The battle between the Nintendo DS and Nemo

Earlier this week, the school where I work made the decision to completely overhaul our computer lab. It will be renamed the “Digital Arena” – an area of technological advancement that includes Macs and PCs, video recording, Skyping, cloud computing – you name it. I don’t know about you, but the name “arena” conjures images of Roman gladiators fighting each other and wild animals to the death. Either that or some WWF-type show that has two people locked in cages. I don’t know but it sounds weird. A few days later, I’m getting ready for work while I’m watching one of the early morning talk shows while they are discussing the latest and greatest alert technology for the geriatric set. As the twenty-something expert gives the low-down on this stuff, she starts talking about the “twenty-first century technology” that all these new inventions encompass. Seriously? I don’t intend to be mean here but, is someone who is eighty-five really concerned about “twenty-first century technology” or are they really more concerned about whether someone can help them when they’ve fallen and can’t get up?

Fast forward a few days later. While husband Shelby has been on five-day business trip to Philly, my children and I have been watching all the old Disney movies that we have on VHS format. We started watching “El Dorado” and middle son Simon didn’t get to watch the end because it was past his bed time. While I was driving him home from a broken-finger checkup, he lamented that he didn’t get to see the end of his movie. I suggested he watch it when we got home. His response was this – “Mom, this movie doesn’t have a ‘scene selection,’ how could I find where I was last night?” Really? What the hell happened to, hit the flippin’ rewind or fast-forward button and actually FIND what you are looking for?

Well, let me tell you about this past weekend… My in-laws rented a beach house in Freeport near San Louis Pass and had all the kids and grandkids in to help celebrate the birthday of Shelby’s step-dad, the end of summer, and another opportunity to take a boatload of pictures of the grandkids. On the drive down (mind you it is only about forty minutes or as we explain, a little over 2 “Sponge Bobs.”) the oldest two off-springs have their Nintendo DS and DSi playing Mario Brothers head-to-head. As they bicker about who got that particular “flower power” or “hey, you can’t kill me – it’s not fair!”, all I dream about is a slowing of technology. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE e-mail, Facebook, iTunes, and YouTube. But what about just going outside and PLAYING?!?!

Well, it only took that forty minute drive to solve that little question. As soon as we arrived and force-fed the children lunch amid the cries of “I’m not hungry! When can we play in the water?”; we did, indeed, head to the beach. All of a sudden we were transported back to an earlier and easier period of time. The kids dug in the sand, caught hermit crabs and small jelly fish, and tried to skim board. We came back to the house where they drank root beer while climbing in the rocks, finding blue crabs eating fish in a tidal pool, and went fishing in the surf. After dinner, they settled in to watch a movie while they nodded off from a busy day at the beach.

The next day the older boys and their cousins shot out the door shortly after breakfast to take a dip in the bay and try to boogie board in 3 feet of water. As my sister-in-law and her husband were packing up for the trek back to San Antonio, Shelby sought me out to see if the older boys needed sunscreen. Hhhmmm, let’s see – it’s 11:00 a.m., peak sun exposure time, and, oh, I don’t know, how long have you been doing this parenting thing?!?!?!? YES, THEY NEED SUNSCREEN! In the immortal words of the texting generation, WTF? After rounding up the youth for a quick slathering of what my husband calls “liquid flannel” and Shelby’s sister-in-law and her family set off, we journey down to the bay. We spend a lazy day in and out of the water and checking on all the sea creatures that were caught throughout the weekend. At one point while I was sitting on the deck eating lunch, I noticed two fins poke out of the water. There was a family of dolphins – right outside our house!

After calling everyone outside, Shelby grabs his iPhone to record this amazing experience. Me, being me, deposit baby Alexander with his dad and grab the two older boys to go swim with the dolphins. My smart-ass husband took this moment to pay homage to Jeff Foxworthy and call out to me as I made my way down the stairs with children in tow, “Would this be the moment that you need to yell ‘Here, hold my beer and watch this!’?” Isn’t he cute? While we make it out quite far, we don’t get close enough to actually swim with the dolphins; however, we are all on the lookout from whatever our vantage point for a good hour later. A small fish brushed oldest Christopher’s hand while we were waiting which was really cool! We watched pelicans swoop and fish and then we fed the seagulls. Later, we all helped to rinse down, wash up, collect stuff, and repack for the drive home. Everyone finally dropped into their car-seat, booster-seat, back-seat, or driver’s-seat for the drive home.

Here’s the most amazing thing: aside from the small amount of time the kids fell asleep to a movie on Saturday night, NO ONE ever looked to the television or a video game for entertainment. The children looked around and found the very best Mother Nature has to offer. Jelly fish, hermit crabs, blue crabs, seagulls, pelicans, dolphins, tidal pools and sandbars had become the playthings and play places of my children’s wonderment. For a brief moment, we were all transport back to a better place and time – one where we were responsible for our own entertainment and what could be found around us.

As most of us are getting ready for the back-to-school frenzy, I am planning to take a moment to relish in all the things we’ve done and learned this summer. From growing up to opening up, from stitches to fractures, and from technology to nature, my family has had quite the range of experiences. But at the end of the day, after their dinners and baths, they are calm and start to stretch out on the couches. They yawn and reflect. They remember these times that we give them. I am reminded that these are the days for which we signed up. These are the days for which we are grateful to be a parent.