A Week at the Beach: Days 1-2

Well, our kids loved Panama City so much last year that it was almost a foregone conclusion that we’d return—especially since PC is the one place outside of Macon that Dad will go!  We headed up on Sunday afternoon after arriving in Macon the day before.  It was stormy on the way up, but by the time we got to Panama City, the weather was great:

The kids were super excited to swim in the lagoon pool…and to realize it no longer merited last year’s nickname of “the ice cold pool”!

The water was much warmer this year.

Of course, we also had to get out on the beach as soon as possible..  I love the ocean, so I took a ton of pictures of the kids playing in the evening sun:

We stayed in the pool area until it was dark and then headed back to the condo.  A cheerleading competition was just wrapping up, so it was a little crowded on Sunday evening, but by Monday morning, it felt like we owned the place:

It was gray and overcast on Monday, but we didn’t let that stop us from getting out on the beach.  The rip current was strong, so we couldn’t go in too far:

On the plus side, we didn’t have to worry about sunburns on Monday!

After some time on the beach, we came back up for lunch and swimming in the pool.

Fake scared face:

Ice cream makes everything better.

Luke was dying to go play putt-putt, so we wrapped up our water activities a little early on Monday, headed back to the condo for baths and showers, and headed to Goofy Golf.  Luke had fabulous luck (plus, his putt-putt game has genuinely improved).  He got three holes-in-one during our first round.  Here are two of them:

In the meantime, Anna had a tough time, which even led to some tears, but she bounced back:

By the end, they were both up for a couple of silly pictures:

Afterward, we headed back to the resort for an early dinner overlooking the ocean, and then…well, then we either came back and swam a little or turned in for the night.  I can’t remember!

Hawaii, Part 2 (Weekly Wrap-up, Sept. 14-18)

Sunday morning of our Hawaii trip found me walking along beautiful Hapuna Beach and singing “Doxology.”  When I got to the part where it says, “Praise Him all creatures here below,” a little crab scuttled across my path, which made me smile.

Everley also made me smile, with her mellow, beach-loving ways.  And a huge wave that knocked Chermil and I off our feet and sent us rolling head over heels made both of us laugh.  Hard.

Sunday was also Maria’s wedding day, although she came with us to the beach that morning.  By the time the wedding started at 4:00 pm, we were all spiffed up. 

I didn’t get many pictures of the wedding because I was in it, but it was beautiful and fun, and it made me so happy and hopeful for the new couple. 

It was also a wonderful time with dear friends.

Monday was my last day in Hawaii—my flight left at 8:00 pm.  The Winsteads and I made the most of it, driving a few hours to a black sand beach.

On the way back, we stopped at a cute little restaurant.

And I had macadamia cream pie.  I always have to include the picture of the pie, because it truly makes me happy whenever I see it.  We also saw a tree planted by Mark Twain.

And the City of Refuge, an ancient site on a beautiful piece of land.

That night, I began my long journey home.  As much as I loved Hawaii, I was happy to get back to my munchkins, who—judging from the pictures mom sent me—had been busy and happy in my absence:

After thirty hours of being awake, I was happy to collapse in my bed in Nashville on Tuesday night.  I slept half of Wednesday away and then taught my Wednesday night class before heading to Macon with my Mammaw on Thursday morning.  It was so good to be reunited with my kiddos that afternoon:

They showed me all their LEGO and Calico Critter creations, and Luke was excited to point out a Winston Churchill allusion in his latest How to Train Your Dragon book:

If you know me and my love for History, you know that his recognition of this reference made me absurdly proud.

I was also proud when he conquered his fears that afternoon and jumped off the Noe’s dock:

This was huge for him.  He couldn’t bring himself to do it last year, much to his own dismay.  This year, we didn’t try to pressure him at all, but it was something he wanted to do.  It took a couple of trips up there before he was able to take the leap, but when he did, he was so proud of himself.  He went on to jump several more times.

Throughout his decision-making process, Anna, of course, jumped to her heart’s content.  A couple times, Granddad even helped her jump off the rails.

Her advice to a fearful Luke?  “Just don’t think!”  Ha—that really doesn’t work for Luke!:).

I was also amused by her “shield of faith” she made in church while we were gone, complete with her own original, Joel-Osteen-like phrases:

She cracks me up.

On Friday morning, we headed home, stopping off for a field trip to New Echota.  But I will include that in the next post, because it was just one of many field trips we took this past week.

Hawaii, Part 1 (Weekly Wrap-up: Sept. 7-13)

Once again, my blogging has churned to a halt because of picture overload.  This time, it is my amazing, wonderful trip to Hawaii that is clogging up the line.  And it’s not just picture overload.  It’s also that I shared so many Hawaii pics (with captions!) on Facebook…and I’m going to do a Shutterfly photobook on the trip.  Now, I often double-record our lives, on this blog and in our annual photo book.  But even I don’t have it in me to triple-record.  So, other than one story that will appear in no other format, I’m just going to share a few of my favorite pictures on the blog, just to satisfy my need to have an entry for this week.

But first, the day before I left for Hawaii, Gaga came in town.  She was going to take the kids to Macon on Wednesday, the morning I left. 

The kids were so happy to see her.  They hadn’t seen each other since July 4th, which is a lot of time in Gaga-Luke-Anna world!

The next day, they headed happily to Macon…

…while I took the first of three planes to Hawaii.  It was a long trip, but the good part was it gave me time to finish my Andrew Jackson biography that I’d been dragging my feet on.  Now, my friend, Courtney and I can go visit the Hermitage together!

Okay, back to Hawaii.  The reason I went was for the wedding of my crazy/wonderful/joyful friend, Maria, who has lived on the Big Island for about nine years.  She was a wonderful friend to both me and my brother in college, and Mike even made it out to visit her before he died.  Although her money was tight, she still flew in for his funeral, which I believe made her our friend who traveled the farthest.  She was a huge comfort to me, and has always been a great encouragement.  I really don’t know anyone else like her.

Which is why, of course, I had to attend her wedding.  I had no real plans for my five days on the island besides, “Maria.” I had no mental picture of how things would go, I did no research, I had no expectations.  I just knew she’d gotten all of the Tennessee guests a condo that we would split for our stay, and that the wedding was outside.  I arrived on the island at 8:00 pm Wednesday night, which was 1:00 am Thursday morning my time.  After a long day of travel, I came in the condo and crashed.

I was kind of surprised when I woke up the next morning before 7:00, while everyone else was still sleeping.  All of a sudden, it hit me—I mean really hit me—that I was in Hawaii.  I had given so little mental thought to it beforehand (honestly, mostly because I was stressing about the travel and leaving the kids) that the sheer joy of being further from home than I had ever been in my life, the joy of being on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the joy of being with a long-lost friend…hit me all at once.  I got up, threw on a bathing suit and cover up, and decided to see if this resort had a pool.  While I was doing that, Maria walked in.  She lives in a state of joy, so she easily got caught up in my excitement, and though she had some errands to run, she told me she’d drop me off at the pool on the way:

It was beautiful.  I’ve never swam in an infinity pool, so this was a first. 

But I didn’t actually swim that morning, because the pool wasn’t open until 8:00.  So instead, I hung out with Maria, which was even better!

I love this picture.  I look horrible, and my face is all swollen from sleep, but I still adore it because it captures a really, really happy moment in my life.  I was so glad to see my friend and see the place she has called home for the last nine years.  I had missed her so much. 

Maria had to go pick up snorkel equipment from her future in-laws, so I just went with her.  We drove from Waikeloa (sp) to Kona, so that gave us some time to get caught up.  On a whim, she decided we should stop at Lava Java for breakfast.  Since I hadn’t had any coffee (not that I could tell—I was high on life:)), I was all for it!

The coffee shop was right by the water, and it was so lovely to eat breakfast with the sea breeze and the gentle tunes of live music wafting through.

Another photo I probably should be so proud of, but I am.  I think I was experiencing the opposite of jet lag.  Travel euphoria??  That sounds accurate.

We ended up splitting a breakfast, which we had to scarf down because it turns out, Maria did actually have plans for her morning that did not originally include Lava Java.  But it wasn’t a problem. Scarfing down food?  As I told Maria at the time, “I was born for this!”

We then drove to her in-laws’ house for the snorkel gear and then to pick up Nathan, which meant that I got to meet all of those lovely people in the exact same make-up, deodorant, etc., that I had put on Wednesday morning at 5:00 am.  Wonderful:). 

So that’s my story about first coming to Hawaii.  For the rest of the blog, I’ll just post some of my favorite pics that have already been explained on Facebook and will also be explained in my photo book.  Enjoy!

What a great week!