Vitamin Sea

Everyone's heard the phrase "laughter is the best medicine" and I agree with that.  But laughter plus the beach? There's nothing better.  We just spent 4 glorious days on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.  It was not NEARLY long enough, but I'm so thankful we got to do it.  Shawn had a business trip out there and it coincided with our Fall break so we booked tickets and joined him.  He went up a day early so he could get a long day of work in without us, and then just work half days the rest of the week.  That meant I had to fly with the 3 kids BY MYSELF on Monday.  I was sick over it- I was so stressed.  Parking the car by myself, getting on a shuttle by myself and trying to find 4 seats together on a Southwest flight was giving me serious anxiety.  But you know what?  It was surprisingly easy! I had the worst thoughts going into it, but it turned out to be smooth sailing. The kids were nearly perfect!  Everything that day went smoothly and without a hitch and I mean e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g.  The kids were calm and obedient, I found a front row parking spot so we didn't have to drag our suitcases around and search for a shuttle, the kids were nice to each other and knew exactly what to do when it came time to go through security; iPads out, backpacks up, keep waterbottles empty 'til we get into the actual terminal, etc.  The girls are seriously pros at flying by now.  They even can FINALLY go into airplane bathrooms by themselves without me reminding them how they work.  So when they had to go, I could stay with Sully.  We found seats together on both flights and BONUS- both flights weren't full so we actually got 5 seats together on both flights and that way we had extra room.

        Anyway, Shawn was waiting for us at the airport when we landed around 7:45.  He had a car full of groceries that we would eat throughout the week and the kids were super excited to be there!  Our hotel did not offer breakfast but we DID have a full kitchen (and washer and dryer!) in the room so it was like staying in a little apartment for 5 nights.  And the BEST PART was that it was right on the beach.  We had a big spacious deck with a table and chairs so every morning after Shawn would leave for work, the kids and I would go eat cereal on the porch while we watched the waves roll in.  Then we would clean up and pack a couple beach bags, rent some free chairs that the hotel provided and go play!  I brought sandwiches and drinks everyday for lunch and other than stopping to eat, they swam and played on the sand for hours!  One day was cut super short- we only could stay for a little over an hour- because the heavens opened up and there was a torrential downpour, but we just went up to our deck and watched the storm play out for the next 2 hours. Even though we weren't in the ocean, we all still loved the feeling of being out in a tropical storm :) We would reach our hands out over the balcony and feel the warm rain hit our palms :) I wish we would have had at LEAST one more day (if not one more month, hehe) but like I said, I'm thankful for the time we DID have. It was JUST what my soul needed.  Vitamin Sea :)

The first day we were there, Sully was apprehensive about going into the water without me even though he was in floaties.  He wouldn't let go of my hand-ever.   The second day he got a little braver and would go into the shallow parts without me (still in his floaties) but only stayed in the parts of the water where the waves break on the shore.  By the 3rd day he was getting real confident.  So he waded out deeper and floated out to where he couldn't touch so the waves would cause him to bob up and down (without me next to him) and by the 4th day he was swimming way out by himself (well, still in floaties) following his sisters out to find sandbars and wanted to wear goggles to look down and see all the fishies!  See, the nice thing about where we were is that the waves are tiny- it's not like the big West Coast waves.  They were not dangerous so when I say the kids were swimming far out and letting the wave surges take them up and down while they swam, it wasn't like it was scary or dangerous for them.  My girls are really good swimmers.  Piper had a few instances on the first day where she got nervous if was in a wave hit her where she couldn't touch the ground but after I would say "Piper, you'll feel the ground if you just calm down and swim another 4-5 feet" she got the hang of it.  There are so many shallow sand bars around where we were that the kids could go super far out and be in water that went to their waists when they found another random shallow mound. I mean, how much more perfect could it get?  I had several people compliment me on what great ocean swimmers my girls were and they were shocked when I told them we don't live by an ocean.  The ocean just calms them both and brings out the best in them- same for me.  I never met anyone who loved the beach as much as I did until I had my own kids- Piper especially.  She cried every single day when we'd have to leave.  She wanted to sleep on the beach and stay forever.  They say your likes/dislikes/fears etc are actually genes that are etched into your DNA and passed down to your kids.  So you can imagine how big my heart swells knowing they are just as obsessed with the ocean as I am.  They didn't inherit everything from me, but they DID inherit that.  And I'll be forever grateful! The ocean is truly my happy place.  It brings me more joy than I can even explain.

So without further ado, here are some of our pictures of our 4 days in paradise :)

 

We wanted to spend a half hour on the beach during sunset just to enjoy the tranquility of the evening🌅. Well, that turned into 2 hours of fun and we stayed until the sky was so dark we couldn’t see anything! We swam in the pitch black water playing under-water hide and seek and laughing ‘til we couldn’t breathe. I don’t think I’ve ever swam in an ocean at night. Lakes and pools, yes. But probably never the ocean. It was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time💛

We went to a restaurant called LuLu's Bait Shack on our last night there and OH MY GOSH.  They had the best seafood ever! I got Shrimp and Lobster tacos and I thought I had died and gone to heaven! And of course we had to get a picture of our little LuLu with the signs :)

Look at that Cheer stance! This was the day we went swimming with our goggles on because the water was so calm and we saw some super cool fish!

We took the kids to Hooters for dinner one night because I was craving wings and it was within walking distance from the hotel (we wanted to take a walk after dinner anyway). ANYWAY- they loved it soooo much because they got cool cups and free Hooters Frisbees, so when we left they all kept yelling “I LOVE HOOTERS!” And “HOOTERS MAKES ME HAPPY!” 😂😂

Boogie Boarding was their favorite.  And even when there weren't waves, they could swim super far out into the Ocean with them and then just sit out there and float. They were in heaven!

The view from our room....how gorgeous is this? I do NOT take these kinds of things for granted. I loved every part of this vacation. 

We got fresh sushi delivered to us one night while daddy worked late.  Mmmmm.

 

Sunset🌅/ Moon-rise🌕 watching + night swims with Halloween movies playing = Perfection.🖤

Notice a little moon action? :)

Now after seeing all of those pictures, don't you wish you could have come with us? It was short but it was oh-so-sweet! Thank you Shawn, for letting us tag along with you on your business trip.  Thank you for giving me a week of sunshine. I'll NEVER forget it.