One Sun, Hundreds of Seals, and Two Boys

We are at the cape for a week on vacation, and I am simply in love with the ocean. I am also in love with family vacations. We have been having such an amazing time time and we are all just bubbling over with happiness. It is lovely what being outside all day long on the shore can gift us. Each day we have picked a beach adventure, and we seem to consistently stay for about four hours before we have all had enough sun.
My favorite of the beach expeditions has been High Head beach where all the seals hang out. It's pretty much the most amazing place - sand dunes, seals by the hundreds, and we tend to be the only ones there early so it feels like we are the only inhabitants. The boys climb, jump from, jump into, and slide down the sand dunes. It's magnificent. This time we also collected crab body parts and reassembled them in a pattern heading back down to the water. Call it crab sculpture.
The boys would probably say Marconi beach was their favorite because of the wave jumping. Anna took them out and both boys were ecstatic. Kuba was so excited about the strong waves, that as we were holding hands and jumping together, he shouted "You're just Judith! Come on Judith, let's jump!" He was hysterical - both excited about and in awe of wave power. Personally speaking, I am not the brave mother. I will easily stand at the shores edge holding hands with Kuba as he jumps, but I am not confident enough to enter the rolling wave area and body surf like Anna and Anders do.
Anna would most likely say she liked Herring Cove. The gay beach where there are many other two mom families and kids playing on the shore. I think this is exciting too - for my boys to see lots of other gay families playing in the sun. Actually - it's probably mostly us that likes it, as the boys are pretty much still oblivious to most of the world around them. They still are simply all caught up in play.
We also love the bay side of the cape at low tide. First encounter beach in Eastham is really great for collecting hermit crabs, razor clams, furry crabs, snails, and other sea creatures. Plus, at low tide the water and landscape is stunning.  The boys spent hours collecting little live ocean things, and then returned everything to the sea. Kuba always starts out a little fearful of touching things, but soon enough he is over it and holding everything in his own two hands, just like Anders. He just doesn't hold things quite as long. We have been collecting rocks daily and sorting them on our cottage picnic table....round flats, egg shaped, spotted, smooth green-gray, and totally awesome (really amazing rocks) have been our groups so far. We must have brought home hundreds so far.

Other highlights:
Anders lost his brontosaurus at the beach and was heartbroken.
Spiritus pizza, which Kuba has described as "The best pizza in the world, better than his friend Gus, cotton candy, ice cream, his brother and even better than his moms!!"
Driving remote cars down a beach path.
Visiting the Provincetown library which has the giant ship in it.
Amazing lightening storm.
Kuba retelling his dreams each morning. This morning he recounted "Do you know what's cool about dreams? You can pull someones arm off and they don't die. Last night I pulled a little girl's arm off and after she just pulled my hair. She didn't die."
Anders unbelievable strength and confidence in the ocean. Physically he is so capable and has been totally into learning how to navigate the enormous ocean waves as well as the force of the undertow. (with Anna by his side)
Scanning for sharks! There have been shark sightings this summer.
No sunburn....and Kuba saying - "You know what's my favorite part? Getting sunscreen on. I betcha didn't know that."
Bike riding on the Cape Cod Rail Trail - miles of biking, swimming at Nickerson pond, and then getting ice cream.
Walking the rock jetty at the very tip if the Cape at dusk! Thrilling, thrilling, thrilling. Forty-five minutes each way of jumping from giant rock to giant rock until we reached the end. We saw many great blue herons and got to watch the tide roll in.
Both boys waking up in the morning singing an "I love you so much" song that they made up for each other. It was about the most beautiful thing ever!
Watching the boys play together. They make up so many games, and are always singing crazy made up songs in the back seat of the car. They have also been playing a lot with Go Fish cards this vacation.
The fact that we have been here at the cape so many times now as a family that we actually know our favorite places and things to do.
Flying kites at Long beach.  Poison Ivy on the way to long beach. 
Anna and I making up a park ranger song and dance called "Icky, Icky, Bacteria" after we were asked to turn around at Race Point due to bacteria.
Art projects:  crab sculptures, rock sculptures, body painting, sand sculptures, birthday present clay ball making, skit and song writing,  and more that I can't think of. 
Basically - if I could capture this vacation in one word it would be family.  It was absolutely the most fun family time ever.   I can't wait until we go again.