It's just beachy.

On Tuesday last week I woke up thinking, I want to go to the beach. Nothing new really because I often think this but this day was different. The kids were out of school and the funds were ok enough that maybe I actually could go the beach. So I said to Robert, "The boys and I are going to the beach in the morning....wanna go?" To which he laughed. But after much searching and thinking it was decided that we would go to the beach. Robert couldn't go so I asked my sister-in-law if she was down with last minute trips and would like to meet me at my house at 4am and head south for 3 1/2 days. She is and she did....and off we went.

We arrived Wednesday afternoon without a hitch and cozied up on the beach watching the boys play in the water and the sand for a couple of hours. Thursday we made plans to pack lunch and spend the entire day at the beach and then eat dinner at a restaurant we could walk to from the beach. We had a wonderful day--I decided that we absolutely must save money and one day have a condo/house/shack/lean-to on the beach. That my favorite place to watch my boys play is right there. They absolutely love it and can play for hours and hours. And we did.

However making your first lengthy appearance to the sun after 6ish months of hibernation should be done with caution. All of us ended up with sunburn gracing us in various places....Gavin and Jakeb on the back of their little legs, Zachary in 2 little spots on his chest, me on the front of my legs and the left side of my stomach. I looked amazing I promise. My poor SIL however got the brunt of it pretty much over her entire body. We applied sunscreen before we arrived at the beach and even reapplied but apparently not enough...oops. We survived though and lesson learned!

Early Friday morning I woke to a sound I loathe...a child vomiting. Poor Gavin came down with whatever bug Zachary had 5 days prior. And he was miserable. We were miserable and stuck, stuck, stuck. Let's just say I hope the hotel staff knows I tried. Poor little boy is still recovering. When you weigh 34lbs at nearly 5 years old stomach viruses take a lot out of you. He hasn't been sick since yesterday morning but has spent the last 4 days barely moving and barely eating. Which leaves him incredibly weak. Today he has seemed to turn a corner and is requesting food. He has been good about his fluids so I haven't been terribly worried about him being dehydrated and I suppose he won't really starve himself but yesterday I was beginning to wonder. This makes for the 3rd weekend in a row that someone has been sick. It's taking it's toll on me for sure. For the most part I feel the kids are relatively healthy but this winter/spring has me wondering. The last 4 or 5 months have been rough on all of us.

The beach was wonderful for one whole day and we will be back in June. Though it almost feels like we never went if I didn't have sand on the back of my van I would think it was a dream.

The past month or so has been a fog so it was nice to escape even for just a day. And sometimes it is just necessary.

Just Beachy

Our beach trip was fabulous. The weather was perfect the entire time, the water was lovely, the townhouse we rented was fantastic. We have yet to find "our vacation spot" so we like to hit up different areas and this year we headed to Cape San Blas, Florida. It's a very rural area, like the closest grocery store, Piggly Wiggly, is 25 minutes away. Being away from everything is nice, but not. The beaches were quieter and it forced us to stay in...less money was spent and more time relaxing. The beach and area we were in allows dogs to be brought, though we did not bring ours we missed them and wished we had. Next year we hope to go back and be able to bring them, and let them romp on the beach for the very first time.

My mom came down and stayed with us for a the last couple of days we were there and it was nice to visit with her and get time to chit chat and relax together. I also was able to visit with my friend Teresa--she lives in Panama City Beach which was just a touch over an hour away-- Teresa and I had not seen each other in close to 5 years so it was super fantastic to get some time to visit and catch up!

We really didn't do much while we were there--which honestly was fantastic and my only plan. Do nothing. We spent every single day at the beach for hours, I read one book, we played Jenga, watched TV, and spent every single morning watching dozens of dolphins splash, jump, and play in the ocean, as well as butterflies, dragonflies, and hummingbirds on the flowers directly in front of our porch. It was exactly what we all needed.

Beachin' it.

In roughly 5 days I will be happily relaxing beach side--somewhere in Florida. That's right it's not been booked yet. But we're working on it.

Worn out tonight--for no good reason really. I had a good day. Dropped some cash on new bedding for J and Z--this is always fun, well that I finally had the $ to get it, is fun. Rearranged their room to a fantastic new set up--and with the matching bedding it's fantastic. And I bummed around alone for a couple hours while all 3 boys where at school. All in all it was a decent day. Jakeb and I had some struggle with home work--poor guy is not getting math to the perfection that he thinks he needs to. Overall he does just fine but he's not speedy math whiz boy that he thinks he should be. Gets it pretty honest I was basically the same way--math not my strong thing. I get too frustrated that I am not fast and I get a calculator 90% of the time. Cheater.

No news to report on the adoption process front--basically just gathering info at this point. It's a very long tedious process, and I am anxious to get the ball rolling. We have narrowed it down to an agency and country but want to make sure we explore all of our options first. Most family members seem pretty onboard with our decision, so that's good. Everyone has been actually--we are pretty rockin' on the parenting front. Far from perfect but not too shabby either--so we will rock this. I hope. I am stoked that's all I know. Will keep ya posted!