[ Back to the Beach ]*

****I drafted this post over a month ago****

Okay, before I share YET ANOTHER batch of beach photos, I feel like I use share a few disclaimers.

We take a lot of long weekend trips rather than longer trips.  That way we are able to spread out vacation time which keeps us from getting burned out at work or burned out on the beach too. :)

Also, we have a lot of generous friends who invite us stay with them when they travel.  We are not spending money on anything really other than food on these trips.  I just felt like that was important to say because it might appear as though we are blowing gobs of money traveling all of the time, when in fact we are not.  I just really wanted to explain that because it could appear very hypocritical that we are talking about the desire to sacrifice for our friends in need around the world and then it looks like we live the lifestyle of the rich and famous.  Like I said before, we are surrounded by generous people who are too good to us, which allows us opportunities for adventure that we would otherwise not get to experience.

Whew. I feel better just getting that off of my chest.

So, with the disclaimers declared, let's talk beach.

David kicked me out of the house July 4th weekend so that he and Bear could install insulation under the girls' room.  (We are super concerned about helping them be as warm as possible when they come since they're used to temps well above 100 as the norm and bundle up in hats and coats when it dips below 85.  And...we just happen to live in a house built in 1929 (ie pre-insulation/ energy-efficiency.)

Goodness, I am wordy today.

So, he kicked me to the curb.  Kristen picked me up on the curb and we headed down to the beach.

We were about 15 minutes from home when I realized I forgot the camera. MORON! So the trip had to be captured on my ghetto phone.  Some of these pictures might require you to close one eye, squint and do the hokey pokey in order to make out what they are of...but you should get the idea anyway.

First stop: Sprayberrys in Newnan.   If you have never been before, I'm going to need you to walk away from your computer, get in your car and drive there now.

Meals like this were consumed:

Because 3 out of the 4 of us were on very strict diets, I will not say how many of us consumed meals like this.  And chocolate milkshakes. And bowl after bowl of pickels.

My mouth is shut.  (It was not however that night.)

Jonah wanted two photos in front of the sign.  A "serious" one and a "inja" one.  We think he means ninja.  I also think he uses inja for indians, which might confuse the girls when they come and Jonah calls them ninjas.

 

Let me interrupt to say that I now sport a new do.  Some days it is a mohawk. Others it is like the side-spike from the 90's.  I felt like this was important to note before it makes an appearance and you freak out thinking I may be undergoing chemotherapy.  I am not.

As I am going through the pictures on my phone, I am quickly realizing that it was practically a food-tour. Yikes. So, I guess let's continue on a tour of restaurants on the Gulf.  At the condo, we are lots of M&M's:

Esther Grace's bookbag of toys for dinner at Boondock's:

KD & Cobb at, you guessed it, dinner.  My goodness, this is getting embarassing:

Jonah, doing another "inja" chop.  Umm, this face is hilarious and scary all at the same time:

View from Boondock's:

Jonah talked about getting a tat all week. KD told him to keep it tasteful.  He wanted a Superman symbol with tribal barbed-wire.  Well.....

Cobb is originally from Texas like David, so of course, we had to introduce the kids to Whataburger.  HUGE hit:

Esther Grace's lunch:

 Her lunch choice led to some devastatingly potent diapers.  Please note Jonah's reaction and then her response:

Back to Whataburger.  Jonah adopted my habit of two straws. . .only to decide that three was actually better. 

He could barely fit them in his mouth!

Outlet Shopping.  What beach trip is complete without one?  I had Jonah walking through the stores saying, "Oh, I am definitely going to buy this." and "Oh, this blazer would go great with my khakis".  I may have even told him he "needed" a seersucker suit.

His mom wanted to kill me, I am sure.

And then.....

Jonah decides that he HAS to buy some "weiss-beaters" (wife-beaters).  He was adamant about this.  I thought it was hilarious and when I could finally keep a straight face I asked him, "Who do you know that wears those??"

He said, "My daddy."

???????  So, we store to store and I made him ask the clerks if they sold wife-beaters.  We finally scored some at the undies store:

He quickly removed his polo and wore the "weiss-beater" in its place.  He also went shoeless.

Did I mention that his mom probably wanted to kill me?

Kristen's Dad came down a few days later.  And here are the boys at....dinner!:

While at dinner, David sent me a text that said, "This is what I look like after a few days with Bear." There was a photo included. He was a filthy mess.  (He looked like Bear).

Kristen's dad, Rick, sent him these next two pictures that said, "This is what your wife looks like after two days with me"

That night, at dinner. Esther Grace, cuddled with her parfait:

One night we took Jonah to this really cool place called WonderWorks.  We did things like lay on a bed of nails.  (Which huuurrrrttt, by the way.)

Played virtual reality games on a green screen.  See Jonah as an NBA player??

The BEST day of the trip though was when Rick took us out on the boat to Crooked Island.  It was AMAZING.

I rode on top of the boat.  And there were a few times that I imagined myself as a rodeo cowgirl. I was holding on for dear life!  LOVED every minute.

Esther Grace did too:

We collected BUCKETS FULL of shells, conchs and sand dollars. 

 View to the left:

View to the right:

KD used her swimsuit to hold about 30 lbs of shells. No joke. It was ridiculous and I didn't think David would believe me about the insane number, so I took a picture.   Unfortunately, my thumb blocked the evidence.  But, take my word for it. :)

On July 4th we sat on the 14th story of the condo and watched fireworks at eye-level for hours.  It was such a unique experience.

And, to cap-off the trip, on the drive home KD, Cobb and I discovered a drive-thru convenience store.  YOU DROVE THROUGH!!  How cool is that??

(The attendant to the left of me, was scared out of his mind. I think I said to him 10 times: "You literally drive-thru!!")

[ Trusting, Though We Don't Understand ]*

"It seems more difficult to trust God than to obey Him.

The moral will of God given to us in the Bible is rational and reasonable.
The circumstances in which we must trust God often appear irrational and inexplicable.

The law of God is readily recognized to be good for us, even when we don't want to obey it.
Yet the circumstances of our lives frequently appear to be dreadful and grim, or perhaps even calamitous and tragic.

Obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God's revealed will.
But trusting God is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries. We do not know the extent, the duration, or the frequency of the painful, adverse circumstances in which we must frequently trust God. We are always coping with the unknown.

Yet it is just as important to trust God as it is to obey Him. When we disobey God we defy His authority and despise His holiness.
But when we fail to trust God, we doubt His sovereignty and question His goodness.
In both cases we cast aspersions upon His majesty and His character.

God views our distrust as Him as seriously as He views our disobedience."

[from Is God Really In Control? Trusting God in a World of Hurt by Jerry Bridges]

[Vacation :: Day 4]*

After our trip to St. George Island with the Gilberts, we headed to Rosemary Beach to spend a week with our good friends, the Nash's, Mulkey's and Hancocks.

*************************

By Day 4 there was a serious battle between my skin and the UV rays.

And my skin was losing.  Horribly, by the way.

In Alys Beach there is a darling (yes, dah-ling) little coffee shop called the Fonville Press:

(photo ganked from google images)

Since my skin was SCORCHED, I made my way to Fonville to avoid any interaction with the sun.

Since I only packed sleeveless shirts (big mistake), so I use a scarf/vest thing to cover as much exposed skin as possible and biked to the coffee shop.

A few minutes later, I was sitting in the coffeeshop's courtyard under a thatch-covered pergola, sipping a most-delicious iced mango tea and reading book #2 of the trip, when I reached a level of relaxation like never before.

I'm telling you, like never before.

Can I just explain this to you? My husband thinks I am a "hippie-weirdo"

(this photo was also ganked)

I was curled up in a wicker chair. The was a cool ocean breeze flowing through the thatched roof.  Water was dripping out of zen-like fountains. Birds flew in (seriously!) and were singing. SINGING!  (Well, chirping, but go with it).

Am I in a Disney movie? Is a mouse coming to make me a dress for the ball?

Maybe.

Soft music is playing in the background.  Islands in the Stream by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton.

Is my body turning to mush? My brain has slowed down.  I realize that I have read about 5 pages on my kindle and don't recall a single thought.

Is this what being on drugs feels like?

Oh my goodness.

If so, I need drugs in my life.

I decide to pull a few chairs together and lounge for a moment.

[In a coffee-shop, mind you.  Yet, I still feel like it is acceptable to form a bed out of their furniture and proceed to lay across them. The relaxation has obviously affected my decision-making abilities. Did they slip me a roofie?]

A child runs by and it startles me and I realize that I have been sleeping.

Full-on drool-induced coma.

[I'm still not sure how long I was passed out.]

I slung my scarf/vest/ cape thingy over my sun-fried shoulders and hoofed my Huffy back to the house in total embarassment.

But even the embarassment couldn't keep me away. For the rest of our trip, I made at least 2-3 trips A DAY down to Fonville for the liquid crack they were pushing as "mango tea".

[Vacation :: Day 3]*

I'm going cray-cray.

Since I started posting about our trip to St. George a few weeks ago (only got through day 2), we have gone on two more beach trips and are headed out on another one this weekend...

Yikes.

Also, one of our memory cards is MIA.  Thank the LORD that it did not have any client photos on it, but a big chunk of our trip photos are temporarily (hopefully) misplaced.

Double-yikes.

Let's recap: The Gilberts are our friend Lindsay's parents, brother, sister-in-law and nieces and nephews.  How do you describe the Gilberts? Like Ryan and Lindsay, they also are just great people. Salt of the earth people who make us feel like we are part of their family too.  We've spent weekends with the whole crew in Alabama, in the North Ga mountains (where I learned to water ski--finally!), at their home in Rome, GA and now in Florida.

They exude Southern hospitality effortlessly.  They love to laugh.  Let me clarify, they love to laugh at one another.  And they give each other plenty of material (especially the guys).  Best of all, they genuinely love one another. In fact, after spending so much time with them, I'm convinced there is no where they would rather be than in one another's company.  Which is such a cool thing to see.

All that to say, we always have a total blast when they invite us along.  They have been so good to us and we are thankful that our friendships with Ryan and Lindsay have branched out to include their whole family.  They are a blessing to us.  And experiences like the one we shared with them on St. George Island do more for our spirits than they will ever know!