School's out for summer and today the sun came out, and stayed out, for the first time in weeks.
So we headed to the beach.
And truth be told, I just couldn't stop smiling.
I want to remember the sunrise this morning and the way a quiet morning walk made me giddy instead of grouchy when I came home to house full of chipper children...
I wanna remember those big brown eyes and how they seem to darken as the summer sun lightens his hair...
...how tall they're growing... how sisters can be built-in best friends...
... how he never tired of filling that bucket...
... how every time we go to the beach they warm themselves up in a little-girl-made mud puddle...
... buddies...
...how her little one wanted to be held the whole day... and how she held him, joyfully, all day long...
.... how he wasn't afraid for even a second... how he ran right out into that water...
... how when I asked him to go wash himself off before lunch, he rolled around in this muddy water and came back crying because he couldn't figure out why he wasn't getting clean...
...him playing content in the shade of my shadow...
...how funny he thought it was trying to shoot mud out of his water shooter...
...lunch in the sunshine...
...how she squinched her toes in the sand and smiled...
...The way her big brown eyes lit up behind her cute new bob-haircut...
...her all wrapped up...
...how everybody enjoys hanging out with everybody else...
...brothers...
...them running, the water splashing, everyone yelling, "it's freezing!!" And then doing it all over again...
...how proud she was that she could get to the top of this pole...
...how he likes tea as much as his Mama...
...how his feet and his legs are still pudgy...
...how handsome this one is... just like his Papa...
... a sunny day with my five favorite kids, and the best of friends, and warmth, and sand, and memories made. I'm thankful for summer and seasons and how there is always hope after a long winter.
