Just Beachy!

Last month, we were blessed to spend a week at the beach with my parents. It was an amazing week full of laughter, relaxation, fishing and fun! It was absolutely awesome to wake up in the morning and walk along the shoreline. Hear the waves crashing outside our window. Watch the kids' faces full of excitement while they tried to out chase the waves! I read an entire book that week, something I haven't done in a very long time. I sat and watched my children splash and play for hours on end. I even got hours of uninterrupted time to visit with Luke (thanks Mom and Dad!)while he fished from sun up to sun down. It was a glorious time and we all felt incredibly blessed to have had the time together, to just be together without any stress, deadlines, appointments or obligations.

Luke caught a lot of fish that week. Mostly catfish but he did get a trout that we fried up and ate (it wasn't awful) and a couple of reef sharks. He even got to teach Ise how to fish...something he has been wanting to do for a long time!

The best part, Isaac's first catch was a reef shark!

Luckily Luke isn't easily phased and did all the shark handling. Delainey refused to even come within a mile of it and Ise stood just close enough so I could get a picture of him near the shark!

After Isaac caught the shark the kids really didn't want to go back into the water right away so they had fun building sandcastles, digging giant holes and collecting seashells.

Luke totally didn't seem to mind though and continued on throwing his net and wading out to waist deep water to fish. I have never seen the man happier then fishing on that beach!

Even Cheez got in on the fishing. I think he caught two or three catfish as well!

Every morning, my parents, Delainey and I would take the dogs for a walk on the beach. Major thought he was in absolute heaven getting to run along the beach unleashed and greeting folks from all over. I swear if that dog was human, he would be a Wal-mart greeter!

Delainey loved to walk with my mom and pick up the seashells. She fell in love with the small, beautifully colored clam shells that when abandoned by its occupant would looked just like butterflies. I was fascinated by the thousands of living clams that would appear when the waves came in and then would bury themselves back into the sand once the wave passed. I had never seen anything like it before, all the beautiful colors and the way they would appear and then just disappear. Truly amazing!

We even saw dolphins late in the afternoon some days. They came so close the shore that the kids had a front row seat to watch them jump and dive into the water.

There is just something about the ocean that makes everything in the world seem better, more beautiful and really helps me put my life into perspective. You can't help but feel the power and strength of the hands of God when you sit on the sand and watch those waves crashing onto shore and the sun setting somewhere out there over the great beyond. Oh beach vacation why did you have to end! I seriously hope and pray we get to retire someday somewhere near a beach. Until then, I can't wait to do it again next year!