We may or may not ever be able to make an announcement that "we're pregnant"...but we have come to understand that the blessing is the fact that however parenthood happens, it is a miracle! ....... Now we have been home with our precious blessing from Russia since August 2007. Join us on our fun and crazy ride that we call "life with this child of mine."
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
A Beach Vacation
Last Thursday, we packed the car and headed out for our annual beach vacation with Nathan's folks. This trip has traditionally been a 4th of July vacation...but this year, Nathan and I were in Tampa over the weekend of the 4th (for a wedding), so we moved the family trip back to the end of the month.

We had a wonderful time!

And, regrettably, we rolled back into town this afternoon. Well...I shouldn't say regrettably, because we are glad to be home...but we were having so much fun, we weren't quite ready to come back to reality.

Alas, reality awaits, so here we are.

But right now, I want to take you back to our vacation.  I'll probably use a couple of posts to share pictures, because I don't want any post to become too photo intensive (who, me?  creating a photo intensive post?  surely not!)

Lest I digress further, let's start at the very beginning...a very fine place to start.

Friday morning. When I was a kid, and my family took vacations to the beach...I can remember waking up on that first morning, just dying to get down to the beach to play in the sand, water, and sun all day. There is something magical and awe-inspiring about the beach, and I well remember feeling excitement as a child.  On Thursday night, when we got to the condo, Iliya was all over the place, telling me he was (in his words), "fo, fo effited" (so, so excited!) to get to the beach and had trouble going to sleep on Thursday night after we took a quick night walk when we arrived.  

Well, at 5:00 on Friday morning, Iliya crawled in bed with us and tossed and turned.  He finally sat up and whispered, "Mama...I wanna go to the beach."  I asked him to lay back down, because I was still sleepy.  But I could not go back to sleep.  

And then the youthful excitement of 20 years ago flooded my memory, and I rolled over to Nathan and told him that Iliya and I were going to head down to the beach.

At 5:40 a.m.  Earlier than I would've been up, had I stayed at home and gone to work that day.

But what a treasure.  And I don't regret, for a moment, just living in the moment and taking the opportunity to do something I might not normally do.  Iliya and I were the first people out on the beach that morning.  The hour and a half we spent together, soaking up the magic of an early morning on the beach can not be replaced by anything I can readily think of.  As an added bonus, I had thought to pick up my camera on the way out the door, and the lighting was near perfect for photographs.

We observed porpoises out for their morning exercise...or breakfast...or both?



Iliya enjoyed throwing the sand into the ocean before he really got brave enough to go down to the water.


And...if you'll notice, he got some of that sand in his hair.



Still anxious about the water...but getting braver (or, more adventurous, as I like to call it) by the moment!



Such a precious boy...that boy of mine!


Finally, in love with the water...





The beach cleaner came through while we were outside...that was pretty neat to watch.



And then we got the opportunity to chase a heron...who was not afraid of us in the least...perhaps because he was HUNGRY.  Once the novelty of the bird wore off, we watched him fish for his breakfast.



And then it was time to play some more...


...before heading inside to tell Daddy all about our morning.

Yes, it was a crazy early morning for a vacation...but in retrospect, I really wouldn't trade it for the world.  Time with this little boy is the most precious gift I can give to him, and I'm really glad he woke me up...and that I couldn't go back to sleep that morning.  Because in doing something just a little bit out of the ordinary, I got to spend some of the best moments ever with my little boy.

Written at Tuesday, July 28, 2009 by Melissa.
4 comments
4 Comments:
Blogger Nancy said...
That's so neat! Iliya is going to have great memories of going to the beach with you. Can't wait to see/hear more about your vacation!
12:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Those pictures capture a very special time -- especially for a ltitle fella that loves the beach and his mama that loved the beach when she was a child! I need to share your massive collection of seashells (which I still have in our treasure archives...surprised???) with Iliya. I'm glad y'all had a restful & enjoyable vacation. Time spent together is truly a treasure you'll long remember......love & hugs,
mom/granmom
12:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...
p.s. you should submit those photos to the Florida tourism association -- makes me want to go to the beach! :o)
12:14 PM  
Those photos are just gorgeous and so is the story that goes with them. I agree that you have a precious little guy. I also really enjoyed the perspective of another coast of the USA. Heron? Beach cleaners? Porpoise? So different from here and so interesting to me. Thank you for a mini vacation!
12:26 AM  
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