beach « Maddox Heller

Posts Tagged ‘beach’

Fall Weekend

Monday, October 17th, 2011

We had a wonderful fall weather this weekend in New England, so we decided to do something seasonally appropriate and go buy a pumpkin.

We went to Russel Orchards in Ipswitch, which besides having pumpkins also had chickens, turkeys, pigs, sheep, goats, and horses for Maddox to look at. He severely disciplined the chickens for being “too noisy”, and was too apprehensive to pet the friendly pony, but he loved climbing over the pumpkins and finding one that he could carry.

After picking out a few pumpkins, we continued east towards Crane Estate on Castle Hill, a beautiful estate that we were last at about a week before Maddox was born.

I would rank “running around in a big field” one of Maddox’s top activities of all time, so a place like this was perfect for him, and nice for us to enjoy the scenery.

After all the outdoor activity, we needed to scrub off all that dust, so Mads had a quick bath and then hung out in what I refer to as his Yoda robe for awhile.

The next morning, Mom had to go meet some people for work, so Mads and I headed to the toy story with the original intention of buying a kite. Which we did, but not without a 45 minute detour to play with the train set.

We finally made our way to the northern tip of Plum Island, trekked out to the beach there, and gave our new $6 kite a test flight.

Mads was thrilled with the kite (“Flying! Flying!”), even though I couldn’t keep the thing up in the air for more than 10 or 20 seconds due to the massive gusts of wind on the beach.

We spent some more time just hanging out, playing with the sand, throwing the sand into the ocean, and, of course, picking up sticks. I left with what I thought was just enough time to get back before nap time, but unfortunately didn’t quite make it.

Tags: beach, outside, video
Posted in Dad | 2 Comments »

Trip to the Beach

Thursday, June 23rd, 2011

Lately, Maddox has wanted to be outside as much as possible. When he and Dad come home at the end of the day, he makes a beeline for the sliding door that leads out to the deck. Then, he tries to open the door, all the while asking if we can go, “Outside? Outside? Outside PLEASE?”

With this in mind, Jon, Maddox and I have been spending more time at the beach. Mads isn’t a big fan of the water (yucky water!) but he likes to chase the birds and play in the sand. He’s also really into sticks. Jon and I were listening to This American Life today, and the interviewee was explaining how his Dad used to hand him and his brother buckets and make them pick up rocks off the lawn. And I was thinking, you know, for a two year old, that is prime entertainment. Also, it’s a hereditary thing, because apparently, when I was in pre-school, I used to make all the other little girls in my class pick up sticks and drop them down the gutter. (I was the princess in this scenario and I guess the sticks were fueling my evil empire or something.)

Mads and I like to walk up and down the beach, find a spot, plop down and put sand in a bucket. Then, Mom dumps the bucket and we repeat. Jon and I are starting to learn that there’s nothing more relaxing than just hanging out on the beach with your kid.

Tags: beach, video
Posted in Mom | 2 Comments »

Beach Baby

Monday, July 19th, 2010

With yet another 90 degree weekend forecast, we headed up to Portsmouth this weekend for breakfast and a trip to the beach. Our breakfast plans immediately went awry as our favorite breakfast place was closed temporarily, so instead we walked down the road until we found another breakfast place.

Now one thing I’ve found about breakfast places is that they tend to be small, cramped, and quiet. Not the ideal environment for a toddler who likes to yell and bang spoons against the table. The place we found fit this mold, but luckily had an open outdoor table. And that outdoor table had all these little holes in it as part of the design, which Maddox, straw in hand, found absolutely fascinating. Dropping a straw through those holes kept him entertained for about thirty minutes straight.

After breakfast we got back in the car and drove to Rye Beach. We found parking about a quarter mile away, which in the past was nothing but now with a baby and his accruements meant a decent trek. We finally arrived, put Mads down on the sand … and he started wailing. We’d actually tried this one before briefly, and he had the same response. So things weren’t looking good.

I figured we had just lugged all this stuff and eventually Maddox had to get tired of crying. Leanne was a bit more proactive and sat down with him and showed him how much fun sand could be. After another minute or two, he realized she was right and for the next hour he had a blast. I think the best thing about this for him was the fact that he could just walk non-stop without us having to pick him up to avoid all the dangers he might normally run into (darn Nature and her lack of babyproofing!).

One of the other things he enjoyed was us digging him a hole, which he would sit in, cross his legs, and then let out a contented sigh.

He didn’t really love the water though, perhaps partially due to the fact that it was probably about 35 degrees cooler than the air. So later on when we were home, we setup the water table his grandparents bought him for his birthday, and he had a great time splashing with that.

Tags: beach, outings, water
Posted in Dad | No Comments »