Space Rockets, “Closed” Beach, and Giant Teddy Bears
After years of having children we finally made it on an extended vacation! We went for two weeks to Florida and then the mountains of north Georgia. For weeks, I told the boys we were going to the beach. Caleb would say every time, “The beach is closed.” We finally figured out that was his way of saying that he didn’t want to go. The drive to Florida took two days but the boys loved the hotel getting ice in the ice machine and listening to Adventures in Odyssey. When we finally made it to our friend’s condo in West Florida, our entire family got sick. We threw up for three days. Our hosts took care of us and helped us with the constant stream of laundry as the kids soiled pair after pair of clothes. Then our hosts got sick. It was so hard! But we made it to the beach. It was so beautiful. I had never seen anything like it before!! The colors were so vibrant! And even our red head, heat conscious Caleb loved it. The boys had so much fun building sand castles and playing in the very edges of the water.
From there we went to East Florida to Theresa’s grandfather’s house. He is 97 years old and in really good health.
Theresa’s grandfather’s wife had set up mats and had a bunch of new toys for the kids to play with! Micah walked in to the room and found a teddy bear his size on his mat! He LOVES snuggling with stuffed animals so was very happy. Theresa’s grandfather’s wife is a deep woman of prayer. Hearing her testimony of God’s faithfulness in her life made my heart come alive. The second day there, we went to NASA to see the “space rockets” as Jeremiah called them. Jeremiah was on cloud 9. He loved seeing everything and just took it all in. I was amazed at their presentation of the Space Shuttle. I won’t spoil it for you but it was worth every penny we paid to go (and it was ridiculously expensive 🤣).
In the mountains, I had fun exploring and climbing 200 ft up a mountain with my three boys. Jeremiah found some chickens to chase on the way down. We were really refreshed as a family and returned home closer to each other. I feel like I am closer to my boys then before I left and that alone made it worth it. Ok moral of the story—go on a vacation. You need it.
