Heaven Seems A Little Closer At The Beach

I almost published this post with out any words at all. I am not sure there are words in the English language that explains the feeling of peace I get when I sit on the sand and listen to the waves. 

When I was a kid I my parents took us to the beach for two weeks every year. I always had so much fun making sand castles, covering people in the sand, running in the waves, and swimming. I never quite understood my mom sitting in her lounge chair, under the beach umbrella, just sitting- not running about, not even really getting in the water. I thought she was kinda nuts. She always told me she just loved the sound of the water. Maybe it's part of my never ending journey to be more like my mother, but I think I now totally understand that peace she felt. That calm. That quiet. Well the quiet until one of the kids or my Dad complained about needing food, or having too much sand in their swim suit, or something.

For Cordelia's birthday we took her on her first trip to the Ocean. We visited and stayed with two of our good friends and the weekend was full of good food, ocean sand, zoo trips, and great laughs, It was the perfect trip, and I had been under soo much stress with school that it was amazing to have a break- and to have that break be soo much fun! 

This trip was a long time in the making. I probably can't count the number of times our friends have invited us to visit- or the number of times we have said "yeah that would be awesome, maybe this year". Additionally, when I was 9 months pregnant I was so tired and stressed and on my way to a check up I was almost kept driving- I was determined to take myself to the beach. I talked myself out of it and Brendon promised to take me that weekend... but then the Dr put me on bed rest. Four years later we finally made it. 

and it was sure worth the wait.