Father's Day on the Beach

It's only 6 o'clock in the morning and its already the best day ever...I got up before dawn, got the Father's Day festivities set up, made coffee and then continually peeked through the blinds, waiting for the tiniest bit of sunlight to begin brightening the shore. I got my chair, blog journal and coffee and headed to the waters edge to admire the view and write. As I'm looking out, I see two dolphins playfully cruising along the shore! And I got it on video too! Just then, Wayne and Regina strolled up with their morning shell finds. We sat on the beach with our coffee until everyone woke up.

The kids and I ave been super excited that the very first full day at the beach would be Father's Day, because we already knew exactly what we wanted to surprise him with...the ultimate treasure finder...a metal detector! He loved it, along with his "This Dad's a Keeper" fisherman inspired card.

We set up beach camp and enjoyed the crystal clear, smooth waters. It couldn't be a more perfect beach day! We took little breaks from the sun and water, but spent the entire day relaxing and enjoying. It was a day full of ocean life too...Aunt Regina and the kids swam near a manatee. We saw baby sting rays and all kinds of fish. Haven't caught any yet, but getting live bait tomorrow to change that..lol. Again, we swam and enjoyed not having to do anything...true vacation style! The guys put together the new bbq grill so we could have some ribeye steaks for Dad's Day. After dinner we walked down the beach, got wet again, and then watched rainbows and the sun set down upon the distant water. We ended the night with coffee and German Chocolate cake to celebrate a wonderful end to this beachy Father's Day.

A rainbow!!!

True Vacation Begins- AMI Here We Come!

Friday is finally here, well actually, I shouldn't have said "finally" because it came up so so quickly! We've been planning this since Christmas and it's here already! Even the kids feel that time has been blowing by. We've been packing or at least making lists to prepare to pack, for weeks now. We're all set and as ready as we could possibly be. We are all excited to get on the road...except for one great big speckled thing...poor Sophie. She has been moping around and we've all been showering her with lots of extra love and attention. We all rode along to deliver her to a new kennel, she did great at drop off. It's us who don't do so great. Taylor almost cries and immediately "misses her" each time we have to leave her. We know she will get the care she needs so we are gonna try not to think about it and enjoy our trip...I know she would want us to!

After dropping her off, we headed back to the house to load the van. We have played this "Impala AKA I'm gonna POW ya!" game, similar to "slug bug"for years, it has kinda been hijacked by Dad because once he started playing with his "impala eagle eye" it kinda sucked the joy out of it for the rest of us. I mean, who wants to play a game where ya just continuously get slugged?! lol...anyways, Dad calls out "Impala, black one", Blake just says, "Dad, I'm not playing that...I'm just gonna count trucks to myself, instead." Well...since he put it out there, Dad took that game over too, annoyingly calling out all the trucks he could spot before Blake had a chance to even catch a glimpse of them..."TRUCK, TRUCK, TRUCK..." Seeing annoy Blake so, made Tay and I join in...everyone was calling out "TRUCK TRUCK TRUCK", as fast as we could spot em!! You could see the annoyed look on Blake's face as another game was hijacked...lol!! We are total dorks and that made us all start cracking up even more. It feels good to laugh together :)

We got all loaded up with not an inch to spare. The kids immediately got in their spots for the ride and sat in the van, waiting to leave. We were beach bound by noon this time! We got all the way to downtown STL before getting mixed up and making out 1st detour. We hit a bit of construction traffic and fought through the crazy high-speed drivers in Atlanta. We only stopped once an the Florida Georgia line to nap. The sounds of tropical birds had us cracking up! So much so that it was hard to fall asleep...it sounded just like a wild bird recording right outside our car window...like 20 sounds coming from one tiny bird, perched right outside our van...lol!

We made it to the island at 8am, the earliest ever! Our condo was already open, so we unloaded and got settled. The forecast called for storms and riptides, so we expected to arrive with less than ideal beach conditions, but it was no less amazing. Rough waves, but no rain. Such a blessing to be have safely arrived at such a humbling, amazing place! Thanks God for this wondrous creation!

     

     

We ran out to the water, kids already enjoying. Pure bliss. We watched for Wayne and Regina to arrive and helped them get unloaded. It was so great to see them and enjoy this place together. We ended the night catching up over tacos and margaritas, Witnessing a beautiful sunset, what an awesome first day!

       

Defining Vacation: va·ca·tion [vāˈkāSH(ə)n]

va·ca·tion

vāˈkāSH(ə)n

noun

1.    a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for                        rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday:

2.

freedom or release from duty, business, or activity.

3.

an act or instance of vacating.

I have to say, by definition, we took a real true vacation this year. While the years past vacations were still considered a vacation, they weren't truly free from worry about work back home for Billy. Due to Billy's job, vacations were planned according to when his employees could manage covering things without a full crew, according to when busy seasons were for the industry, and planned around audits, inventory, and employees scheduled days off. Sometimes that means taking a beach vacation in the midst of hurricane season, only to be flooded into a beach home! Sometimes that means having to check the "work phone" repeatedly. Sometimes that means added dread at vacations end, just thinking of what it will take to catch up when you get back. ALL OF THE TIMES, it meant that we didn't want to come back at all! Don't get me wrong, we are totally grateful for each vacation time we have gotten to take, just this time is different...we don't have that job thing stressing us right now. Yes, there are other things, like income and such, but for the moment, we get to take a REAL vacation...a reprieve from life's obligations. Aaaahhhhhhh.....

Losing his job was expected, we have saved for this occasion and prayed that God will provide us a new means. At first, I thought of cancelling our vacation, but then we thought of how this may be our first REAL one, and decided that since it was paid for and already planned out, we would just go and enjoy. After all, we only live once! #beachbound

Blake's Dance Showcase!

I absolutely LOVE that Blake still enjoys dance! These boys do so well, we love watching their showcase at the end of each year. It's a really big production!

Summer Zoo Visit

First official outing of the summer...the zoo! We got here early and renewed our membership so we could take our time and enjoy it throughout the year, rather than rush through to see it all at once. We spent the most time at Stingray Cove...it was just awesome, we couldn't get enough! Taylor could have stayed there all day long! They were super active, letting you touch them, and even hungry-eating right from your hands, it was a great time visiting them today!