The beach trip

I have 2 things to write about, so I am going to do them as separate blogs. For some reason, I don't want one to taint the other.

Our trip to the beach was very nice. The weather didn't cooperate like I had hoped it would, but we had fun all the same. The kids had a blast playing in the indoor pool. We shopped, ate delicious and stupidly expensive food, walked on the beach, and had a lot of fun.

On Saturday night, Tim took the kids out for a walk on the beach and left me at the room to relax and read for a little while. I love reading for pleasure ( as opposed to my school work ) and do not often have the apparently to do it anymore. I sat out on the balcony and watched them on the beach together. Sometimes, it's hard for me to believe the life we've made together. I watched our four children chasing seagulls, laughing together and being silly, and just have this overwhelming feeling of peace. As if we were all exactly where God intended for us to be.

And let me explain the chasing of the seagulls. About a block down from our hotel at least one thousand seagulls sleep on the beach. Don't ask me why. So, for the kids, it is GREAT fun to quietly walk down the beach, then as they approach the flocks of seagulls to break into a full run and watch them all lift up in unison. It really was amazing to watch, even from the hotel balcony. They would all swarm up and fly in a huge circle, then settle back down a little further down the beach. Being an animal lover, I felt kinda bad for the poor seagulls trying to sleep, but it was really neat to watch.

On the way home, we stopped and adopted our new Boxer puppy. Her name is Lexie & she is 3 1/2 months old. We are all just crazy about her. She is such a sweetheart....even if she does pee everywhere every time she gets excited.

All in all, it was a really nice weekend. We had so much fun, I just bit the bullet and made reservations for us to rent a cabin in Gatlinburg Tennessee for vacation this summer. In the 6 years we've been together, we have yet to take a real vacation together as a family. I think it is about time we did.