I woke from my deep sleep to the sounds of Mr. Sikkema telling us that breakfast was ready. Alyssa and I got out of bed and made our way outside, where the rest of our group was eating breakfast. We had been at the Marina Dunes campground for three days, and no one was ready to go home yet. We made our way to the table, which was covered with all the trappings to make French Toast. I stacked my plate with two pieces of toast drenched in maple syrup and bacon and made my way over to the chairs. As I ate my breakfast, I watched Erik and Jake ride the longboard up and down the street. After I had finished my breakfast, I made my way into my trailer to get ready for the day. Sleepily I went through the motions of changing my clothes, brushing my teeth, and doing my hair. I meandered my way back outside to find the parents talking about the plans for the day.

"Would you and Alyssa be okay watching the kids for a few hours if all the parents went wine tasting?" My mom asked me.

" yeah that would be fine! We wanted to stay around here for the day anyway!" I replied. Soon after, the parents left in two trucks, promising to return by dark. Almost immediately, the boys disappeared into my trailer to watch cartoons. Megan, Alyssa, Beth, and I had better plans. We decided to learn how to ride a rip-stick.

"Wiggle your back foot! Don't forget to wiggle!" Alyssa, Megan, and Beth cheered as I rip sticked my way down the street.

" Whoo! You did it!" Megan cheered as I made it to the end of the street.

"Yeah! I finally learned how to rip stick! It's not as hard as it looks!" I told her.

"Easy for you to say! You can actually do it!" Beth said.

"It's noon. Should we make lunch?" Alyssa said.

"Yes! I'm starving!" Megan exclaimed. I walked into my trailer and told the boys we were going to make lunch. They promised to come out in five minutes as I loaded the small blue tray full of all the ingredients to make pizza sandwiches. The other girls and I quickly fell into an assembly line to make the sandwiches. After the first one came off the grill, Jake and Erik came piling out of the trailer. They each grabbed sandwiches and chips and began stuffing food in their mouths, typical boy style. After ingesting enough food to feed a horse, we decided to make a trip to the nearby beach. We packed a small ice chest with water and snacks, changed our shoes, and began the short walk down the sandy path to the beautiful beach. The sand dug into the bottoms of our bare feet as we made our way down the path towards the beach. It hurt the bottoms of our tender feet, because our feet had been encased in tennis shoes since the beginning of winter. As we made it to the top of the dune that led to the beach, the boys and Megan began to hurry down the small incline to reach the water.

"Hey Jessica! look! I found my Moses stick!" Erik shouted as he picked up a large tree branch that was about twice his height.

" don't put it down! I have to take a picture!" I laughed as I pulled my iPod touch out of my pocket. I snapped a few quick pictures of him as he held the stick up, pretending to part the sea.
" hurry up! My arms are getting sore! This stick is heavy!" Erik exclaimed.
" alright alright! Calm your horses! I'm done!" I said as I stowed my iPod safely in my pocket. We made out way down towards the water, abandoning shoes and the ice chest on the way. The Alyssa and I pulled out our iPhone and iPod to take more pictures as the other kids ran towards the water.

" don't get wet!" Alyssa and I shouted at Erik, who was getting dangerously close to the foamy edges of the waves.

"Come on! Lets see how close we can let the waves come to our feet before we have to move! First one the water touches loses! " Megan said as she grabbed Alyssa and I by the hand and pulled us to the water's edge. We stood as still as statues as the frigid waves rushed towards our feet. I pulled my iPod out of my pocket to take more candid photos of us as we played this silly game. As I stood there, I pod clutched in my hand, a wave approached from the side, catching us all off guard.

" water!!" Beth yelled as she turned around to run away from the quickly approaching waves. I whipped my body in a three sixty, my arms waving out wildly. My hand, which held the beloved iPod touch, hit someone else's arm as we turned, and the iPod was flung from my grasp.
"I dropped my iPod!!!!" I yelled as I frantically looked down into the white and blue water that was swirling around my feet. I pushed my slightly blonde hair out of my face as I looked around, fearing the worst.

"Found it!!" Megan shouted. I hurried over to her and hurriedly grabbed it off of the damp sand before the next wave had a chance to rush in and drag it out to sea. I looked it over fretfully, and snapped the plastic case off.

"Don't use it! Turn it off!" Jake told me as I gingerly wiped the coarse sand off of the touch screen. I followed his advice and turned it off immediately. A closer inspection led me to discover that the water had pushed sand grains into the charging and headphone holes.
" we'll, there's nothing I can do about it now." I said as I trudged up to my shoes. I slipped the iPod and case into my shoe and returned to the rest of the kids.
"Is it going to be okay?" Beth inquired.
"I'm not sure. Hopefully. I can tell yet, because I have to wait for it to dry out and I have to get all the and out of it. I really need it to work though! I use that thing for everything, especially listening to music!" I replied.
"I'm sure it's going to be fine." Alyssa said. We walked back to the ice chest to get some snacks. The other kids grabbed fruit snacks and water and returned to the surf, while Alyssa and I took seats in the sand, feeling like moms for a day. We talked about life, school, and friends as we gazed at the beautiful scenery and watched the other kids play. After about two hours, we began to make out way back to the trailers.
"I'm going to clean up, then do you want to ask about a hot tub?" Alyssa asked.
"Sure! Meet you back here in five!" I replied. Five minutes later, Alyssa and I were making our way to the small store to ask about a hot tub.
"Excuse me, do you have a pool--" Alyssa politely asked the lady working the counter.
"No!!" The lady rudely interrupted before Alyssa even had a chance to finish her sentence.
"Well then!" Alyssa whispered to me as we left the store. We went back to the trailers and decided to do some more long boarding and rip sticking. By the time it was dark, we all had mastered the fine art of the long board and rip stick.
"Wanna play a game?" Erik suggested.
"Sure!" Was the enthusiastic response. We piled into my trailer to play cards. After several rounds, Megan suggested that we play headbands, since that was a game she could actually play. I grabbed the game, passed out the headbands, and helped attach cards to each player's band.
"Am I real?" Erik asked.
"Nope!" Beth answered.
"Am I a unicorn??" Erik guessed.
"Yes! Moses is a unicorn! Moses is a unicorn!" We chanted, using a familiar nickname that was established a few years before at our usual spring break camping spot, New Brighton State Beach. Just then, the door opened and the parents entered, bringing a gust of chilling wind with them.
"Finally! I'm hungry!" Jake said.

"You're always hungry," my dad replied. We put on our shoes, and, in a flurry of activity, went outside. We walked down the road to a steakhouse for dinner. After translating the menus into words that we could actually understand, we ordered our food. We drew pictures, shared jokes, and talked together as we waited for our food to arrive. When it finally did, it was subpar. My chicken was difficult to cut, and Jake's steak was cooked wrong. But Megan said that her meal was the best Mac and cheese that she had ever had. After eating our fill, and trying the dishes that the others had ordered, we decided to make our way back to the campground to watch a movie, leaving the parents behind to talk. We skipped, jogged, danced, walked, and ran our way back to the trailers as a chilly sea wind whipped at our clothes.
"Let's watch Finding Nemo!!" Beth suggested.

"Okay!!" I said. I popped the DVD in and we settled down to watch the movie. By the time it was done, we were all half asleep and the parents were back. The other kids lethargically journeyed back to their trailers as Jake and I set up our beds.

"Good night!" My parents said as they turned off the lights.

" you know," I whispered to my brother, " even though I dropped my iPod in the ocean, today was super fun! I don't wanna go home tomorrow!"

"Agreed." Jake murmured as we drifted off to sleep.