Perdido Key - Beach Days

(I feel like our whole family could just share all the same shoes at this point...  Crazy!)

We finally found a week this summer where nobody had a camp or a trip or a major commitment, so we headed south on 65 and landed ourselves in Perdido Key. 

I grew somewhat nervous as the trip got closer, realizing our vacation expectations are probably a bit out of whack...  We've splurged more recently and have only rented places with our own pool and our own beach... we've had all of it to ourselves.  

This time, we decided to stay in a resort with pools, rules, and people... We had to load up and walk to the beach (or drive) instead of just stepping outside.

It took a minute, I'm not gonna lie..   But once we settled into our week, it was really quite lovely.  I mean, look at these gorgeous views... it's hard not to fall in love with it.

In my typical beach vacation mode, I got out of bed before 7am every day and headed straight to the shore. 

It is without a doubt the most serene, perfect part of every day. 

I was often by myself on these morning walks, but occasionally Luke would join me too... I'm so happy I still have a (somewhat) little one to cherish these moments with.

It's hard to replicate the shear joy of jumping over waves... 

Even as an adult, you almost can't keep yourself from doing it.

In fact, of all the things in life that are impossible for the kid in me to resist, boogie boarding in the crashing waves tops the list.  

And we had some goooood boogie boarding days in Perdido Key. Some of the best I've ever had, really.  No undertow to speak of, but many large waves that would power through and carry us to shore. 

It's even more fun to get to be Luke's wingman on his boogie boarding adventures.  

We shared many smiles over our successful wave catching.

It wasn't until I went through these pictures that I took notice of how many more pictures I have of Luke than I do of Sam and Charlie... which can only be explained by teenagers.

Welcome to the teenage years!  Sam and Charlie would crawl out of bed around 10am each day and stumble their way down to the beach to meet up with us... Our beach day was half over at this point.

But we were still happy to see them and they were happy to see us - and they would always make a fun time of it, in their own teenage boy way.  It's kind of a weird adjustment for us, but we're embracing it and finding fun ways to connect with them in their new, almost-adult-like form.

My gosh, I love these people.

Then they would leave, and it would be back to us and Luke!

I will forever cherish these vacations with our kids. 

It will always be my priority and I'll continue to take them away with us for as long as they will allow.

And it's really hard to beat a beach trip...

I sit here and think about how incredible it is to contemplate the vastness of the ocean.

I think that's why we all stand there and stare it.  Our minds start wandering trying to understand it and make sense of it, but somehow every time we are still left wondering what all is out there and how it connects back to us... or if it even does connect back to us.

Thank God for these heavenly gifts on Earth.