Vacation and Tomorrow

How many kids get to spend their birthdays on the beach? Chase turned 6 on Labor Day this year, and we just happened to be on our family vacation in Destin, FL. We had the best time! Roman got to fly in an airplane and see the ocean for the first time and he loved both experiences.

We were playing after dinner while Mark paid the bill, and a lady walked by and asked if we wanted our picture together.

Enjoying his first visit to the ocean.

Sand castles! Love these guys!

What is it about being on vacation that makes it so much easier to “be in the moment?” For some reason, being away from home and being in vacation mode, I am so much more “go with the flow,” I don’t find myself worrying so much about tomorrow, and I did not have one ounce of guilt eating bacon with practically every meal. Every now and then, when I watched the boys run and play on the beach in pure joy, with their bodies completely cooperating, I found my mind wondering to the thought “how much longer will they be able to do this……?” but I just said a little prayer for peace, and was able to get myself back into the moment and experience their joy with them.

We booked this trip back when Chase was first diagnosed. We felt a strong pull to do something amazing as a family. We hadn’t gone anywhere for 2 years, Madison will be leaving for college in one year so we knew her life was only going to get busier (unfortunately she was unable to go last minute due to college visits and ACT prep) and we were hit with a ‘carpe diem’ feeling because we just never know what next week will bring.

How right we were about the “you never know what next week will bring” mentality……we obviously never expected Chase to break his arm a week and a half before our trip. I was really hoping to teach him how to boogie board on this trip, but he really made the best of it and was a champ when we went through the steps it took to keep his cast dry (the doctors told us if it got wet, it would crumble apart, yikes!).

Destin, FL had so much to offer. We played on the beach almost every day. Destin has the most beautiful white, soft sand I have ever seen. We took one day off from the sun because some of us were getting a little red, and went to Panama City to a place called Gulf World Marina. It was a smaller version of Sea World, but to be honest, it was better and cheaper. We ate dinner out most nights looking at the ocean. We took a sunset dolphin cruise Saturday night on a very authentic pirate ship. The boys got such a kick out of steering the boat and helping set the sails. They even got six pieces of ‘gold’ at the end. Some nights it was so fun to just walk along the docks, between the restaurants, where they were having some sort of end of summer festival. There were a lot of cool souvenir shops, people making balloon animals, and me and the boys road on a little miniature train through the crowds of people.

After 5 days of no schedules, eating dinner on the beach almost every night, and finding and appreciating joy in every new experience, it was sooooo hard to board the plane to come home. I feel so blessed that we were able to put stuff on hold for a bit, and go create these treasured memories together. I hope to hold onto some of that vacation mentality now that I’m home. I really need to work on going with the flow more, not worrying so much about tomorrow, next week, 5 years from now………. but I should maybe cut back on the bacon.