A Well Deserved Vacation!

Whew! We arrived home on Sunday from a week in Mexico Beach, Florida with my mom and dad and my brother, sister-in-law and nephew. This was our 5th time to rent the same house on the beach (and we already have it reserved for a week NEXT summer) and it is so nice to know exactly how the house is laid out and equipped. Sherri (the best sis-in-law EVER!) and I split the groceries (we try to take as much of the non-perishables as possible with us and purchase the rest at the WalMart in Panama City.

We had a fantastic time with the sand, water, seafood and a little shopping at the little boutiques we always visit. We prepare "simple" meals, such as baked french toast with fresh blackberries and peaches, scallop pizza and artichoke hearts and scallops with spinach with risotto. We are so thankful for my mom's culinary genius, although the scallop pizza was Sherri's and my creation!

The 3 boys had the best time with the water. Davey doesn't yet know how to swim, but he was out in the surf nearly constantly, both with a tube and without. Max, on the other hand, was seen "beating up" the waves with his fist and growling at them when they crashed on the sand... too funny! J.T. had to be coaxed some days to go out in the water, but he was a big fan, too.

The boys (along with Uncle Fuzzy- my brother, John) built a large sand castle complete with moat that lasted all week. Each morning, they would want to see how much the waves had left in the moat. My mom taught the 3 boys to do drizzle turrets on the side of the castle.

One highlight was a nighttime crab walk. We saw (and caught) many ghost crabs (the white ones prolific on the Gulf coast. J.T. loved to growl at them (perhaps this is where the growling came from!?!?) and Max just kept finding them in the beam of the flashlight and saying, "There's aNOTHER one!"

It was so wonderful to see the cousins together. When I was growing up, I didn't see my cousins (I have 11 of them) very often, so I never developed a really close relationship with them, so I am so thrilled to see this friendship grow between Davey and Max and J.T. (my boys are the only first cousins he has, but he has a lot of extended family in TX). Since August, Davey, Max and J.T. have seen each other in Aug., Nov., April and June and now we have another trip (to Chicago) scheduled in July!!! Yippee!!!

We keep encountering more "firsts"- first trip back to the beach without David, first Fathers' Day without Daddy, etc. We keep plugging along, trying to recollect and share memories from past times WITH David. We talked about him when we ate his favorite beach meal, flying his kite in the Florida breeze and commenting on Davey doing exactly what David would do at the beach- float out on the waves forever. He does live on in our memories!

On a sad note, please pray for my friend, Tena's Dad. He has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and today, they met with the surgeon who told them that it is inoperable and it is very aggressive. Chemo and radiation seem to be the protocol, but that will only serve to slow things down a little. Pray for peace for Tena and her family and for insight for the doctors and researchers searching for a cure for this evil disease that doesn't seem to leave anyone untouched by it.


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I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.
-Elie Wiesel


Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.
-Erik H. Erikson