i would not be going in.

i can swim. i'm just not a strong swimmer. i'm good in a pool but i'm not lifesaving good. and i like that there's always a side i can swim to if i get tired. the beach is another story. when i was younger i Loved to go right into the ocean and body surf. i could do it for hours. then one time when i was about 16 i got pulled under and felt like i nearly drowned. i just remember not being able to breathe, getting turned over and tossed and really thinking i was actually going to die. then i was suddenly on the beach and i was coughing. made it out on my own but that stayed with me and scared the hell out of me. how quickly the ocean can take you. i tried to lose that fear but i never did try body surfing again and now only wade into about my hips and i'm good with that. love the beach, am just too nervous to really get out there.

throw in some peer pressure from some girls i love dearly and there i was walking out further with them - shaking my head no the whole time but trying it anyway. there was no rip tide today (just a bit of a red tide, ew) and they promised me they were strong enough swimmers to save me. i got out there so far it was up to my neck and when the waves came in it was over my head. they tried to show me how to jump with the wave and i did it a few times - and it really was fun - but i could not let go enough and after the 2nd time i went totally underwater with a big wave i was done. walked myself right out and back up the beach. just could not do it.

i dried off and laid on the beach thinking 1st that i felt a little stupid i couldn't do it, but later i realized that i did do something. i got myself further out there than i have in like 17 years (holy crap has it been that long?!), and even if it didn't last long, i tried it.

we spent a few more hours walking and sunning and sitting and talking and it was just a really nice day. the weather had started off cold and cloudy and even kind of windy, but by the afternoon the sun ws shining and it was warm. and leaving the beach we all realized we were kind of... crispy. we pay such attention to sunblocking the heck out of our kids, but not one of us put any sunblock on ourselves today. and at the time? we didn't even care.

i have to say i have a really awesome husband who actually Wanted me to go and do this with the girls today. he's on vacation this week and he planned a 'boys day' and they did their thing. it made it even nicer. i had really forgotten how great a whole day with girlfriends can be.