Swimmmman at the Beach

This is how Bobby says swimming, you really have to exaggerate the middle mmmm and then finish with the word man.  It was such a beautiful day today and Daddy was off of work so we called Grandma Carolyn to come over and go with us back to Deep Creek Lake.  Grandma and I took Bobby to Deep Creek Lake Beach last Sunday and the weather was not that great when we left home so I didn't take any bathing suits with us.  Bobby didn't care and he got in the water anyway, but soon he started going out too far, so time to go home.  Today, we all wore our bathing suits, took towels, beach chairs and a small cooler...we were prepared to go "swimmmman at the beach" and was one little boy super excited!!!

We had to wait for Daddy and Grandma to catch up with us, so Bobby had to sit down and pose for a couple of pictures to occupy the 45 second wait...

They finally caught up with us so Bobby had to grab one of the bags and help carry the load...

He knew exactly which way to go!!!  He started trying to strip off his clothes before we made it to the beach...

Bobby, can you please wait a few more steps, we are almost there??!!

Awwwwww, finally, swimming at the beach.  He went right in this time...

Perfectly Happy Boy!!!

I was standing at the beach in front of Bobby while he played.  Grandma Carolyn was in the water behind him so that if he went to the deeper water she would be right there.  Since he was being carefully watched, I walked off to where Bob was sitting at our beach chairs.  

The woman sitting in the beach chair to the right stopped me on my way back to our spot.  "I am enjoying watching your son.  He is making my day!"  Me:  "He has.."  She stopped me, "I know.  I know."  Later on when I was in the water playing with Bobby...

she came into the water and started talking to me again.  We had the nicest conversation.  Turns out she was with a group of women and they were having a girls week (they all went to college together).  One of the women in the group is the mother of two adult children on the autism spectrum and this woman was the mother of a 26 year old with Down's Syndrome.  Unfortunately her son had recently passed away.  Here we were, two strangers who happened upon the same location at the same time...but really we were two mothers, two soldiers of the special needs parenting battle, speaking the same language.  We could totally understand the others pains and joys without having to describe them.  We shared the highs and lows, the ebbs and flows of our parenting journey.  I told her that we were taking Bobby on our first real family vacation and we were using this beach as a trial run.  I also told her that last summer I would have never believed that I would be taking Bobby to a semi-crowded beach and he would be doing an outstanding job.  She told me of taking her son to Rehoboth Beach when he was young and driving onto the beach and putting his baby pool out in the sand.  She loved that Bobby was wearing a tracking device and how she would have loved to have had something like that for her son when he was little.  In a 10 minute conversation we KNEW each other.  It was an awesome conversation and I am so thankful that she started talking to me!!  

What a beautifully perfect day to go "swimmman at the beach!!"