Making Memories...Coming Back from Vacation!

We didn't realize we were making memories, we just knew we were having fun!
                                         -Dan Zadra

Plain and simple... it was just time to take an old-fashioned break, a vacation, a time away. Have a new adventure. Spread out. Live as if there was no tomorrow. Leave behind every encumbrance. 

No "work," no distractions, no pressure... just family time with swim suits, and laughter and squirt guns, and floaty devices, and frisbees, and great food, and sunscreen and aloe vera slathered on hot shoulders... 

and loved ones...most importantly, loved ones. 

Turn off the tv, get away from every screen except for an occasional all-family movie like Jaws (since we were on the water and my grandson couldn't stop humming the theme song with a chuckle in his eyes). A get away, A restoration. Rest. Only the hum of  fans on hot, hot summer days while reading captivating books that tweaked our hearts and imaginations. Making meals together. Heading off to bed knowing the next day would be filled with jumping off docks and spraying your cousin with the water guns. Ahhhh....rest and restoration for my weary soul.

Sometimes you don't know how truly tired you are until you stop running and start breathing.

 And now after twelve days of being gone, I am back. Restored. The beach towels are getting washed...sand remnants sneaking on to the kitchen floor. And memories of this time away keep popping up, like those rubber toys thrown into the lake, as I have my first cup of  home-brewed coffee this morning,

Our vacation memories keep me company as I contemplate how to keep living simply in my heart and schedule.

Here are just a few remembrances of our family time together :

* Owen, sweet Owen, now three and so, so fun, coming up to me and saying in his precious three-year-old lingo..."Love you, Nana." Getting hugs and kisses from the baby of the family. Finding "blue blank" for him...his go-to security blanket, now somewhat shredded. He spent hours and hours and hours in the water.

* Jenna, our precious seven-year-old dancing and singing and putting on her new mermaid tail (which she saved her own money for.) Knowing my own daughters would never have left the water if they had one of those magic extensions that made them feel like Ariel in "The Little Mermaid".

* My two amazing daughters, Jessi and Amy, hugging in the kitchen as they helped prepare meals. Laughter and giggling like when they were young girls. So many memories floated back.

Watching my babies mother their babies. And mother them so, so well.

* Time with Jacob and Sihin and Emma...seeing cousins bond and blend and frolic in the water together. They are growing up so quickly. Every moment with them, rubbing backs, throwing frisbees, listening to the music of their hearts...it is all so precious.

*Time to talk to Rog and Bert and share old stories.
Time to listen... really listen, to new grief and a friend's loss of his Mom. I love to listen to their remembrances of days gone by.

There was time to sit, and  share and ponder and pray and laugh and revel in the moment. Each precious moment. Old-fashioned time with lemonade when everything slowed down.

I loved every minute of this time of restoration.
I feel more alive and cared for and centered and rested and connected because of it. 

And it feels good to be back! And a special thank you to my dear, dear friends Vicky and Peggy for checking in to see if I was okay. Yes, sweet friends, I am better than ever! Thank you for your love, attention and noticing I was gone.

God Bless!
Love Linda