The Life We've Dreamed Of

Tuesday morning we packed our bags, said our “goodbyes” and headed south to Rhode Island. We enjoyed one more delightful meal sans children in a little coastal town and then walked along Scarborough Beach, enchanting with it’s fine sand and white mist settled low to the ground.
I stood there mesmerized by the stair steps of white caps piling up one over another rolling toward me. I grabbed my big handsome husband in a fit of passion to give him a kiss and, as I leaned in, eyes closed, he held up our daughter’s flat Stanley in front of his lips. I was rather surprised when I planted one on Stanley’s cold hard laminated lips. What a goof I chose to fall in love with all those years ago!?
As I stood there on that beach, I thought back to our first trip to the ocean, a spot in Florida called Cocoa Beach a few days after we'd gotten engaged near a different water feature, the Potomac River.

My mind flashed back to the carefree good times we had splashing around in the waves that day. And, then a few years later when we visited many beaches, in San Francisco and all along the Oregon Coast, pondering on the newly discovered pregnancy that would become the birth of our first child.

We’ve taken our kids to the beach about once per year and it has given me a reference point to see how our family continues to grow and change. Scarborough Beach was so beautiful and unlike any other place in the world I’ve been before. It did remind me of the Oregon beaches, or the time we spent a few days at a beach house with our good friends the Z’s in Washington when Soph was two and E-Man was a baby. I basked in the sun and the flood of memories and the beauty all around. It was the perfect ending to the perfect vacation.

Right when we were ready to leave, Runner’s World called and asked Photoguy to FedEx a disk of photos immediately. We had allotted just enough time to turn in the rental car and make our 4 p.m. flight. In true Indiana-Jones-of-the-freeway fashion, Photoguy managed to track down a Walgreens (to buy CDs) and burn the images from his laptop while driving and talking on his cellphone. It was a bit stressful, but, as always, things did work out.

He mailed the disk from the airport and we checked in so late that right after my boarding pass printed, they switched to standby passes for late check-ins (Photoguy got a stand-by). It was pretty hard to run to the gate after he’d just run a marathon, but, somehow he managed.

In spite of the drama that seems to follow us wherever we go, I’m just so grateful to Heavenly Father that Runner’s World is calling Photoguy and that we get to lead such exciting and blessed lives.

To quote a friend of mine, "It's like we're living the lives we've always dreamed of."
Thank you to all of the grandparents for thoroughly spoiling our kids while we were gone. We couldn’t have had such an unforgettable time without you!