Beach Time

September 16, 2019

Beach Time

I love the reset my body gets from the beach!  The salty air does wonders for my sinuses and makes me feel clean again. 

On the first of September, a beautiful Sunday afternoon, we took the whole family to the beach.  The clouds were amazing, we had a few passing over light rain showers – we love watching the cloud of “murkiness” slowly approach, hover, and pass us.  My littlest love is too tiny for rough waves just yet.  She’s good at crawling in the sand. 

Louis was monitoring the approaching storm from his phone.

I like to leave all technology somewhere else.  I know that means I seldom take pictures, but I’ve learned I’m more likely to enjoy the experience if I’m not tied to a phone, keys, or wallet. Usually, one of the girls now takes plenty of pictures!  Louis didn’t want to get wet at all this round so I did go out twice.  Thea doesn’t cling to me like Lucas used to so I haven’t attempted baby-surfing with her yet.  Lucas jumped on my back for two rides before he took off to dig a giant hole with the girls.

They got this hole so big Lucas could stand in it!

Kimberly and Jaquline were quite excited about it.  Like good little beach-goers, they demoed the elaborate sand castle creation Lucas and Kimberly had made back into the hole as we left.  Becky always reminds them to put everything back.  We usually clean up any trash lying about, but this time there was nothing to take back to the garbage bins. (Our beach is generally clean, which makes me feel good about our community!)

Waves, water, sand, and beautiful skies… perfect beach day!  I love the amazing tapestries painted in the beach landscapes, don’t you?

Type at you next time,

~Nancy Tart

Oceans of Praise

One night of de-stressing by taking the kids to experience the beauty of the moonlit beach!

September 26, 2018

Oceans of Praise

It was a long, tired, stressful day.  It was the kind of day when as I’m driving home, the “Mandisa Fun” Pandora station (Christian Rock with catchy tunes and uplifting lyrics) was blaring out the speakers, windows down, and I’m trying to drum the day out of my head.

It was also nearing the full moon.  There were very few clouds, a refreshing warm-cool wind (I knew this would be “blustery” at the beach), and it was 86 degrees at almost 7:30pm.

I decided we’d go to the beach.

I got home to find Eddie and Louis watching football – only into the first quarter.  They do so little father-and-son stuff because Louis is always busy that I announced, “I’m headed to the beach,” knowing that would be cool for them to have father-and-son time.

“You’re taking the kids to go shark fishing?” Louis laughed.  “It’ll be dark by the time you get there.”

“No, we’re going to walk along the shore and play in the shallows,” I smiled, “don’t worry, they’ll all be back in one piece.  There’s a beautiful moon out and it looks amazing.”

Lucas almost stayed to watch football, but then realized all of the girls, including Anastasia, were going with Mommy, and this meant Mommy would be gone a long time.

We showed up to see this:

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And this:

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And that:

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God had an amazing light show for us!  It was so bright they could see to build a tribal village with walls, huts, and fields.

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Rebeccah took most of the pictures and her selfie:

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She tried to get pictures of us, but really we look like black blobs amid the darkness.

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This one was a little better:

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We raced up and down the shoreline.  The water and wind was warm, so Anastasia lay down in the surf to get covered in water.  Jillian, Jaquline, Kimberly, and Lucas followed her.  Each was completely soaked in the first fifteen minutes.  I think it took Rebeccah a half-hour before she let her hair get wet.  Our long walk ended up being over two and a half miles!  (1.3 miles one way, 1.3 miles back.)  We sang praise songs because the majesty of the night looked like it was praising God.

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We had to leave when Becca texted saying she was almost done with work.  Anastasia was giddy at the prospect of “beating Mommy home” so we trouped back to the van, cleaned up at Aunt Becca’s, and spent a few minutes after Becca got home chatting before my crew made our way home.  (Sister time for us Mommies!)

Thank you, Jesus, for a wonderful, exhilarating night.

And yes, my devious plan worked… all of them got back on their good sleep schedule.

Thanks for reading!

Type at you next time…

~Nancy Tart

 

 

Matanzas Inlet

May 19, 2018

Matanzas Inlet

I thought I had visited all of the beaches in the Saint Augustine area.  Vilano Beach Pier, Vilano at the Crossover, Saint Augustine Beach, Anastasia State Park Beach, Crescent Beach, and Butler Beach.  (At least, I think I’m not leaving any names out.)  But then we went to Matanzas Inlet.

Oh my goodness!  This place is so beautiful!  We were able to walk the inlet onto several sand bars with our rolled up pants.  Okay, so the adults and wanna-be-adults rolled up their pants and waded carefully, but the children just jumped into the water and got every strand of hair on their body soaking wet.

In the inlet we observed turtles in the sand, crabs and fish in the water, birds overhead and in the dense bushes on the other side of the inlet, and humans floating on boats and a giant duck float in the inlet.

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Lucas is running from the water to Daddy, who is building a sand castle in the middle of a sand bar.  Beautiful place, isn’t it?

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Blue water is slightly deeper than the muddy-looking water.  Louis is on the far sand bar, that big yellow blob is the duck float, and the figures headed to Daddy are Jillian, Jaquline,  Kimberly, and Lucas.

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This picture reminded me of me and one of my little brothers, Charley, as kids!  It’s  Kimberly helping  Lucas get to Daddy.

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Our wanna-be-adults carefully wading like Louis and I were.  (Christina and Rebeccah, the lovely young ladies who suddenly appeared in our house – where did the toddlers go?)

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Another sand bar, another picture of my completely wet fun-loving crew and Daddy guarding the far side (actually, he’s  either taking a picture or dispatching to Papi).

Matanzas Inlet has become a favorite place for lazy-day water fun.  It’s not the ocean with fun waves for the thrill of surfing, but for lazy, wander-through-the-water days or days when the ocean is still a little too cold for Daddy’s liking, this will be our go-to!

Thanks for reading!

Type at you later…

~Nancy Tart

 

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