Two weeks ago, our family had the privilege of spending a week at one of my favorite places in all the land, the beach. Honestly for me, I don't really care what beach it is, I just love to be there. I love the smell of the beach, the feel of the sand between my toes, the sound of the waves crashing. Sigh.
I have to tell the story, too. There's always a story, isn't there? A precious lady in our church gave us her family's condo for the week. Who does that?!?! I don't know! But she did, and our hearts and minds are still reeling from it. Or I should say, we are still reveling in a week spent at the beach. It's so good for the soul, isn't it?
Her condo is in this building, and it was so fancy and nice. And in all honesty, I would have been fine if we never left to eat out or shop or anything, it was just perfect being there.
At the condo was this glorious pool with a lazy river and a water slide. I know! What more do you need?! We arrived on Saturday just after lunch, but our room wasn't going to be ready until later that afternoon, so we spent the entire day by the pool. Glorious.
Check out our view the first night. Sigh. I think the sounds of the ocean will be in heaven.
The next day found us up and at 'em early, but when you're at the beach, you don't really mind to get up and at 'em early.
Our days found us eating lunches on the porch because who wants to eat inside when this is your view? Not me!
I know. I still can't believe this was our home for the week.
And this is the baptist church right next door. I jokingly told David that I would gladly suffer for Jesus at the beach. Not really joking, I so would! I mean, somebody has to tell those people the good news, too!
This is the view from our room. We were on the 8th floor.
I wish I knew how many laps around the lazy river we did in a week! It was awesome!
This little bit loved the view. I found her out on the porch often just admiring the view. Most afternoons David kept her in and sometimes Tilly, too, and he studied and did sermon prep while they napped.
Legs for days, I tell you. The three girls shared a room with bunk beds and had the best time. I think Story thought she was just as big as the older ones getting to sleep with them at night.
We made it down to the beach to play at little bit most every day.
My children love to play in the sand and don't seemed bothered when the sand finds its way to every crevice on their little bodies!
One afternoon, I got to spend the day with this handsome thing just the two of us. So fun. I love his heart. We talked and talked and talked. Such a good day.
Monday night Summer lost a tooth, so the tooth fairy definitely found us at the beach! Summer got a beach ball and two dollars, so fun!
Fun times in the pool.
Tuesday, David had to drive home to do a funeral of a church member, so very sad. He took Story with him, so I had the big 3 for the day. We played at the pool all morning, and went it at lunch when it started to rain. It worked out well that David and Story missed the day it rained!
Tuesday afternoon once David and Story returned, we headed out to eat at Tacky Jacks. It was a fun atmosphere and the food was good! Even better, there was no wait!
We met up with the Pope family for supper. Rebecca and I worked together this past school year, and she has become a very dear friend to me. I love that our families got to spend time together at the beach!
Sweet things playing in the sand.
Wednesday night the sunset was just beautiful!
Summer wanted her picture with the sunset. This was also her last night as a 6 year old! We got to celebrate her birthday at the beach! How special is that?
Thursday a pretty cool thing happened. . . Story and I were headed inside to go to the bathroom. We passed a girl who was on her way out to the pool. Story whispered to me as the girl passed, "Momma, did you see that pretty girl? She looks like a rock star!" Precious. As a parent, you're never really sure what is going to come out of the mouths of your children, and you often cringe. Not so this time. I was so proud. I had seen this girl around the pool throughout the week. I noticed her because she had the prettiest smile, and she had lost most of her hair and it was just beginning to grow back. Story didn't know that. She just saw a pretty girl wearing a stylish hat and some pretty linen pants with her bathing suit. I whispered a quick prayer asking the Lord to be able to tell this girl what Story said. And you know what happened next! Not 15 minutes later, she walked by my chair, and I stopped her. I know she probably thought I was crazy, ha! But she was so touched by what Story said. Her name is Meghan, and she has lupus along with a few other illnesses. I don't know if she is well and didn't want to ask too many questions. But what I do know is that our words matter. A lot. Story's compliment made Meghan's day, and I am so thankful the Lord provided an opportunity for us to meet. Meghan ran up to tell her parents about Story and she brought us these rainbow bracelets you see in the picture above. The bracelet says, We got this! So neat how the Lord works. . .
The girls playing with a new friend they met. I loved watching my children interact with other children throughout the week. Most days they all made a new friend.
Some days we didn't go in for naps and just napped by the pool. One afternoon, Story napped on my while I floated the lazy river for over an hour. It was awesome!
Love these girls!
Friday was our last day on the beach because it rained Saturday, so we just headed home.
We tried the make the most of our very last day and played and played and played.
It was such a fun week for the six of us to be away together.
Oh, how I love these faces!
Story asked me to take a picture of her to send to her friend, Mallory back home! Look at that pose!
It was pretty cloudy that Friday, but that didn't put a damper on our day!
Saturday, we opted to head out early. On our way out of town, we stopped by the famous souvenir shoppe in town.
And then we enjoyed lunch at Lulu's. It was great!
The perfect ending to a perfect week!
Our sweet friend who gave us the gift of a week at the beach asked me to take a picture of all of our feet in the sand. She wants to hang it up on the wall in her beach house. We had the most wonderful week all thanks to the generosity of a sweet friend. Up next, Summer is 7, how can it be!
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