a vacation lesson.

We just now returned home from a weekend in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. This is our first family vacation in a very long time, but on Friday, I was less than enthusiastic about it. I was haggardly dragging around, stuffing outfits into suitcases, running to the grocery store for last-minute ice chest items. I called my husband from the checkout line to ask if we needed a bag of ice. "Yep," he answered, and I promptly paid without buying ice. Because I'm amazing like that. By the time we got on the road the next morning, I was praying that my brain would come alive quickly enough to enjoy our time.
As we drove away from our home -which was covered in snow the area hasn't witnessed in ten years or so- I felt my tension starting to melt like the drifts lining the road. When we finally approached the hotel our friends had found online, I alternated between a gaping mouth and girlish squeals: we scored BIG TIME. By taking advantage of the off-season prices and splitting the cost with another family, we were able to get a fabulous room in a hotel sitting directly on the beach. I started smiling as soon as we opened the door and all of the kids pushed around my legs and rushed to the sliding glass door, pressing their little hands to its surface and excitedly pointing out the ocean.

I'll call our friends the Awesome family. Because they are. Like us, they are an Air Force family, and like us, they have three kids (and are expecting their fourth in June! Eeeeeeeee!) Seriously, people, this family? Awesome awesome awesome. They somehow make the experience of raising little people look like an exquisite, messy art. They discipline, but their eyes don't bulge with scariness. They correct, and they make the correction sound enticing... "Why, yes, I'd love to brush my teeth for a few more minutes!" And the love. Oh man, their love is heavy and overwhelming and wonderful even when they're in separate rooms. They inspire me. And they're funny, which is pretty much the most win-win friend equation I can come up with.

The Awesome's like my kiddos a lot. They giggle at Gabriel's pleas to go fweeming (swimming). They grin at Eli's mischievous antics. They reacted with awe at the sight of my adorable baby every morning when I emerged from the bedroom with him. Watching other people adore my children reminds me of the gut reaction I've had to them since the day they were born: they're spectacular, aren't they? This wonder often dissipates quickly amid the daily pile-up of stressors that cruise by me on an invisible conveyor belt. I find myself wishing Gabriel would just stop whining already, that Eli would stop giving me heart attacks because he thinks he's a stunt man, that the baby would please please please nap for longer than 20 minutes.

All in all, the vacation did its job and then some. I relaxed, laughed, loved, recharged. Time to strap on the armor (mine's a lavender hue, if you must know) and charge back onto the field. Our battle cry is love love love.