The Big Big Sea

The Big Big Sea


Mama said, "Let's go!"
So we went...


out of the house
and into the dark
and I saw... THE MOON.


We went over the field
and under the fence
and I saw
the sea in the moonlight,
waiting for me.
Mama said,
"Take off your shoes and socks!"

And I did.


And I ran 
and Mama ran.
We ran and we ran,
straight through the puddles
and out to the sea!


I went right in
to the shiny bit.
There was only me in the big big sea.


I splashed
and I laughed
and Mama came after me
and we paddled
out deep in the water.


We got all wet.


Then we walked
a bit more
by the edge of the sea
and our feet
made big holes
in the sand.


Far far away,
right around the bay,
were the town
and the lights
and the mountains.
We felt very small,
Mama and me.


We didn't go to the town.
We just stayed for a while
by the sea.


And Mama said to me,
"Remember this time.

It's the way life should be."


I got cold
and Mama carried me
all the way back.
We sat by the fire,
Mama and me,
and ate hot buttered toast
and I went to sleep
on her knee.


I'll always remember
just Mama and me
and the night that we walked
by the big big sea.


                               Martin Waddell


This is one of my favorite picture books. My mom gave it to me many years ago. She dated it 12/94. That's four years before Shannon was even born. For many years our family went to Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. My aunts and uncles and cousins would all be there. We rented little cabins on the lake and in the evenings we would go down to the beach and just lay in the sand and watch for shooting stars. Sometimes we would gather all the beach chairs together and build a fire to make smores. We would sit and talk and laugh and listen to each other's stories.


It been over ten years since we were all together at the lake. Life happens, things change, and we move on to new adventures and experiences. Now my family has been traveling south instead of north the past few years. We are no longer at a lake, we are by the big big sea and in the evenings we go down to the beach to see what we can see.

This is Shannon on her hands and knees trying to get a picture of this sand crab. We don't lay down in the sand at night on Kiawah Beach unless you like these little guys running over you.

Good shot Shannon!

There is my Molly with her arms out stretched as if to say, "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else." I only had my camera phone with me so the pictures are not the best. There are no lights on the beach because of the loggerhead turtle nests all along the dunes, so it is dark. When the baby turtles hatch, they use the light of the moon to guide them to the ocean water. We had just seen a sign posted at the Nature Center earlier that day that the first nest had hatched.  

Timmy looking at the stars.

They found a beach ball.

The sand castle stomp...when we are walking along the beach at night and we see a sand castle or a hole that someone had dug during the day, we either stomp the sand castle down or fill in the hole with sand. If you were to see us on the beach, you might think that this is mean, but it is all for the sake of the baby loggerhead turtles. When the babies hatch at night, they have to get to the ocean as quickly as possible before a bird or a crab or another predator gets to them first. A huge sand castle may confuse a baby turtle or they may fall into one of the holes and not be able to make it to the sea before the birds get to him. So we do our part and we stomp out the sand castles and we fill in the holes.

             This sand castle was just too big to stomp out.

This night we only had three kids because Ryan was sick in bed with a fever. I felt bad that he was sick on vacation but I felt even worse when we got back because we were gone too long for his comfort.

Molly found a feather on the beach, and started stomping and dancing. She reminded me of Max from Where the Wild Things Are..."Let the wild rumpus start!"

After the kids showed me the huge sand castle that they found that they couldn't stomp out and our wild rumpus was over, we headed back to the house. Molly came up to me and grabbed my hand and said, "Mama, give me your hand because your hand is my most favorite hand to hold." The girl knows how to sweet talk her mama.

You can't see Molly in the video on the beach, but you can hear her sing her song. The memories we make today are the stories they will tell tomorrow. I hope that they will remember this time. It's the way life should be.