Sandy Memories

We spent all of last week at the beach. It was wonderful. Kinda cold, we had to do homework, Branson had an earache and Scott had to spend some hours of everyday working, but it was wonderful.

On the way there we stopped and had lunch at "The Golden Coral." That's right, the senor citizen hang out of the century. We spent a solid two hours eating plate, after plate, after all- you-can-eat-plate. The kids topped it off with ice-cream and cotton candy and with that we declared our vacation had officially begun
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One morning, Cali, Ella, Brylee and I were the first ones to pitch our chairs and stake a spot on the beach. It was cloudy and breezy and perfect for snuggling together in one chair. For nearly an hour, the girls and I sang our favorite primary songs, while we watched the ocean dance in and out. I rested my cheek on Brylee's shoulder and kept Cali balanced on my other knee, Ella played in the sand at my feet. Somewhere during the second verse of "I am a Child of God" I felt my heart beating hard through my jacket, to say that my love for these 3 little girls is bigger than that giant ocean and broader than the gray sky that was spilling into it, is an under statement.

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Kaden watched the movie "Rio" 3 times. There's a part where the animated leading lady comes out in a sparkly blue bikini. When this part came up, I yelled out to my boys,

"avert your eyes, avert your eyes!"

To which a closed eyed Branson responded,

"what does avert mean?"

When I responded,

"it means don't look"

Ella quickly answered back,

"Well I'm looking."

Ahhh Ella, always mesmerized by shiny and sparkly.

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One afternoon my boys plus one cousin, walked down to what they like to call, "the pond." When they didn't come back for more than an hour, Scott and I set out after them. When we got there, the boys hadn't seen us yet and I spent several long minutes watching Kaden play. He was building up little mounds of sand and then when a wave would come he would make little exploding sounds with his mouth.

I was thankful that in at least some ways, he's still a little boy. More evidence of this was when he covered himself in a towel that was sprinkled with crackers and waited for the birds to peck at him.

Plus, he played beach baseball.

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Branson found a conch shell that was fully in tact. The first one I've ever seen pulled straight out of the ocean and not purchased at a sea side gift shop. Brylee found a sand dollar and Kaden didn't find anything but a bunch of white rocks that knocked around in my dryer today. I pulled pocket fulls of them out of his swim shorts.
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I managed to take one beautiful picture of my girls and one great picture of my boys to replace the out dated ones hanging on my bathroom wall.

And Cali, tasted sand. And true to her nature, she gaged.

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Every evening the kids spend in the pool. I think the fresh water feels good to them after swimming all day in salt. Sometimes they swim well past dinner time. And then we skip baths and with-in minutes 5 kids are sleeping, all sprawled out right where they fell.

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Branson improved his skim boarding skills vastly. I 'm so impressed. I could watch him do this all day. His little tongue curling out of his mouth in concentration does me right in.

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For some reason I cried the first half of our drive home. I felt sad to be heading back to real life, sad for the heart ache of our extended family and their recent loss and sad that another summer has come and gone, leaving my kids older and more grown up. After a stop for lunch and gas, we decided to read "Celestial Pursuit" trivia cards together. Kaden read several hymn related questions in a row, all of them kinda like,

"In the hymn, How Great Thou Art.....?"

We answered most of them and then out of no where Scott turned on his game show host voice and turned to me and said,

"In the song "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" how many times do we repeat, for hes a jolly good fellow?" He followed that with an operatic rendition of the song.

It was hysterically funny to me and I laughed huge tears right down my cheeks. I swear, I'm either crying cause I 'm crying or crying cause I'm laughing.

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This morning, after taking his dirty clothes to the laundry room, Branson said to me,

"Mom, have you SEEN the laundry room lately?"

"Yes, Branson as a matter of fact I have, thank-you very much."

I then said,

"Don't you wish you were me and got to stay home all day and do the laundry?"

He just smiled his sweet little squinty eyed smile and said,

"No, I don't."

But as for me, I am so thankful to be me. Thankful to get to stay home and wash the sand out of our clothes and pick Kadens treasure rocks out of his pockets. Thankful to get to stay home and scroll through my memory card, reliving another beautiful week on the beach. Thankful for all you can eat lunches, surrounded by gawking senor citizens. Thankful to get to fill sippy cups, change diapers, help with homework, make dinner, comb chlorine filled hair and dry, gallon size baggies of shells out on the picnic table. I am thankful for that laundry that still smells a little salty from the ocean air and for sweet baby cheeks that feel like silky billows of satin on my lips. I am thankful for a 4 year old that loves shiny and sparkly and for a big girl that knows all my beloved primary songs by heart. I'm thankful for a husband that hold my hand when I cry sad tears and provides an outlet for needed tears of hysteria. I'm thankful for a loving God that kissed my kids shoulders with sunshine this week, reminding me with tan lines and a huge pile of sandy laundry, that He loves me.

And I love Him too.

So very much.