Vacation

 Sighhhhhh…

Can you hear that from here! We are on a family vacation at the beach for five days and I can not tell you the feeling. I am SO incredibly grateful for this time with my family. Getting ready to go on vacation can be so stressful. Just lining up everything at work let alone finding the perfectly most imperfect gap in everyone’s schedule is exhausting.

But we are here. And my toes are in the sand and my kids are playing in the surf, catching fish, and even (Mother Nature cooperating) taking a ride on jet ski’s!! After all the world has been through in 2020, and continues to struggle with, I just can’t put into words how grateful I am to have this opportunity.

I can’t help thinking about the first time we went to the beach with the boys. The cutest part is how little has changed! My oldest is the water baby and is always the first in and last out. And the one who can pick up his mom and carry her out past the breakers. He is also my digger. Building a sandcastle or digging a hole that fits his now 6’4 frame. My youngest is the animal lover, or torturer I am not sure. Digging up sand crabs, holding them, and them watching them scuttle back under the sand. He also loves to chase seagulls, well any bird really. But he will run up and down the beach scattering them in every direction.

I was sitting alone for a bit on the beach and a woman not far from me was there for the second day all alone. As she got her book out I asked what she was reading because I needed a beach book. I struck up a conversation and as it turned out she was alone because her husband passed last year of Covid. She said this was part of her new start learning to do things alone. Her kids were worried about her, she said, if they are that concerned they could give me a few granbabies to take care of! We chatted a while before both going our separate ways.

I am so incredibly grateful for this time with my family and the memories to add to my collection.