vacation

I thought about trying to hold out for a whole month on blog writing - just to say I did.  I needed a break.  I might still need a break?  I dunno.

There's too much to write about.

Summer has been going great.  The girls and I are having a blast.  My parents came to visit for a week and that was super-wonderous-awesome.  I'll hopefully write about that visit in more detail later when I can get at the pictures we took too.

Right now?  I'm sitting on a balcony at our resort in Cocoa Beach.  Waiting for a little rain to blow over and for E to wake up from her nap so we can head back to the beach for a little afternoon fun.

The girls have been amazing.  E's personality is really shining through.  She's fearless.  And not just like "I'm little and don't know any better so I'm going to jump off this ledge" fearless - but she just has such an adventerous "Hey?  What's that?  Here, let me jump in and find out" spirit.  When Abby was about this age, she was terrified of the ocean.  Also of the pool.  She liked both, eventually, but the vastness of the ocean made her nervous.  Crabs and birds made her pause and cling to me.  E?  We put her in the sand and she was all "MMMM, Sand is delicious!"  and then she was like "Is that WATER? Can I play in it?  I think I can! Let's go!"  She had a blast in the ocean.  She giggled nonstop.  She's also completely fearless at the pool.  While Abby is hanging on to the steps, E is jumping into my arms from the side.  They're so different, but they're both having a really really great time.

And this is one of the best year's as far as ease.  They're both old enough to play, and I don't have to bring 18 bags of stuff for them at the beach.  Sunscreen, water, a ball.  That'll pretty much last us a few hours. They, obviously, still require supervision, but it's infinitely easier than last year when E was too young for even sunscreen.

It's nice being with family.  Kyra and Papa are here already, and we've seen some old family friends.  Blake gets in tomorrow night and I don't know if Kyra or Abby is more excited about that.

I wasn't really sure what to expect this year.  Without our Ouma here.  Part of me was a little bit worried that it would be too different and empty.  But, as cliche as it is to say - it kinda feels like she's here.  At least to me.  This was such her place - where she dreamed of being all year long.  She was the first one to show me the ocean here.  I partially keep expecting her to ask me to come spray her shoulders with sunscreen or tell me that she just picked up Abby a *small* bag of m&ms or to ask if she could just hold E for a while.

We certainly miss her, and miss her here.  But, it's not painful to be here.  I think it's healing, comforting.  Maybe because I know she's happy that we're here - enjoying what she always enjoyed.

Either way, it's nice to spend some down time with some of the people we love the most.  And the view doesn't hurt either.