Natural beauty

Lately I have been feeling like we have been cooped up inside. In reality, we have been doing a lot of fun activities, but on days when it is hot or we have nothing else to do we have stayed inside. I don't want these precious moments of summer to pass me by. Especially since I have completed my last paper for school (one more class). This last year has been so difficult and I haven't found much time to enjoy the simple things in life because at every moment I have a gazillion things to do. Yesterday I decided that I needed to get outside in nature. We started at Bluff Point. I haven't been there since I was a kid. We had printed out some letterboxing clues and then planned to go to the beach afterwards (found a free beach...score!). Weston decided to go down to the water at Bluff point even though Ella complained that he always gets to do what he wants to do. After the morning thank god the complaining stopped. We explored for a few hours. The kids got creative and Weston ate the rest of the ham we brought for a snack so he could use the container to catch fish. He ended up with a hermit crab. It was a fun adventure. Then we went letterboxing. We found the first stamp, but not the second. The miracle in this was that Weston didn't complain about walking the whole time!!! He must have done at least 1.5 miles. I think we will be going back there to do more. Lots of people brought bikes, so maybe he would be able to bike it. Afterwards we hadn't brought lunch (I didn't have anything to make sandwiches), so we found the local grocery store and Ella had the idea of lunchables. It worked out perfectly! We then went to Esker Point beach and ate our lunch there. The kids went into the water. It was rocky and then had this dark mud that was icky, but again it was free and it was the ocean, so I am hoping it was okay to swim in. Other than that it was a beautiful little park and the kids didn't care. They played and swam. We stayed for a couple of hours and then I got them to leave by promising to buy them DQ. I didn't know that they had extra small Blizzards!!! Cheaper and less calories. Weston ate his whole ice cream which is always great for him. That was yesterday. Saturday we went to the library and played our last Bingo game. I am reading the Stephanie Plum Series so I need the second book (reading for fun!!!). We spent most of the day inside and I felt as though I got nothing accomplished. That night I brought Ella to the pool and we competed against each other. That girl beat me every time except for the back stroke. Friday we had Brady. They were all getting along so well in the morning so we hung out here and then went out to get lunch. Afterwards we hit the pool. Wednesday we went to the magic show again. This time we brought Ella's friend, Ava with us. The kids had fun riding the rides, watching the show, and eating ice cream (lots of ice cream eating this summer). Ella even got picked to do a trick. She had to draw a picture of the magician and he drew one of her. Then the pictures magically switched. I have to figure out what we are going to do today...Got to keep these kids busy and do it on a budget!