The Lake vs the Beach!

We have discovered that we live with quite the little outdoorsman!! Starting back in mid November, Gabriel began asking me if we could visit the beach...it was difficult to explain to him the seasons and that it was too cold (especially while he was in the warmth of the house, lol!). I told him that we would have to wait until it was hot outside! Literally, each day he would ask me if it was hot enough to go...I would make him open the door in his pj's and feel..."nope, it's still cold" he'd say! He also asked if we could go camping...so many requests! Josh and I love camping and we usually take a yearly trip up to Lake Travis and camp at Pace Bend State Park...it's amazing up there. This year, Josh took a couple days off after Gabriel's birthday and we decided to see what Huntsville State Park was like. I remember camping there tons as a child, it would be a change of pace for Josh, not to mention it's only about 25 minutes from the house....so we gave it a shot. Gabriel was ecstatic, we loaded up our gear and our dogs and headed out. The park is nice, it's not huge, but it was great for us because we went during the week and there was no one there. We really had the entire park to ourselves. We swam and played at our campsite, ate lunch and explored. However...the clouds began to look a little scary and Josh and I decided we better prepare for a storm...we quickly made our dinner and cleaned up the campsite, putting everything inside the truck or the tent. We put the rain cover on the tent and watched as the storm came in...there was lots of thunder and lightning...finally the rain came down. Gabriel must have been tuckered out because he crashed out and fell asleep within about 3 minutes. I was a nervous wreck scared that a tree was going to fall on our tent and so was Zeke. I think the storm lasted a couple hours and we all eventually got some sleep. We woke up to a beautiful morning...nice and cool. We enjoyed a nature hike with the dogs and even took them swimming. We all had a blast and will definitely go back again!

A few weeks ago we received an invite to celebrate the birthdays of two very close friends of our family, Karen and Ashley Martinez...Karen is Denise's mom and Ashley is Denise's sister. Denise and I have been friends since the third grade and have been fortunate enough to be able to raise our children together. I was really excited that the invitation was to a beach side celebration for Memorial Day weekend!! I knew Gabriel would be thrilled to spend the day at the beach with his buddy, Skyler (Denise's daughter)!! We headed out Saturday morning to the sounds of "where's the beach, Daddy?" literally every 10 minutes!! He was excited when we hit the causeway and he could see the ocean...then the question was "where's Skyler, Daddy?" ha ha! He and Skyler had a blast jumping the waves and collecting seashells. They built "sandcastles" and drove cars all over the beach and had a great time together. It was a ton of fun for everyone and we were really glad we were able to celebrate with our extended family during this special time! Watching the kids play together and explore this new world was neat...they kept finding things they hadn't seen before and they would get so excited. It brought a fresh appreciation to mind! Sitting on the beach and staring out at the expanse of the ocean always makes me think of the mightiness of God. I feel close to Him there, like He's breathing on me and I felt especially like He was smiling on us that day as our children played on the sand and the sun was shining on us. We are so blessed, I am so grateful that I can sit on the beach and watch my child play and that he's healthy and happy...and even more-so that I am healthy and my husband is healthy.

Been a pretty good month... :)