A Day at Christy Miller’s Beach

My relationship with Ben is a product of my parents’ prayers, God’s grace, and Christy Miller books. I’m not sure which played the biggest role, but I do know that Christy Miller had a lot of influence in my life, even though she was a fictional character. I think my parents were fairly concerned about how I would weather the dating/choosing a spouse chapter of my life, but they needn’t have worried – Christy Miller taught me what I needed to know!!

I read those Christy Miller books over and over and over again, until every character seemed real, and Newport Beach seemed like home. I had never been, but it was all clearly pictured in my mind.

So you can imagine the pure delight I experienced when Ben suggested that we take a drive out to Newport beach on Wednesday. Ben did not realize the significance of that beach – he just read good reviews online. Turns out, Christy Miller had good reason to thrive on the beach of Newport….

We explored, chased waves, walked to the end of the pier, went for a ferris wheel ride, and ate some fantastic food. Such a fun day!

Anika is not quite old enough for Christy Miller books yet, but I spent the day priming the pump. We picked out which house along the beach “belonged” to Christy’s fictional aunt and uncle. We imagined her walking around Newport. Anika’s pretty sure Christy Miller ate at the restaurant where we had lunch…

Beautiful day, beautiful view. It was a bit cold, but I’m so glad we went!

Making Summer Awesome – Week Four

We’re back from a fantastic week at the lake! Making summer awesome was very easy this last week!

We went back for a visit to our old beach at camp…

We relaxed, read lots and lots of books, did some puzzles….

…and soaked in tons of sunshine!

We took the girls to Rainbow Falls…

…and laughed at some ducks jumping over the falls! The week was hot, hot, hot, so we tried to spend every afternoon at the beach.

Besides just having a great time as a family, I think we accomplished a few other things, as well:

• We experienced enough heat to make me ready for some cooler fall temperatures!
• We relaxed enough to make me motivated to come home and get stuff done.
• We were on vacation long enough to make us miss home, and be ready to come back!

It’s hard to say goodbye to a good summer, but I find the easiest way to deal with it is to go hard, squeeze every little bit of enjoyment out of it, and then move on to fall with no regrets.

But my friend Chantelle is right – summer is not officially over until September 22! I have a few more things on my list to enjoy…

And Here We Are, At Home

So. Coming home from vacation.

Yesterday morning I was doing yoga by the beach, and by evening, I was home in the snow.

I’ve been thinking about the pros and cons to coming home.

My cons included:

1) No beach.

2) Being reunited with my winter jacket. (It is so much fun to run out the door without it.)

3) Loads of laundry, and suitcases full of sand.

4) Jumping right back into the regular, busy schedule.

But because there are two sides to everything, I must admit that I’m very aware of the pros to coming home, as well:

1) I missed our house. (And I really love sleeping in our own bed!)

2) I LOVE having good, clean drinking water running from our taps.

3) Flushing toilet paper down the toilet now seems like a luxury. (I kept forgetting all week! And then I felt super guilty about all the clogged toilets I was leaving in my wake. Now I can flush with freedom. I might throw extra toilet paper in just for the fun of it.)

I was going to come up with an equal number of pros and cons, but for right now, that’s all I’ve got.

Have a wonderful Monday, and flush your toilet paper down that toilet with a big smile of appreciation on your face.

Okay, want to help me out?! What’s your best “pro” for being at home, and not in some tropical location?:)

Hello, Mexico

Yes, please.

I will have some of that.

 

En Route

We are in the process of flying from this…

To this…

We will catch up with you shortly!

Waterski Weekend

We enjoyed this beautiful weekend as much as we possibly could! Now I feel so filled up with sunshine and summer, that I think it will be okay when fall comes.

 

After all the time we spent doing water activities this weekend, I was not completely surprised to hear Kaylia talking to her toast crusts yesterday morning as she dipped them into her bowl of cereal, “That’s too deep! Come back, come back. You can’t go in so deep.”

Hope you had a great weekend, too!

And to think I was going to pack away my swimsuit….

I’ve had very many people ask me this week when I plan to start homeschooling Anika for the year.

My answer is always the same – I was going to start this week, but we decided to go to the beach instead.

There have to be some perks to planning our own school schedule, right?

We’ll start school next week.

Maybe. Depending on the temperature….

In the meantime, we will play, and have snacks, and enjoy the sunshine.

Confessions

Confession: I’ve been doing lots of playing, and very little working this week.

Confession: I didn’t actually want to go to the beach. I was tired, and the messy house was making me grumpy. Like eating too many sweets at Christmas, and knowing you should stop, heading for the beach day after day is starting to feel like it would be healthier to stay home and get some work done.

But seriously, how many more hot summer afternoons do we have left?

Confession: When we got back, Tinkerbell entertained my children while I speed-cleaned like a mad-woman. (That’s how you do it when you have to clean the whole house, finish the laundry, clean up the groceries, and make supper, all during the length of one Tinkerbell movie.)

Confession: Today I might possibly love Tinkerbell more than anyone else in the whole world. Just for today.

Confession: Sometimes I exaggerate the truth if it sounds good in a blog post. ‘Cause you know I love my family. Which is why I’m taking the day off on Monday. Camp is over, and we’re going to just be a family. I’ll see you all on Tuesday!

Confession: Sometimes I really, really wish I had a southern accent so I could pull off saying “y’all”, and it would be legit instead of cheesy.

Weekend Pictures

I could not count how many times I’ve been asked this last week if it’s good to have Ben back. And I don’t think I could put enough enthusiasm into my response that yes, it is very wonderful to have him home.

But life at camp made everything hectic, as is usual in summer, so we took lots of time this weekend to relax and just enjoy normal life together again.

We played in the backyard…

…and ran through the sprinkler.

We hung out on the dock and watched people go water skiing.

We went to the beach and enjoyed perfect weather.

Suddenly it feels like this summer is rushing past. Only a few more relaxing weekends like this one was. Hope you had a good one!

Weekend Pictures

Spent our afternoons at the beach out of necessity this weekend. And it looks like this next week will be just as hot! My friend Terra-Lee says, “How many beach pictures do I need?” Every afternoon kind of looks the same – beautiful, fun, and sunny!