A Summer At The Beach

Alison and Dakota were best friends, almost sisters. Their families were going to spend the summer at the lake together. The families had a house on the lake right next to each-other. It was June, two days after school was out and the girls were together.
“Let’s go down to the beach every day!” Alison was excitedly writing down things the two could do.
“We can ride horses on the beach, collect seashells, what else?” Dakota and Alison were horse-lovers and were bringing their horses down with them.
“Uh, write messages in the sand?”
“Who would see it?”
“I don’t know.” Alison smiled with a shrug.
“We could build sandcastles!” Dakota suggested with a happy grin.
“Ya definitely! I think Brady has some stuff we could use for that.” Brady was Alison’s younger brother, her only sibling.
Dakota had three older siblings. Hayley was married, Paul and Zoe were not. Hayley and her husband Lyle would be farming up at their home in Alberta so they would not be able to join them.
“What else should we do?” Dakota sat with a serious thinking face, this was rare because Dakota was a lively outgoing girl.
“We could take walks and try catching fish.” Alison proposed with a wondering expression.
“Okay. And we have a tube and then we could rent a boat or something down there.”
“Good idea.” Alison jotted the notes down while the two continued to brainstorm in Dakota’s front yard.
Both the girls lived on farms in Southern Alberta. Each of the families owned horses but Dakota’s family was more cowboy than Alison’s. Their farms were about a half hour apart yet Alison and Dakota got together a lot.
“Hey what are you two doing?” Paul had excited the shop and was heading up to the house.
“Planning what we’re going to do over the summer.” Dakota answered her big brother.
“Do you have man-tracker on the list?” he asked.
“And how are we going to play that on a beach? There’s no place to go.” Dakota retorted.
“Just put it down, we could always try it. It would be really fun with all six of us.” Paul said as he stepped into the house. Alison and Dakota glanced at each other with a shrug as Alison wrote it down.
Alison was a writer, she loved to write novels or stories for her friends and family to read. Her dream was to be a famous author. She loved horses as well but Dakota was more of the horse trainer. Both Alison and Dakota were funny outgoing girls who loved God, their horses, their families and each other.
“I can’t believe we’re leaving tomorrow! I’m so excited!” Alison beamed with anticipation.
“Me too! And we’re going the whole summer!” Dakota squealed.
“Come inside girls, supper’s ready!” Dakota’s mom Ivonne called out the door.
Dakota and Alison raced in the house to make sure they got some of Grant’s pork. Dakota’s dad barbequed the best pork ever! Both girls’ parents were busy discussing plans for the summer while Brady and Paul washed up. Zoe was seated at the table waiting eagerly for the food.
“Can we eat please?” Zoe begged.
“Boys are you coming?” Ivonne called down the hall just as they appeared.
As the prayer for the meal finished all the kids rushed to get their fill of pork.
“You all know that I have more on the grill right?” Grant raised an eyebrow.
“Ya but then we have to wait.” Dakota and Alison giggled.
“So remember to pack a lot of underwear. We’re staying until the week before school starts up again so you’ll need a good supply,” Ivonne spoke up, obviously changing the subject a lot.
“Can’t you do laundry there?” Zoe wondered.
“We can but just bring lots.” Alison’s mom Erica responded.
“So we can meet in Airdrie and from there we’ll split into the vehicles?” Alison’s dad Chad was sawing through a piece of pork.
“Ya, meet at 7:00 maybe? Then girls in one car, guys in another?” Grant suggested. “They can follow us then?”
“Sure.”
“7:00! How will I survive?” Brady let his head fall down.
“You can sleep in the car.” Erica told her son.
Brady shrugged and the two families continued with their meal.
“This is really good.” Chad said to Grant with a mouthful.
“Thanks.”
“My mom did her fair share too!” Dakota insisted with a grin.
“Dakota it doesn’t matter.” Ivonne scolded.
“Yes, this is all delicious.” Erica smiled.
After the luscious dinner Dakota left with the Stevenson’s to have a sleepover with Alison.
“Bye mom, bye dad.” Dakota kissed her parents before putting on her flip-flops.
“Excuse me?” Zoe crossed her arms.
“Bye Zoe and bye Paul.” Dakota waved a pathetic wave and exited the door before the siblings could ask for a better good-bye.