I love to use my imagination. If there is one thing that living in the rural country-side when I was little taught me, it was how to use my imagination to pass many summer days by. I've posted before about how my brother and I spent hours on end playing with rocks, leaves, dirt, etc., all powered by nothing but our imaginations when we were growing up. It was awesome and I attribute much of my creative brainstorming abilities to just having grown up with my imagination being my best and favorite toy. Time travel back to the Summer of '09...
So, Bradley and I are raising our kids in a world filled with technology. I mean, Nintendo DS's, iPods, XBoxes, digital everything, I could go on and on. Kids in today's world should NEVER get bored, right? The world is always at their fingertips. Well, I had a proud and fun mommy moment today while at the pool with my kiddiloos. Bradley wanted to go back to the beach, but the kids just wanted to swim around the pool. And we were all alone on this gorgeous day in this huge pool, together.
Imagine this scene with me...Bailey and Brody were only about 10 feet apart from each other in the water. Both had their goggles on. And both were "playing" their own adventures. I began to watch and even more, listen to what they were doing. Brody was scuba diving. He wasn't in a pool at all! He was out on the big, blue ocean, on a huge boat, all dressed up in a full scuba rig, wearing a black scuba suit (I know, 'cause I asked him). He was diving into the deep ocean trying to rescue some "thing" that was sunken below. He crouched on the side of the ship (pool), and when he had his rig (goggles) all set, he'd give the captain of the boat a signal, and then he's launch himself backwards off the boat ledge (pool ledge) and into the ocean. After some scuba time, he'd come up with a treasure (a diving ball) that he'd rescued from the bottom of the very deep ocean. Over and over I watched him pretend his scuba adventure until all of the treasure was safely aboard his sea-faring vessel (a plastic blue toy ship).
Now I turned my attention to Bailey. She was just a few feet away from him, and she was a cast member on the CBS show, "Survivor". She was participating in a swimming challenge that appeared to be a killer! She was swimming laps with these yellow, weighted swimming balls in a race against the other survivors on her tropical island of wherever. At times, she'd just have to lean over the side of the ocean (pool), and her chest would heave with exhaustion from the cruel race that Jeff had just put all of the Survivors through. Wow...she was really earning her chance at a million dollars. It was impressive.
Now about 20 minutes later, Brody the 9 year old and Bailey the 11 year old were back in the pool in Destin with me, their adventures safely concluded for now. They decided that we needed to head back down to the beach. And that was just the beginning. The waves were crashing in to the shore pretty good, and they took their boogie boards and headed out for some surfin' fun. I'm watching and reading at the same time. This time they appear to just be riding the waves, when they come crawling up onto the beach together, as if they had been swimming towards shore for days. Bailey walks up and says this to me, "Ma'am, could we bunk in your house tonight? Our ship crashed out in the middle of the ocean, we've been swimming for days, we're starving and sleepy and exhausted!" Of course, without hesitation I replied, "What proof can you give me that you 2 ocean-faring strangers aren't dangerous? How can I trust you to sleep under my roof tonight?" And she said, "Ma'am, we'd be happy to sleep under your tent here on the beach if you'd let us." Well, who could argue with that. And they begin to gather "barnacle" (dried sea weed), which apparently goes extremely well with little fishies that can be easily caught along the shore. And they turned all of our beach toys into stoves,pots, fires, and everything you need when you're stranded from a ship wreck.
Oh, I could go on and on writing about their adventures this afternoon. But I'll just end this post by saying, "Thank you, Lord, that my kids have big, huge imaginations and they never tire of using them." I hope that is something I can contine to model for them, and when I blessed enough, I hope I get to continue participating in their grand "pretend" adventures. What a great day at the beach! I wonder what tomorrow holds in store for us?
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