Our family has taken a vacation to Sunnyside Beach the week after Labor Day for the last handful of years. For the past two years we have stayed in Cottage #16, Abraham, across from beach access 91. This week, in the traditions of the past, was another amazing-wonderful- piece- of- Heaven- on- Earth for our family! The weather was phenomenal, the water perfect, the company richly memorable. I could not help but shed some alligator tears as we packed up on our last day.
We spent our many days alternating between time on the beach, time at the pool, home to refuel, repeating the entire sequence, sunset, swimming and dinner. We let the children play tag and basketball under the stars and roast marshmallows with the kids across the road. OMGosh...Cole wildly flinging a flaming Marhmallow not once, BUT TWICE, was all the adventure Lily and I could ever want! A special family from Havana (15 minutes North of Tally) has vacationed there the same week as us the last 2 years. They are such a loving and fun group! Their parents are beautiful people and I was so blessed talking to Teresa. Last year they gave us their umbrella to use all week to help cover baby Whitney. This year they shared their boogie boards...Lily consequently commenting how she had the most fun she has ever had in her life!
It was such a delight to experience the beach through Whitney's eyes. Last year at the beach was the week before she got her glasses...so who knows what she wasn't seeing! This year she delighted in the waves, the sand, and the pool. Don't ask me how a girl this fearless could scream EVERY night during her bath in the kitchen sink! Oy!
Cole, my funny, dearest Cole. Owen had found this petrified bamboo stick with barnacles on the tip. He gave it to Cole, knowing Cole's delight in 'spears'. Tim gave Cole a 5 minute instructional speech about how
careful he had to be when swimming near others with his spear. Cole, nodding in agreement, must have already been imagining himself spearing fish and sharks. Not 15 minutes later, Tim comes walking in from the Ocean with Cole's spear in hands and tosses it onto the towels. "First he stabbed my thigh, then he scraped the length of my hamstring." I laughed until I cried. You have to know Cole and Tim to appreciate how
intensely funny this all was! Cole also had a coming of age moment when he climbed to the end of the rocks at the St. Andrew's State Park, jumped into the water and swam back...twice...and by himself. Very proud of him pressing past his caution!
I took Lily to get her nails painted with Shellac one afternoon. After we painted her nails she asked if she could take me out for some ice cream. So big girl of her! Lily and I also made hilarious memories playing "Big Fat Baby" in the ocean. She is gifted in making up hilarious theme songs on the fly. We collected shells and spent hours searching for a shark tooth to give to Conrad to thank him for letting us use his boogie board. No luck.
One evening Owen and I went to the beach together to watch the sunset. He drew a picture of us in the sand with a big heart above it. Melt me.
Tim and I enjoyed a long walk on the beach sans the older three. My favorite time spent with him was when we went on a day date to our favorite coffee shop in Rosemary Beach (Love!), we got a taco at the taco bar called Taco Bar in Seaside (pun intended), and then walked the gardens at Watercolor. Does this sound familiar? Yes! We try to do this twice a year. Walking those gardens with him has a way of clearing my head, opening up my heart and bringing things to a place of clarity. Every time!
The biggest blessing of the week was the clarity with which I heard the Lord speak to me. Between the busyness of last year, the move of the summer and my own built in distractions (I should really capitalize that last phrase), I haven't felt that I have been 'hearing' the Lord speak to me in the ways that I use to. Getting off of facebook, getting away from my phone, and leaving behind the demands of my schedule did wonders in bringing forth a wave of refreshment and honest evaluation regarding my life. The biggest treasure I felt the Lord speak to me was the phrase "Make Space." That looks different in everyone's life, and I will spare you the details, but I feel clarity about what that means for me. I feel much more centered in who I am and what I am called too...even regarding those painful places that seem so strong in my soul, yet so out of reach in this season of my life. He is faithful.
So without further ado, here are the Instagram pics that I used to document our vacation:
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| Boondocks |
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| Proof for my BLGF girls...I ran sprints |
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| From our date at the beach |
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| One of my favorite pictures ever! |
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| Apples to Apples Baby! |
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| Lily made this awesome castle that lasted all week!...This was that latter portion. |
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| Peek A Boo |
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| Crocheted a scarf for craft time |
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| Journal, Coffee, Beach = Heaven |
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| Thee I MEAN COME ON picture |
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| Love the Olders |
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| So, I supposse "Make Space" can relate to the van as well...can you say BUS??? |
CAMERA PICS:
Our family has taken a vacation to Sunnyside Beach the week after Labor Day for the last handful of years. For the past two years we have stayed in Cottage #16, Abraham, across from beach access 91. This week, in the traditions of the past, was another amazing-wonderful- piece- of- Heaven- on- Earth for our family! The weather was phenomenal, the water perfect, the company richly memorable. I could not help but shed some alligator tears as we packed up on our last day.
It was such a delight to experience the beach through Whitney's eyes. Last year at the beach was the week before she got her glasses...so who knows what she wasn't seeing! This year she delighted in the waves, the sand, and the pool. Don't ask me how a girl this fearless could scream EVERY night during her bath in the kitchen sink! Oy!
Cole, my funny, dearest Cole. Owen had found this petrified bamboo stick with barnacles on the tip. He gave it to Cole, knowing Cole's delight in 'spears'. Tim gave Cole a 5 minute instructional speech about how careful he had to be when swimming near others with his spear. Cole, nodding in agreement, must have already been imagining himself spearing fish and sharks. Not 15 minutes later, Tim comes walking in from the Ocean with Cole's spear in hands and tosses it onto the towels. "First he stabbed my thigh, then he scraped the length of my hamstring." I laughed until I cried. You have to know Cole and Tim to appreciate how intensely funny this all was! Cole also had a coming of age moment when he climbed to the end of the rocks at the St. Andrew's State Park, jumped into the water and swam back...twice...and by himself. Very proud of him pressing past his caution!
One evening Owen and I went to the beach together to watch the sunset. He drew a picture of us in the sand with a big heart above it. Melt me.
The biggest blessing of the week was the clarity with which I heard the Lord speak to me. Between the busyness of last year, the move of the summer and my own built in distractions (I should really capitalize that last phrase), I haven't felt that I have been 'hearing' the Lord speak to me in the ways that I use to. Getting off of facebook, getting away from my phone, and leaving behind the demands of my schedule did wonders in bringing forth a wave of refreshment and honest evaluation regarding my life. The biggest treasure I felt the Lord speak to me was the phrase "Make Space." That looks different in everyone's life, and I will spare you the details, but I feel clarity about what that means for me. I feel much more centered in who I am and what I am called too...even regarding those painful places that seem so strong in my soul, yet so out of reach in this season of my life. He is faithful. 
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