summer comes to end

We had a blessed summer exploring new pockets of Madeira Island. We found a few new beaches that are excellent for the kids. These beaches actually have natural black sand. Kaija has taken to surfing, paddleboarding, boogieboarding, swimming, and diving under waves. She had the extra motivational push of her friend Kika who came to visit from Lisbon. Mikkai has been tentative, but is starting to come along. When Mama went on vacation in Paris, Papa worked hard to help Mikkai get used to the deeper water that moves (the sea). He started paddleboarding in the calm and shallow waters of Calheta Beach. Then he progressed to paddleboarding into the calm but deeper waters off the Regency's pier. Then he took a big adventure with Papa on the paddleboard. Kaija went with Jorge on another paddleboard. We ventured out all the way past the Reid's Hotel along the beautiful and rugged coastline of Lido. It was about a distance of 1 km. Quite a trek for a little guy who did not even want to go into water about 6 feet deep and 20 feet off the shore of a calm man-made beach (Calheta) just weeks before. After a few days at Kim and Jorge's hotel, we took an adventure to the north coast. We decided to check out another beach in Seixal. It has the most amazing backdrop of steep lush cliffs with waterfalls cascading down and terraced vineyards climbing their way up the mountainside. Waves crash into the side of volcanic rock caves along the coast. A little harbor was built for small watercrafts, and a large amount of black sand has found haven there. It is a perfect little beach for making sand castles and wading out into the sea. The beach is completely flat so the waves dissipate into playful whitewater by the time they get to the shore. Mikkai had been here one time before with Kaija and Kika. He did not want to venture out into the waves on that day. He was not exactly keen at first, preferring to play tag with the whitewater on the shoreline. Papa decided to take Kaija and Adelei out into the small 1 foot waves. Kaija was on the boogieboard, and she caught quite a few waves. Papa caught two waves on the longboard with Adelei. Afterwards Papa called for Mikkai. He wanted to go out on the boogieboard. Papa took him out, and pushed him into a few waves. He was so excited and proud, calling for Kaija (who was now busy building sandcastle walls with some newfound friends) to watch him. He caught another wave, and did a nosedive. Papa just watched, knowing he would be fine but a little ruffled. He did a roll and was held under for about 4 seconds. He pushed himself up after the tumble, and he screamed with excitement, "I did a flip, Papa!" He wanted to go in as he was a bit scared. But Papa made sure he went back out and caught one more (this time holding the nose up a bit)...he did it, and now he is keen on boogieboarding...more to come.