I left work yesterday because Baby E’s breathing was sounding pretty bad and I wanted to make sure that I had time to get him to the walk in hours at his pediatrician before they closed. When I got to the sitter, he sounded bad, but he was acting pretty normal. He was smiling and giggling. I called the doctor’s office and they said to bring him in. I called Tim, and since he was nearby, we met and Tim took Baby E down to the appointment. (Since I had done the appointment the night before, and I had plans to get my hair cut, my very kind husband said he didn’t mind going. Had he been far away, I would have gone.)

Once we parted ways I drove the kids home, but I took the longer way that brought us straight into town and towards the bay. I’ve mentioned in the past how much I like living by water. There is something comforting about it, even if I can’t see it. As we came down the hill I could see that the bay was choppy and I pointed it out to the kids. They thought it was neat, so I decided to get closer. We turned down by the boardwalk and we could see that the tide had gotten higher and the waves were battering on the beach.

I thought maybe we could get even closer! There is a road right past the boardwalk that runs directly next to the bay, separating you from the water by only a jersey wall. I turned down on that street and as there was no one behind us, I pulled close to the jersey wall and stopped the van. Then we waited. The water was higher than normal, and the waves came crashing into the jersey wall. The water came shooting into the air and landed right on our van! It wasn’t a huge amount of water, but enough to hear it hit the van and see the water on the windows. The kids loved it. So much in fact we sat there for ten minutes letting the waves hit the car. They giggled and laughed each time it happened and we sat there predicting which waves would hit us and which ones wouldn’t.

It was an awesome and somewhat eerie sensation to be that close to the crashing waves, knowing we were perfectly safe but realizing how powerful the winds, waves, and currents were. It made us feel very small indeed.

By the time we left, the passenger side of the van was completely doused in bay water, but it was definitely worth it hear the kids enjoy the experience so much! And thankfully it rained today and washed all the salt water off!