As I sit listening to the waves crash on the beach nearby
and the wind whip through the house, I can’t believe we have been so fortunate
to have spent 6 months living on the beach.
We have experienced such wonderful weather throughout our time
here.
Would you believe that now, in January,
we are still wearing bathing suits and getting the water?
It is difficult for me to fathom life not on
the water.
It’s amazing how quickly you
adjust to new surroundings and new norms.
This is both a comforting thought as we getting ready to embark on our
international trip, and a sad thought of leaving behind what we have grown to
love.
To catch you up on our life as of late, we continue to spend
everyday frequenting the beach. Amelie and Liam ride their bikes down to a walkway
that leads directly to the beach.
Amelie
calls it a bridge. She loves riding down the long slope gaining speed the whole
way down.
Someone built a ginormous hole
nearby so we spend a good amount of time rolling, sliding, jumping, and hiding
in the hole. We also take walks along the water pointing out the jellyfish and
sliding down the little cliffs that form. We talk to the fisherman about their
catches while Liam tries to get into the bucket with the caught fish. We have
been building “rivers” that join and connect to the ocean. I am going to have
to be creative in how I entertain the kiddos again once we leave here!
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| Liam point out a jellyfish. |
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| Playing in the "river" we created. |
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| Liam holding a ghost shrimp. He likes to help Bobby by place them in the bait bucket. |
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| Amelie jumping off one of the cliffs. |
During the winter months, the arrival of snowbirds has
occurred. We have loved our new friends,
and have actually made quite a few!
Bobby has enjoyed fishing near Roy, Harold, Mark, and more. The kids love Jake and Ginger (dogs) and
their owners who are from Canada and Minnesota.
We love hearing how beautiful our kids are whether we are on the beach
or in the grocery store. We always slow
down to carry on a conversation about the kids.
I love the constant reminder about how fun this time in our lives is. We hear all about stories of their grown kids
and their current grandchildren. It’s
crazy to think that one day we will be the ones telling our memories of the
little ones. There are hard days of
dealing with attitudes and knowing how to discipline, but in it all we are
constantly reminded of how the days go by fast and how important it is to treasure
each stage of development. We also love
the questions about how we are able live on the beach. You do not see anyone our age on the beach
right now! We love sharing our plans of adventure
and hearing their thoughts about it.
Most encourage us that our plans are amazing and they are so happy for
us to have this ability to travel with our young children. They remind us how fortunate we are.
In closing, I thought I would share a funny story. The other day while we were on the beach, Bobby ran back to
the house to get a board for one of his friends to sit on while putting me in
charge of watching the fishing pole and the kids. This wasn’t a big deal as we had been out for
hours and the fish were not biting. I
turned to talk to some people walking by admiring the kids and then looked back
to the fishing pole. To my dismay, the
pole was gone and the holder was lying in the sand. I immediately ran into the icy water to try
to find the pole but I couldn’t find it.
Mark and Roy saw me floundering around and immediately ran into the
ocean as well. Bobby comes running back
onto the beach to find us in the ocean and no pole and started the hunt as
well. The water was crystal clear but
there was no sign of the pole. A beach
cleanup crewmember stopped and stood by Liam to make sure he didn’t run into
the ocean after us. The whole scene was
a sight and was talked about for days afterward. Bobby and I have laughed on and off about the
lost pole and the fish that got a way.
He was more upset about losing a giant fish and I was upset about the
pole (who he had a buyer lined up for that evening!). The men on the beach have laughed a number of
times about it too. We will miss our
new friends. We are being strongly
encouraged to make it back here in 2014 to our Gulf Shores family.
~Kelly
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