Beach, Bikini, and Bronchitis

We just returned from our second summer family vacation.  One of the benefits of teaching is definitely the months of June and July!  Our first vacation was in June to North Myrtle Beach with friends.  We had a blast!  Our second vacation was with Dereck's family to see his cousin Jason who lives just three miles from Topsail, NC.  Peyton and I did this trip two years ago sans Dereck.  This year we were fortunate enough to have him join us.  We had such a wonderful time.

On the trip there, Peyton began running a fever, which was the start to her "beach bronchitis."  I must say that the saltwater is excellent for cleaning out phlegm.  Despite the bronchitis, Peyton learned to swim on this trip!  Coming from this swimmer mama, I was extremely proud!  She put her head right down and started swimming, without any floaties, etc.  I was four years old when I swam in my first swim meet, so it must be the age to take off! Needless to say, she had the best time and rarely left the water, wearing me, her dad, and all her cousins slap out!

Thanks to the urging of my friend, Sarah Holbrooks, I wore a bikini on the beach for the first time in 5 years.  Ugh...can't say it was pretty, but it sure felt nice to get some sun on my belly again.  I debated on whether or not to do it, but then I realized what does it really matter?  I have no one to impress and I was certainly not the worst looking woman on the beach!  Soooo...Peyton took a huge step in learning how to swim and I took a huge step in learning not to worry about looks and perfection.  We relaxed, we swam, and enjoyed some much needed family time.

I am always amazed at the beach.  God's beauty surrounds me and consumes me in a way that I'm not always able to find in the mountains.  I'm a water girl and I find such beauty and awe in water that looks as if it meets the sky.  On our last day at Topsail, Dereck, Peyton and I headed to the beach alone (I guess Peyton wore everyone else out!).  We realized it was one of the few times just the three of us spent the day at the beach together.  We ate slushies, laid out in the sun, swam, swam, swam some more, and walked on the beach.  It was a simple time, but one I'll certainly never forget.  Jobs are stressful and consuming, marriage is hard, parenting is trying, but that day was simply memorable.  It's the kind of day I hope my child will always think back on when she is older.  I want her to have family memories to carry with her always.  Below are a few pictures from our trip...you can see much more on my facebook page.  We were fortunate enough to go to Camp Lejeune Marine Base (Jason's place of work) to watch the fireworks show.  Wow!  What a show they do.  The look on the faces in this pic explains that!

Despite the bronchitis, this was the expression on Peyton's face for 99.8% of our trip:

This is my favorite thing to look down in the sand and see:

Peyton tried her hand at fishing:

Result of fishing = she's just like her mom and much too impatient to wait on some dumb fish and would just rather swim!
Now we're back to home sweet home, but the vacation blues are setting in.  We have already started planning what we're going to do next summer!
We can't wait!