the pier - vacation 2017

Our visit to the pier included a sea turtle sighting.  I've always wanted to see one in the wild and only regret that I could not get the camera going fast enough to snap the photo.

It was a hot mid-morning trip to the pier, so we were not sure we would see any wildlife, but we saw a couple of dolphins playing nearby.

Another great vacation quote came from Isaac.

Tiffany handed him something for breakfast and then asked, "Who's your favorite aunt?" She paused very briefly and then added, "say Tiffany." 

Isaac exclaimed, "Fire ants - they will BURN you!"

Isaac is a wealth of information on all creatures great and small.

Tiffany got burned on another occasion on vacation.  Our house had both a coffee maker and a Keurig.  We had pods for the Keurig and were making coffee that way.  Tiffany felt it would make more sense to use the coffee maker, so while planning a trip to the store, she stated, "I'll just pick up filters, so we can make coffee."

Andy quipped, "I've never associated Tiffany with filters before."

Anniversary 24 years - vacation 2017

Andy and I celebrated 24 years of marriage while on vacation with a dinner out at The Back Porch.  A dinner out is our typical celebration, if we celebrate at all.

My Trades of Hope show was still open (may still be when this posts - linked a few posts back), so my consultant suggested we share pictures of items from Trades of Hope.  I don't generally do selfies as I am so not photogenic but wanted to share some of my favorite earrings from Trades of Hope - Amina earrings. 

anniversary selfie while awaiting our table

We sat with a beach view and spoke very little about the kids. 

24 years ago I said "I do" to my best friend.  Over the course of those years we have seen the Grand Canyon, New York City, climbed the Great Wall of China and enjoyed a few beaches.  We visited Estes Park in both the winter and the summer with a visit in the spring still on the bucket list. We marveled over the miracle of tiny newborns entrusted to our care and journeyed to China for a toddler and later for a five-year-old after wading through mountains of paperwork. We weathered storms. We each lost parents far too soon. We married with five grandparents still living between us. We now have none. We suffered through miscarriages. We lost a much loved brother in law, and we have mourned with and for our widowed sister and a widowed friend. We have loved and buried two dogs, and we have endured the most evil cat known to mankind (no more cats for this family!) along with hamsters, a gecko, and fish. We have driven to and from countless practices and sat through games in pouring rain, freezing cold (under 20 degrees cold), and under the most beautiful sunrises, sunsets, and even a rainbow. We have walked our kids through triumphs and failures, great times and big disappointments. We have taken turns throughout a sleepless night or two nursing the child with the high fever and had each others' backs when cleaning up after sick kids or animals since neither of us stomach that well.  We parent four kids with very different personalities who all have a wonderful love for God and family.  We've been so blessed. We learned by accident many years ago that we could end the fights in our marriage by simply having separate checking accounts.  At first we thought that meant we were failures ;) We have worked hard, and we have been prosperous, and we have been broke.  We have laughed a lot, and our kids have all inherited a great sense of humor. We have been united in our goals for our kids and thus our parenting. We have tried hard to put God first, each other second and kids third. I couldn't have and wouldn't have done this with anyone else.  I still do!

Surf-vacation 2017

Play time!  

I noted on the first day that we needed this vacation for closure, to heal, to restore our souls, for family unity, for fun, and for great memories.  Some of those goals were met. Others were not.

After Mom died, Jonathan insisted that we needed to continue our family vacations or at least have one more.  He did the same this year after Dad died.  It was not lost on me that our vacation took us to the same location after each of those losses.  I would love to return again and again to these beaches along the gulf, but I don't want my returns to be preceded by losses.

Kallie is ready to go!  She never made it to the pool or the beach after this picture.  She crashed for a nap instead.

Crazy crew

Making friends with the natives.

Do spotted turtles go under water? Isaac wants to know.  

All of these kids wanted me to take them to the beach by myself.  YIKES!

We did not take all the kids - just five of them, and Andy helped me.

We really tried to get a good cousins picture.  You can see exactly how thrilled the older cousins were by this idea.  GRR!

When the sun goes down, it's either board game or pool time --or video game time - not gonna lie.

picture explosion -vacation 2017

Lots of pics and words coming to the blog.  We returned from vacation two days ago.  

Vacation starts with the planning and scheduling.  Stop the mail. Arrange a kennel stay for the dogs. Pack.  This year we actually dropped the dogs off the day we left which meant a later start time for the drive.  We were caravanning with my friend Kim who was staying nearby, so it helped her out to have a later start for a long drive.

This first post is about our road trip traditions.

We always play "Sweet Home Alabama" when we head South.
We usually play "Vacation" by the Go-Gos, "Holiday Road" from National Lampoon's Vacation, and we often throw in "I'm Diving In" by Steven Curtis Chapman.

I had to laugh when we found this quaint town on the drive.  Andy noted that they had a patriotic looking building but that the town itself looked over the hill."  That was the first of our memorable vacation quotes.

first palm tree spotted

If only our travels took us to the Welcome Center where photo ops were an option.

Road trippin'

the bay

He drove the whole way!!

Trying to get our toes in the sand for the first time - turns out this is not our access point - oops

Finally!

That sand is powder soft!

Some of our first looks --more to come.

Our computer is old and slow, so it literally took hours to load all the pictures.  Blog posts are scheduled to post daily approximately 24 hours apart until August 10th.  Rather than a day by day description of vacation, this one will be daily themes.  

Trades of Hope

Hi Friends,

I am hosting a Trades of Hope e-party this week.  I love that this company helps women leave a life of sex trafficking and/or poverty and provides them with gainful employment and a hope for a future. The link is below:

Trades of Hope

not the best pic, but these are some of my favorite things from Trades of Hope

Of course they also offer scarves, handbags/totes, home decor and even some personal items for men.  Check them out if you are interested :)