Vacation!!!

This week, we went on a glorious vacation to Santa Rosa Beach, Florida with friends.  4 couples, 2 kids, 1 fetus (what a terrible word for an adorable baby), and the beach.  Awesome!!

We decided to drive through the night and left Arkansas at 2 am Wednesday morning.  I think it worked out for the best.  Bennett was none too pleased, however.

We did find a park along the way and stopped for a breather about 3 hours away from Florida.

The vacation itself was perfect.  Exactly what I was hoping for…a relaxing time at the beach with friends.  Little expectations, slow pace, come-and-go-as-you-please kind of vacay.  Just the way I like it.  Bennett really enjoyed the beach.  He didn’t mind having sand all over himself, and he even got in the ocean a few times and jumped a few waves.  I think we have a little beach bum on our hands.

Our friends were gracious enough to keep Bennett one night so Michael and I could have a little date.  We headed over to Seaside (the most adorable little community ever) and had dinner at Great Southern Cafe.  Incredible.  If you’re ever in that neck of the woods, you must go and get the shrimp and grits (and I don’t even like grits…that’s how good they were).

It was a fabulous vacation, indeed.  We’re so blessed to have friends to vacation with.  50 years from now, we’ll look back at this picture and think, “That was a really fun trip we took together.”  And we’ll tell our grandkids all about their grandparent’s friends and the friends their parents grew up with.  What an amazing story of community and love.

P.S.  The grandkids will probably belong to these two…

Birthday Parties

One of the joys of having kids is all the birthday parties you get invited to.  Our pastor’s daughter turned 2 this week and had the cutest ice cream party.  Our church is relatively young, so it’s so much fun being in a community where we’re all at basically the same stages in life.  At the moment we’re in the “having babies” stage, so it’s going to be so much fun to watch everyone grow up together (babies and parents alike).  It brings me so much joy to know that Bennett will grow up in a community having friends and people that he knows love him.  What a blessing of security that is for him and for us.

These two are close in age and will get into so much trouble together.  It seems like they’re always plotting something…

Of course, you can’t have a summer birthday in Arkansas without getting wet.

Thanks for inviting us to a super fun birthday party!

A boy and his dog

We have this dog.  His name is Brodie and he’s a pit bull mix.  Michael found him in a park when he was a puppy and put up signs to see if anyone would claim him.  No one did.  So he kept it and named it Brodie after the park he found him in.  Sweet, huh?  This all happened while were dating, so Brodie lived with Michael for the first few years then moved on over to our home after we got married.  I like dogs and I’ve always gotten along with them quite nicely.  A bit allergic, but not so much that it renders me useless.  So, I was happy to adopt Brodie into our little family.

Then, we had Bennett and I was a little worried about how they would get along.  Brodie is an animal after all and although he has NEVER done anything to hurt either me or Michael, I was still anxious about how he would react to a new creature that would steal all of his attention away.  So far, so good!  I can honestly say he has handled it beautifully and while I still have my guard up when Brodie comes over for a sniff or Bennett wants to “pet” Brodie on the face, that sweet rescue pup has been nothing but gentle.  I’m praying that it stays that way and that they are the best of friends for years to come.