It's Time To Leap

Boxes are being packed and clothes are sorted into the yes, no, maybe piles.  Last minute details are being thought of and added to a list that is becoming shorter and shorter as the days tick by.  This is it.  We are about to be empty nesters.

Of course there were days in the past 20 years, when babies screamed or frustrations mounted or exhaustion set in, that we looked to this day as a day of freedom.  We will have done it!  Raised two kids to adulthood!

Who knew those 20 years would feel like they went by in a second?  Yet, here we are, about to send our baby off to college.  We will come home to a quieter, emptier house.  I feel a little bit nervous, not just for our daughter off doing new college things, but for us, learning how to do this as two people, not just 'mom' and 'dad'.

We stand on the edge of new possibilities and know with one step, we will start writing the next chapter.  I don't want us to be timid with our steps.  This is going to be a grand adventure, with travel and fun and all around good times with lots of hand holding and secret language smiles.  Be brave! Be bold!  Be us!

So, buck up little cowboys, it's time to leap.

Our Favorite Things

Another year, another Seaside trip; it doesn't get old.  The excitement of the road trip as we get closer and closer, until we are counting down the minutes until we are out of the car and thoughts of the beach, the sand, the snacks, the buckets, the shovels and kites fill our heads and hearts.  It was a good trip, fun, great weather, and I know I'm not the only one who wished it was just one day longer!

These are a few of our favorite things:

Renna: the water

Toran: the pool

Finn: the pool

Rory: too many to pick!

Micah: passing the swim test, digging a hole deep enough to hit water, the sweat shirt shop

Jack: the beach

Leah: the sweat shirt shop, the beach before the sunburn

Lisa: Norma's and watching Amy crawl up the stairs after one shot

Brandon: good beach time and game nights

Amy: the beach, sunshine, holes that didn't wash away

Michelle: sand under my feet and tasting Lisa' Goldschlager

Karen: Pitch Perfect 2

Randy: the swimming pool, swimming with Renna

Only 360 days until we go back.  Let the countdown begin!!