LIVE A LIFE OF NO REGRETS!!: Our Family Beach Vacation 2011

Quote from "Stepping Heavenward" by Mrs. E. Prentiss

"She says I shall now have one mouth more to fill and two feet the more to shoe, more disturbed nights, more laborious days, and less leisure or visiting, reading, music and drawing.

Well! This is one side of the story, to be sure, but I look at the other.

Here is a sweet, fragrant mouth to kiss; here are two more feet to make music with their pattering about my nursery. Here is a soul to train for God; and the body in which dwells is worthy of all it will cost, since it is the abode of a kingly tenant. I may see less of friends, but I have gained one dearer than them all, to whom, while I minister in Christ's name, I make a willing sacrifice of what little leisure for my own recreation my other dear darlings had left me. Yes, my precious baby, you are welcome to her time, her strength, her health, her tenderest cares, to her lifelong prayers! Oh, how rich I am, how truly, wondrously blest!"

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Our Family Beach Vacation 2011

The Family (minus Wesley, Cindy, Brandon, Rylie and Jackson)

We did our beach trip a few weeks earlier this year due to our expanding gardens. It was a great, relaxing trip although it wasn't quite the same without Wesley and Cindy's family. Probably my favorite moments were our daily walks, the games, and just enjoying watching the family eat, work, play and laugh together. Yep, we even work on vacation....household chores can't escape a crowd this large anywhere. Dishes still needed to be washed, clothes laundered, and floors vacuumed to keep the sand out.

Muscle Men

Every year since the boys were babies, they pose at least once showing off their muscles. The toddler got in on the act this year. We've played bocce ball, volleyball, football, and frisbee every year at the beach. This year the boys, sometimes girls, played a lot of beach soccer. A few swollen feet, bruised shins and ankles but no breaks as in previous trips with the skim board.

All boy's game

The brothers

Even Christopher gets a good kick in!

In the picture below my son is pointing at the sign behind the plane. It says judgment day. Can you believe the world was "ending" the same day we were out on the beach? Thank the Lord we knew the Word says in Matthew 24:36, "But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only."

The girls stroll along with us on our daily, long, beach walks. These are great moments of bonding, talking about life, and enjoying God's great creation.

All and all another wonderful week and we are so thankful to our friend Suzanne. We had such a great time when visiting with her that we can't wait to see her again soon.