Reagan participated in dance camp this week. She was SO excited all week long. Every day after camp she would ask if it was bedtime so she could get her pj's on and go to sleep (she wanted to wake up and do it all again).
Dale and I spent the last 6 days away from our home, our children and our responsibilities. We came across the country in a land filled with no schedules, no commitments and endless possibilities. We had a difficult time adjusting. It went against our very nature.
During our 6 days off we pondered many interesting things:
1. The first day we arrived we dropped everything at the house and decided to head to the beach. When we arrived we were at a loss. Can you even go to the beach without children? What do you do? Do you throw a ball? Swim? Read? Build a sandcastle? We had to think back 15 years to our time on HHI. What did we do before??? We found ourselves talking about the kids almost non-stop. It was fun but incomplete.
2. Sunday night we had dinner with Dale's cousin, Yvonne, and her husband, Marc. We love hanging out with them. If we ever lived here they would be our close friends. Anyway we were reminiscing about many different things when we happened upon a new revelation: we are old! Dale is within months of turning 40. When we think back to when our parents were 40, as children we thought they were so much older, wiser and so........ "adult." I often feel like I haven't reached adulthood and I should be way more "together" and knowledgeable and that ONE DAY I will grow up. When do you actually "feel" older?! When your kids start making fun of mixed tapes, acid washed jeans, PETRA, the original 90210, and "the rachel" hair? OR will it come with a certain birthday? OR when your kids are in high school or college? (FYI- my dad was 40 when I was IN COLLEGE-they were young and cool!)
Anyone have any answers? We didn't come up with any over our 4 hour dinner.
The last few days we have been enjoying Sarasota:
we spent Sunday afternoon at Lido...
we noticed our house is STILL for sale...
Dale snorkeled...
and we stopped by to see the new pool...
One of my favorite stores is the Sarasota Architectural Salvage. They have a bit of everything- mostly old but some things are new. They have old doors, knobs, windows, iron gates, baskets, tables, lighting, LOTS of random stuff and even stone animals. I have never bought anything from there but if I lived in the area I would!
I love these letters. I thought it was funny that they put the C, L and R together!
our "room at the Inn"...
we are steps from the beach...
we found a chapel by the sea...
we rode bikes all over the island...
Sometimes I think of a post that is specifically for my future children- even though this whole blog is really for them. "Future children" meaning, in 25 years when they are grown. Hopefully they will look back over this blog (even tho "blog" won't be thing in 25 years) because they want to remember what life was like when they were kids, what their parents were like AND they want to see if it meshes with their memories. Who knows?! Maybe Dale and I won't be around. There are things I want them to know.
Which leads me to this post.
I am a firm believer in celebrations. I love to have a party, to give gifts, and celebrate the joys of life. Right now Dale and I are off on a week long celebration of first 15 years of marriage - while the kids are hanging out with grandma and grandpa. The last time we went away sans-kids was at our 10 year anniversary. Back then we both said, "We should do this every year, even if it's just for the weekend." And we set our minds to it.
Ummm. This is our first trip alone in 5 years. I am sad that we don't go away more often. Don't get me wrong, we love being with our sweet kids each and every day. AND taking really great vacations with them along for the journey. I just think it is SO important to celebrate your marriage with a get-a-way each and every year. Big or small. But it has to be away. If we were at home right now Dale would be working on the play cave all day long (and or me kitchen). I would be cleaning and purging (since the kids are not around to witness) and painting. We would fall asleep at 9:00 from exhausting work and then wonder where the time went.
Not so if you go away.
we found these chairs on our walk today- perfect for our sweet kids...
A few years back we scored a water slide at Target for about $30. It was the deal of the century! It tears up our yard and wreaks havoc on our water bill but it is TONS of fun for the kids. We break it out about every other week although this was our first go this summer. The kids have mastered flying off the top and landing in the middle of the slide to finish the ride down. It's heart stopping.... for me. Sometimes I cannot even watch....
