Beach vaca 2014

This year’s beach trip was a whole different experience than 2 years ago. It is amazing how much changes in 2 years (or in 2 months for that matter). We had so much fun this year! We played all morning on the beach each day and some days we went back in the afternoon. The girls really love the pool and while they had fun on the beach they would be begging for the pool after a couple of hours.

 

We spent the night in Hattiesburg, ate really good food, swam in the hotel pool and had a pretty fun time.

 

We spend a lot of time in the car on the way down (there was about 3 hours of completely stopped traffic just past Mobile).

 

They are ready to play in the sand!

 

Pop-pop made some sand sculptures.

 

We found a shell with a creature inside.

 

We did some floating in the ocean.

 

We built some sandcastles.

 

The girls buried their daddy in the sand.

 

Did some souvenir shopping at Alvin’s Island and let the girls get a hermit crab (Ella’s escaped and Reese’s died before the end of the week).

 

Ate dinner at Fudpuckers and held a baby alligator.

 

Went on a dolphin cruise which wore them out so much that they both passed out for the last 30 minutes.

 

I went deep sea fishing with some of the family.

 

Neal, the girls and his parents went to The Track and had fun while I fished.

Floated in a beach river.

 

And we took lots of adorable photos on the beach the last night.

 

One of the highlights of the trip was that both girls learned to really swim while we were there!! We had a lot of fun but were all glad to be home to our beds with no sand in them.

A very big decision

On August 20^th I will embark on a new journey that I have longed to pursue for years…I will be setting my career aside to focus on my girls full time! I am so excited about this new stage of our lives and very interested in how this will all play out. Telling my company that I will be leaving has been surreal. I have been so amazed and thankful for all of the support and encouragement that I have gotten. Walmart has been an unbelievably positive experience and I am so grateful for the 7+ years I have gotten to spend with such a great company.

 

Honestly, I am not 100% sure that I will want to stay at home long term. What I am 100% sure of is that Reese goes to kindergarten in 1 year and Ella in 3 and if I am going to try this out now is the time. When Ella goes to school I can always re-enter the workforce and doing this ensures that years from now I won’t look back with regrets. I know I am not the type that can stay in the house all of the time so I have been researching all of the cheap activity options in the area & it turns out that there seems to be a lot to do. The girls will stay at their current daycare 2 days a week so that they can continue learning and have a pre-school program in place. I will begin teaching them things the other 3 days and hope to be able to be somewhat consistent with what is being taught at the daycare so that they can stay up to speed.

 

I am so excited about all of the memories we will get to make and all of the time I will get to have with these precious little girls. I am SO thankful for a husband that fully supports this and has worked so hard to make this a reality. I'm so thankful that The Lord has allowed this to be a reality. I feel very blessed to get this time with my girls and hope that this change will make Neal’s life a little less hectic too.