The Beach, and all the events leading up to the beach

While on vacation to Florida we had a beach day.  My boys have only been to the beach one other time and they were super excited about swimming in the Ocean.  Piper had talked about going to the Ocean every day for a week.  "Is today the day I get to swim in the ocean?"  The day did not go quite as well as we had anticipated.  Mike and I got in a huge argument.  We generally don't yell at each other in disagreements but this one escalated to yelling in the car as we began driving to the beach.  The boys were worried--what is wrong with our parents?!--and I ended up yelling, "Turn the car around.  I'm not going to the beach with you!"  Mike slammed on the breaks and we discovered that Piper had unsnapped her seat belt again and she went flying into Mike's seat.  We pulled over, took care of Piper, and I realized that this was just ridiculous to be acting this way.  We calmed down and continued to the beach.  

Thirty minutes into our drive we heard this really loud sound coming from our van.  We were quite confused about where the sound was coming from and pulled over to the side of the road.  Our back tire was completely flat.  Thankfully, Mike had felt inspired before we left TN to bring our spare tire.  I was feeling grateful for his inspiration and his knowledge of how to change a tire.  Mike said, "This will be a good chance for me to show the boys how to change a tire" so we all piled out of the car.  Unfortunately, we discovered that our spare tire had some crazy fancy hubcap and the tools we had to put the tire on would not work with our new tire.  

I called roadside assistance and was told that it would take an hour and a half for a tow truck to arrive.  The boys were devastated.  They all started crying in frustration and sadness that they were not going to make it to the beach.  Our GPS had taken us a different route than the rest of the family so we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from anything.  I was pretty  upset as well.  What terrible luck!  I was trying really hard to stay positive for the kids and not cry myself so I tried to be all Pollyanna like and said, "Let's play a game!"  The boys just blankly stared at me.  "No really!  Let's play the 20 good things game!  All of us will work together to list 20 good things about our situation."  The boys were like, "Uh, Ok."  They begrudgingly listed 20 things.  "We have a cell phone."  "We have AC in our van."  "We have snacks in the van."  "We can watch a movie while we wait."  They had a pretty good list and amazingly enough, when we finished they had stopped crying and we were all a bit happier.  

I have to admit though, it was a bit too much for me.  I was dealing with girly issues (which was going to make the beach an unpleasant experience to begin with), I'd just gotten into a huge fight with Mike, and now we had a flat tire.  How were we all going to fit into a tow truck anyway?  I got out of the van to be by myself and started crying.  "This sucks."  "Twenty good things."  "No, really, this sucks."  I looked down and saw the hugest bug I've ever seen in my life on my butt!  The eyes were the size of my thumb and it looked like some crazy bee/fly thing and I freaked out and ran to the car and then I just cried some more.  Not only was I stuck in the middle of no where but I was also being besieged by monstrous flying creatures from the Netherworld.

At this point Mike called his parents and asked them to come back for me and the kids.  They were already at the beach but turned around and drove an hour back to get us.  Steve stayed with Mike and the kids and I piled in with Carol.  We had to make a potty stop since we were stranded in the middle of nowhere.  Finally, we made it to Cocoa Beach.  

The rest of the day was fine for the boys and I.  We all had a good time playing in the water and sand.  Piper loved the waves and was actually really brave in the water and the boys were way more brave than I am.  I am quite timid in the ocean but they swam out far past the beach to be by their cousins and uncles.  I only got one picture of Will the entire time because he stayed in the water the entire time (except for once when he came back to get something to eat but because he didn't have his glasses, he couldn't see where we were sitting and got lost!  I didn't see him because I had taken someone to the bathroom so he walked back and forth and started to get worried.  Thankfully, he was smart and went and grabbed a life guard to tell them he didn't have his glasses and couldn't see his family and could they help him find us?  I looked over to see Will walking around with the life guard and ran over to see what was going on.  Turns out, the life guard stand was right by us and all was well).

While the kids and I had fun at the beach, Mike and Steve hung out in the car where Steve gave Mike sound advice about getting in arguments with wives.  I especially liked how he told Mike that in his experience if he'd just listen to his wife he'd discover that she was usually right.  ;)  

The tow truck didn't show up for 2 1/2 hours!  The driver tried to take them 20 miles back from the direction we were headed and Mike finally convinced him to take them to an auto parts store so he could find the right tool to put the tire on.  On the way the tow truck got a flat!  Finally, after fixing the tow truck and having to go to three different auto parts stores they found the right tool and ended up getting to the beach at 4:00, just when we were all ready to load up and head home.  Sigh.

It ended up being fine.  Mike doesn't like sand anyway and even though I know he would have enjoyed being out in the waves with the boys I think he was ok missing out on all the fun and he has a much better attitude about things not going his way than I have to begin with so it was no hard task for him to keep the 20 things in his mind and make the best of the situation.  Plus, it allowed us to calm down and get over our fight from the morning and we were both happy and relieved to see one another when he finally showed up.  

It was 7/11/2015 so we all stopped at 7/11 on our way home to get gas and a free slurpee and everyone decided to follow one another home this time just in case something happened again.  On the way home we saw another car with a flat in the same exact spot we had a flat!  

In the end, we all arrived home happy and sandy...except Mike.