Vacation Thankfulness

 Well, I tried to load a few pictures from our vacation.  Blogger has messed them up every time I load them.  And I'm too annoyed to try to figure out what's wrong and how to correct it.  This is the only one that loaded correctly.

 The little people found stuff to get into all week!

Annoyed, pregnant, tired, swollen... maybe I'll get the rest of the pictures on Flickr in the next few days.  Let me just say it was wonderful to spend a few days with my best friend and see our kids playing together and beating up on each other like they were all siblings.

Deep breath... My sister is starting her Countdown to Thanksgiving this year on Canadian Thanksgiving, which is today!  I'm gonna tie in my things I'm thankful for this year with the 1000 Gifts I started also, so to tie it all together:

11)  I am thankful that I have a friend I can count on, who loves me and my family like we are her family, who lets us crash their week, who rubs my feet and buys shrimp for us to cook while we're there!

I can't stop being thankful now!

Well, I had my blog set to continue being thankful last week. Those people who watched my kids all week will never understand how thankful I am for what they allowed me to experience. There's a whole other world under water that I would not have seen if I'd had kids with me!

The one thing that I really wanted to see was a starfish and we saw several! They were huge & fat! I had no idea! I was hoping to see a sea turtle also... AND I SWAM WITH A STINKING STING RAY!!! The fish and the coral were amazing. St. John has to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

I'm still working on organizing photos, remembering which beach was which and getting some captions written. When I get them up on Flickr, I'll post a link if you want to see more photos with captions. It was a truly amazing week. It was worth saving for 4 years to get there.

Preparing to Set Sail (though we'll actually be flying)

About a year before our 10th anniversary, we started planning this trip. We booked the accommodations and the airline tickets. Then the building of our house was delayed... and delayed... we moved in just a few short weeks before we were to go. I was not ready to leave. The trip was postponed. We were able to reschedule everything and now the time is drawing near! Excitement is building!!!

When we first booked, we were a family of 4. Then we were expecting. I would have been traveling pregnant. Instead, now I'll be leaving my 7.5 month old for the first time. For 5 days. To find her nourishment from a bottle rather than me. I have mixed emotions. I really, really need the break. I will miss her so, so much. And the others, too. But I really, really need the break.

I'm planning on taking a pump with me, pumping while gone & hopefully will be able to resume breastfeeding when I get back. She took her first bottle of formula tonight from her great aunt. Inside I was thankful and a little sad.

I have to remember that all 3 of them will be in the care of family members who love them very much. That I will be getting a much needed restful vacation. And that all of us will be in God's hands.

In less than a month, I'll be posting some pictures of my own!

David's Vacation

Marlene shared some of her photos from last week with me, so I thought I'd share some of my favorites of David. He went with MawMaw, Great Aunt Marlene, Grana & Papa, and his cousins to a condo on the beach for a week!

David is on the left.

I think he looks kinda Baywatch here.

The pool at the condo

All the cousins that went

Sitting in some shark teeth?

Cousins riding a wave

I seem to remember pictures from my childhood
where we posed in cutouts like this!
or at least my older siblings did

A Relaxing Vacation Day

Wednesday of our trip was a relaxing day at home. Sarina had PreK in the morning.

That afternoon Dad went back to Oyster Lake & caught one fish, but it wasn't large enough to keep. Sarina had an end-of-year party at PreK where they celebrated all the summer birthdays. She's in August. So after supper, we also celebrated David's birthday a little early.

After supper, which was a delicious smorgasbord of shrimp & rice, we all went fishing at Palacios. Look, there's even Matt!

Still didn't catch anything, but it was a great day. At bedtime, Dad told David we'd be going home in the morning. There was much crying. Kalaya & I stayed up as late as we possibly could to make the most of our last night together. It was a sweet time.

Tiny Talk Tuesday: Vacation Edition

Elizabeth, on the way to the jetty with the fishing net that Dad bought for her: I catch a fish! I catch a fish! Here, fishy fishy! Here, fishy fishy!

Click on the photo to see her holding the net!

David's words at bedtime every night: Is tomorrow another beach day?

Yes, David, it is! Tuesday was pretty cool when we got up, so we decided to wait until it warmed up some before hitting the beach. We rested, the kids enjoyed playing around the house, and we visited.


After lunch, we drove slowly (so the kids could nap) to Matagorda for Beach Day 2!


It was still pretty chilly out there and very windy!

Beach Day!

David has been looking forward to this moment for over a year... Beach Day!

This first beach day was actually Oyster Lake, but you'd have thought we'd landed on the most beautiful beach in the world based on the kids' reactions.

Kalaya, Lavery and Brigid went with us. Sarina was at PreK. The beach was actually made of crushed oyster shells. Dad even broke an oyster open while we were there.

No, he didn't actually eat it... he didn't have the horseradish! Dad also caught a number of hermit crabs and showed them to the kids. One of them was HUGE!

They walked on the sand bar, threw shells into the water, dug in the sand/shells, David caught his own hermit crab at the shoreline, and we saw lots of wildlife.

I forgot to apply sunscreen to the kids & Elizabeth got pretty red even though we were only there for the morning hours.

Perhaps the most exciting part, for me, was seeing a dolphin! It swam pretty close to where we were and looped around, flopping & thrashing as it caught fish. You can just barely see it as it headed off into the distance here:

We picnicked in the car & headed back to the house to rest. After supper, Dad wanted to try out the fishing on the piers & jetties in Palacios.

Something was pulling on his line, but it broke before we saw what it was!

Kalaya & I try to get together at least twice a year. Usually at my house in the winter and her house in the summer. I think we've been faithful to get together every year since college. Our gathering has now grown to 10 when we include husbands & kids!


And David's last words at bed time, "Is tomorrow another beach day?"