aaahhhhhhh...

Well, this little family is on vacation...we have been for about a week now. No blogs have been happening because the only internet readily available is DIALUP…oh my. We’ve been busy having fun anyway, so not THAT much time to sit and write about it! We’re visiting my mom and dad at Sunset Beach, where we’ve been coming for the last 11 summers. It’s just like going to their house, only it takes a while to get there and there’s an ocean handy. Lots of early morning beach-going, roly-poly riding (that’s what we call those swells in the ocean), sand castle building, book reading, walking with my dad, sitting under (or at least close to!) the umbrella with my mom, pool swimming in the afternoons, that kind of stuff. My cousin Bob and his family have been here these past days too, so it’s been good to be able to spend time with them.

Once again we were here for the 4th of July, so we had to find some fireworks! A couple of times we’ve gone up to Wilmington and those were great. They do them near the USS North Carolina – always makes me feel a little extra patriotic. This year we decided to stay close and found some in Cherry Grove. We went to dinner and got a game of putt-putt in first, then grabbed our chairs, bought some ice cream and headed to the beach. We found a good spot and camped out until fireworks time. In the meantime, there were a few crazies around us setting off their very own fireworks, which got a little tense at times (hadn’t planned on fearing for our safety!) Between them and the tide coming in (waaaaaaay in), we were kept on our toes. The fireworks display was really good and we all enjoyed it and the whole evening together.

The next night we did our own little fireworks. Well, actually just sparklers, but it was fun. It’s a little tricky taking sparkler-fun pictures, but I tried.

There was finally a low tide at a decent time of day for us to go conch-searching, so off we went. Luke and Max set out on their bikes and Greg, Blake and I were walking. It looked a little like rain, but didn’t look too close to us so we went on. But in spite of the beauty of the evening we had some very stressful moments. “Looks like rain” turned into rapidly approaching storm with thunder and lightning (bolts…) and we had to backtrack fast and get off the beach. First, Greg had to run the last mile or so to the end of the island to find our bike boys, who were waiting for us at the rocks. (We have 3 cell phones and not one of us was carrying one.)Finally Blake and I could see them coming (we were already on our way back to the beach access place). A couple of stressed out boys on bikes, a dad worn out from worrying he wouldn’t get to his boys soon enough, a Blake trying to do anything he could to help, and a mom who wished she really DID have eyes in the back of her head so she could walk quickly with one boy to get him back to the van while watching continuously for the other 2 boys peddling like mad to get where she was, instead of all the looking back and forth and back and forth. And I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one asking Jesus to keep us safe. Before we got off the beach, the thunder and lightning were over our heads. I am NEVER happy to leave the beach. EVER. But I certainly was that evening! Finally, everyone was in the van and we were on our way off the island, just as the rain began to fall. So God got us off the beach safely, all together, and kept us dry in the process. We thanked Him a LOT. Then went to Starbucks for some therapy.

2 rainy days so far – yesterday and today. But it looks like the sun is making an appearance, so I believe we’ll be off in a few minutes to play. After a little trip to the coffee shop for a latte’ and wireless internet access!