The Return of Summer and....

my former life..
Our dear good friends, The Denny Family, blessed us with an amazing 4 day vacation in Ocean City thanks to Gram and Pop Pop Denny!  On Wednesday evening The Lewis girls, Denny Family (minus the Denny Daddy) and the Gaeng Family (minus the Gaeng Daddy) headed to OC!  We arrived later than we wanted because I was about an hour and a half late!  (Big surprise!!!!!)  But of course everyone was still happy to see Jamie and me and we were all super duper excited to get the party started!!!!!

When we arrived, all the babies went to bed and we stayed up out on the ocean front balcony eating amazing food from Wegman's and catching up.

The next day was warm and sunny, just like a summer!  AH-MAZING!!!!!!  We spent the day on the beach and I made chicken casserole for dinner.

On  Friday morning I made the most fantastic breakfast ever ;) and then Jamie and I headed out on our bike to the boardwalk.  I am not an OC fan in the summer, but oh, wow in the fall it is heavenly!  Jamie and I rode the entire length of the boardwalk on the bike and stopped to play on the basically deserted beach.  Jamie and I also called GaGa so she could log on to the Kite Loft web cam and see us live on the boardwalk.  SOOO FUN!!!  Jill and her girlies met us on the boardwalk and we ransacked the Candy Kitchen.  BOOOOO YEAH!!!!!  We headed back and hit the beach for the rest of the afternoon.

Saturday brought cooler weather, but beautiful nonetheless.  Team Lewis had gone home Friday night and Daddy Denny rolled in that morning.  We headed to the boardwalk to do everything possible.
Pizza...check
Candy Kitchen(complete with new toy as always)...check
Kite Loft...check
Fisher's...check
Thrasher's...UNcheck (the wine festival was in full swing and the line was nutso, worse then mid summer)
Trimper's...check
2 exhausted little men...check

We had walked there and decided to take the bus back since we were at the inlet and had to rock it all the back to 34th street.  We had tacos for dinner (ain't no night like no taco night!)

On Sunday we rocked Assateague.  The ponies were in full swing and so were the surfers.  In fact all morning long we sat on the balcony of the condo and watched tons and tons of surfers.  The waves were perfectly amazing, but it was sooo stinkin' cold out.  It was really neat to sit watch though!

The vacation could not have come at a better time.  My life has been turned upside down in so many ways.  The stress of the past few weeks has brought me to tears many times and I had been largely keeping to myself.  It was so nice to be with my girls and to know how much they deeply care about me.

sleepy slepperson!

rockin' last summer style!

our sanctuary for the long weekend

so exciting that there was a beach river!  just like when i was little with mattie and sarah!

facetiming with daddy!

God's super amazing creation.  The beautiful sunrise of the Atlantic.

really cool sufer dude!

pony in a parking lot much?

my baby checking out the ponies

rocking the visitor's center (aka homeschool field trip... booo yeah!)

did you know sand crabs are really called mole crabs?

This difficult time in our lives has really shown us who loves and cares about our little family.  I really appreciate the time spent, either in person or on the phone, with all of you.  Thank you for loving and supporting us through the tough times and the good!

Across the Rio Grandeeo, across the lazy river...

Oh, wow, what a fun day we had today!!! Timmy was off and he had the super duper idea to go tubing on the Gunpowder.  We drove up to Monkton and rented the tubes.  We hopped on a little shuttle bus that took us to the put in.  The ride was only about 5 or 10 minutes, but I was having major flash backs of my white water rafting experiences on the New River in WV.  It was pretty much terrifying and yet I did it like 3 or 4 times all in one summer because my boyfriend was a guide.  I have been back to the New River once since then, but I didn't go rafting.  Timmy actually goes every year because he LOVES himself some white water.  Anyway I was actually getting nervous to go tubing.  So silly I know, but I was seriously traumatized.  I fell out of the boat and got stuck under it.  I was terrified every time we hit a rapid.  But anyhoo, not so many rapids on the Gunpowder, not any actually, so it was just perfect for me.  It took us over 2 hours to float down the river.  Jamie fell asleep in my arms about an hour in.  It was just so peaceful.  The lyrics from Mississippi Half Step Uptown Toodeloo kept running through my head "across the rio grandeeo, across the lazy river"  (I have been listening to The Grateful Dead lately, part of my "not quite midlife crisis/college flash back" phase, more on that in another post.)  It was a really great day.  We got ice cream afterwards and then headed home for taco night on the back porch.  I really want to go back up there again.  The NCR trail is at the same place and I would really like to go biking there.  I am really loving this summer.
Thank You Jesus.

3 mommies, 5 children, 1 day at the beach...

oh and 1 flat tire, so make that 2 DAYS AT THE BEACH!  In Jill's words... BOOOOOYEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So yesterday we (Jill, Sequoia, Cheyenne, Kate, Jimmy, Fiona, Jamie and I) left around 10:30am and made it to Rehoboth in under 2 hours. (Kate and family rode with Jamie and me.  Poor Jilly had to caravan behind.)  The ride absolutely flew by because Kate and did not shut up at all!  So let me start by saying I LOVE THESE GIRLS!!!!  They remind me so much of my own family.... full of love and laughter, mostly unorganized, slow to get movin' and laid back!
We got to Rehoboth and found a neat place to eat outside with pretty good food.  The kids were crazytown and ran around a lot and ate very little.  Then we headed to the rides.  Good times were had by all for sure.  We made sure to stop for ice cream and candy kitchen (which I am now realizing I left my mom's fudge and my pecan patties in Kate's cooler!!!!!)  When we got back to the car I remembered that on the way down my tire pressure light came one.  So when we started driving I saw that my dashboard was actually slanted down to the right side.  Hmmmmm.  Interesting.  So we pulled off at a gas station by an air filler upper thing.  I got out and checked it out.  My tire was actually flat.  I was like oh my word... I need a boy to help me.  (Yes I am 32 but I still refer to myself as a girl and the opposite sex as boys.)  None of us had a real clue as to what to do.  So we all kinda figured it out together and I started putting air in the tire.  Then this gentleman came over to see if we needed any help.  He said I was doing a really good job and stayed until the tire was full.  It made me feel better that a "man" was there.  I like myself to be girly and do girl stuff and I like boys to be manly and do boy stuff.  So the tire was full and off we went to Cape Henlopen State Park.  This is where we went camping last month.  Super fun!
So we arrived pretty late in the afternoon, around 4pm.  It took us forEVER to lug all our stuff out on the beach.  But it was more than worth it.  As I have expressed previous posts I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the beach.  A fellow blogger recently referred to the beach as "where heaven touches earth" and I most certainly agree.  We played all afternoon until the sun went down.  We had a yummy dinner right out on the beach and just basked in the glory of God's creation.  So when we headed back to the parking lot just before dark we arrived to a ABSOLUTELY COMPLETELY FLAT TIRE.  So Jill called her roadside assistance and Kate used her mom's "emergency" credit card to book us a hotel.  We put the kids in their PJ's and strapped them in their car seats to watch a movie.  We were so lovin' that my van had the DVD feature.  I just love my fancy pants VW mini van!!!!!  Now let me just back up a  moment and say...  Around 5 or 6 I went back out to the car for something and saw the flat tire.  Upon reporting back to my homegirls we came to a very quick consensus that this was quite the "emergency" and we really "needed" to spend the night.  We got super giggly and decided we would be stopping to pick up some wine and have ourselves a party after the babies fell asleep!!!  Are we the most fun ever?  Yes, Yes, I think we are!   We LOVED that we had a flat tire!  We were just oh so laid back and looked at it as a chance to have a vacation!
So anyhoo the tow boy (and when I say boy this time I mean it.  He was 18 years old and his girlfriend was with him) showed up and fixed the tire.  It was oh, I don't know, 10:30 by the time we left?  And I've gotta say we were all still in good spirits.  We swung by the liquor store and then off to the hotel.  The kids fell asleep and we all got showers.  We were all in one room. By choice.  More fun that way ya know?  We stayed up to 2am yackin'.  Sooooooooooo fun!  Super love!
The next morning we hit up the free breakfast, packed up and went to the pool.  It was a really neat pool for the kids.  (Hopefully Jill will send me some pictures so I can add them to this post!!!)  Jill and her girls headed for home and Kate, our kids and I headed for the beach!  (Well first we went to the tow place so they could put my tire back on.)
The beach was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO crowded.  We might as well have been at the inlet in Ocean City.  We still had lots of fun though and after 5pm it really thinned out.  Once again we closed the beach.  We left at sunset and got back to Kate's in a little over 90 minutes.  (Kate now feels that she has a "beach house" because she can get to the Atlantic in an hour and 1/2!!!!)  So fun!
We had such a very very very very good time.  We will be going back soon!
Thank you Jesus, for creating such a beautiful world.

Deep thoughts...

so i have some deep thoughts I want to share with my Jamie man, as the main purpose of this blog is for it to be printed and bound and kept for him to read one day. And just a disclaimer, buddy, this is an entry you are not to read until you are at least 16 years old or so!  

Lately I have realized that we only get one life.  Sounds pretty simple, but now that I am in my thirties and I am reflecting on my twenties it is really hitting home.  Let me say this before I proceed, I don't edit my posts really and I am not interested in writing a literary masterpiece, so I may be random and scattered, but I'm hoping, Jamie boy, that you get the idea!

Okay so the main idea of this post is to be careful who you date before you are ready to get married.  If I could have a do over I would not have dated.  I would have courted, or since I am a girl I would have been courted.  So the difference is when you date, in today's world, you end up giving a lot of yourself away.  Well let me speak in terms of me.  I gave a part of myself away that I can never get back.  Its not that I was in bad relationships, well they were a little nutty from time to time, but the fact is I wish I could have saved my whole self for your daddy.  I also wish the 2 boys that I was in  relationships with could have saved themselves for their wives and I wish your daddy could have saved himself for me.  When I say saved I mean physically and emotionally.  The fact is Jamie from the time you are 18 to the time you are 30 can get crazy.  I'm not going to sit here and say I didn't have fun, because I had a lot of fun, but I also had a really really really wounded heart.  I will say that your daddy is the only boy who never hurt me!   I know that you are going to have time in your life where you are sad, let down or disappointed, but I really believe that God can save you from a wounded heart when it comes to love.  It is possible to wait to give yourself away.  I have seen it happen.  It may mean that you get  married young.  I would be just fine with that.  But I pray that you will only love one girl in your life time and that girl will only love you.  Don't let people tell you that this doesn't happen in the real world.  The Bible says to no longer conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our spirits in Jesus.  We may have to live in this world, but we do not have to be of this world.
And also know that there are times in life where you won't have anymore chances.  If you love a girl then sacrifice yourself for her, because you may loose her if you let her go.  If you love her, be crazy in love with her and treat her like a princess.  I know, baby boy, that you are going to be an adventurous one, but adventure won't keep you company when you are old.  It won't give you children and grandchildren.  It won't love you back.
Today, even though you are only 3 years old, I was trying to explain some of this to you.  Here's how the conversation went...
Me- Jamie who do you want to be your wife
You- (pointing to me)
Me- (melting inside) Well you kinda have to pick someone your age
You- Anabelle
Me- ok, well thats it then you can't pick anymore girls just her
You- well how about Natalie and Sequoia too
Me- well you can only have one wife
You- why?
Me- well daddy only has one wife...me, mommy
You- Natalie then
Me- well you make sure she nurses her babies until they wanna stop and lets them sleep in bed with you
You- (blank stare)

I know this was a totally silly conversation and completely inappropriate for a 3 year old, but I will be having it with you again in some form when you are age appropriate.  And I'm not going to discuss it once, it will be an ongoing discussion.  Every parent wants their children to learn from their mistakes.  I hope you can learn from mine.
So to sum it up.  No one on one dating for a long long long long time.  Go out in groups and get to know girls as friends.  If you find yourself attracted to one of them pray pray pray pray pray pray.  If you really feel the Lord leading you to this girl and you are 18 or older then court her.  Talk to her parents and let them know your intentions.  You can hold her hand, but make that the limit.  Talk to her for hours on end and share your dreams with her.  Ask her questions about herself and what she wants from life.  Is Jesus the center of her world?  Does she want children? Does she want to stay at home with them.  Does she want to travel?  What makes her smile?  (Do those things a lot)  What makes her cry? (Don't do those things ever!)  Love her heart.  Wait until after she is your wife to become intimate with her.  This is God's will.  Intimacy outside of marriage leads to so much pain.  Save you heart for one girl, buddy.  Just do it!  You will be so happy you did!
I love you James Monaghan!

Family Photos hoot

Last month we had a great family photo shoot with the whole fam!  It was super.  Thanks so much to Sarah M.  who took our pictures for pennies!