the change.

so.

if you are a friend of mine of facebook - and let's be honest, since going private, if you're reading this you probably are.... then you know.

the change was 'revealed' last night. 

for all of social media to see.

and later on this week, it will be revealed for all of texas to see.

it's weird. definitely weird.

to see it all coming to life.

but, at the same time, totally refreshing. to hang it all out there for everyone to see. to be an open book. to stop talking about what's wrong with our country, our state, and start doing something about it.

yup. refreshing is the right word.

i've been dying to share with you. how this all came about. what my thoughts are. what the decision process was like. all the ins and outs to it.

and i will.

but today i'm going to soak my babies in. and our new home.

and try to still my heart. {before the rangers play, of course!}

God is faithful, y'all.

Oh. So. Faithful.

and although there is going to be a long road ahead for my precious family, the hubbs and i know that the Lord has called us to this journey.

and there is peace.

so today, i'm going to leave you with this song.

a precious hymmn that has comforted my soul in the past two months.

destin. part two.

the beach this year was amazing.

we had so much more beach than last year - due to some 'rebuilding'. {actually there is a technical term for what they did - i just can't get the fog out of my head long enough to remember what it's really called...}

we sat next to the same people everyday on the beach.

the 'lsu crew'. they flew their tiger flag proudly. every day. in fact, the last day it was incredibly windy so they took extra precaution and got the drill the umbrella guy uses to dig the hole further in the ground.

the leader of the pack was lyle. lyle style is what they called him. it was very interesting being next to them. they could have been loud & obnoxious, if you get my drift... with 15 college-aged kids and three 'adult's {and use that term loosely} but they weren't. they were super fun... and just had a good time. and wanted everyone around them to have a good time too.

we loved it.

joanna & lyle had a special bond going on. hahaha... he always said "Jo-AANNNEEEE..."

one of our favorites is baytowne wharf.

after our fancy dinner at the marlin grill... we walked around baytowne.

if you ever visit destin - especially with littles in tow - i highly recommend it.

they had this little 'booth' on the 'sidewalk' {or is it a boardwalk?} that was sort of a music video thing... we could 'try' it for free... so we picked out our song and did it.

i love jocelyn's face in the picture {below}.

what song did we choose??? ummm. yeah.

baby got back... {we had selective memory of the lyrics, hence, jocelyn's face...}

almost every day a storm would blow through... or look like it was going to pass us by.

this day we misjudged the storm. we thought it would be a little shower... but instead it was a quick, but noteable downpour that pelted us as we sat on the beach. so we ran up to the pool deck to wait it out.

not even 10 minutes later the sun was out and we were back in the water.

we had little visitors every night & every morning at the house.

little green ones.... and i mean they might as well have been minature. they were that tiny.

a storm rolled through at dinner one night. so. cool.

if you ever need destin recommendations - hit me up. we love it. the drive is what i dislike the most but this year, like i said, was not bad at all. maybe it was because i had such low expectations? interesting thought.

happy tuesday.

destin. part one.

we left at 9:00. 9:00 at night.

and drove through the night. in one car. all six of us. with a u-haul on the back. 

i took a tylenol pm around 10 and was out until the sun came up around 6. it was the best car ride to destin ever. i don't know if it was the tylenol or the being smushed in the very back seat... but needless to say i wasn't near as grumpy as i normally am. 

and then - we stopped at the donut hole. yummmy. for a gigantic omelet. and coffee. glorious coffee....

we dropped off the u-haul.

got groceries at target.

checked in to our yet-to-be-ready house. so we left our luggage in the garage. changed into our swimsuits and hit the beach for a few hours before dinner.

for the first night we went to one of our FAVORITES. right on the beach.

we had an awesome table this year. right on the beachside. 

the boys ate {is it technically ate when you don't even chew?} raw oysters. yuck.

and i scored big with my firecracker shrimp. perfectly cooked. perfectly spicy. perfect.

as i've been going through my pictures this year, i have to say that i'm sort of disappointed that my camera was not attached to my hip this year. i didn't get as many candids as i normally do. 

but it's okay - because i had a great time. i enjoyed my time. just sitting. not even reading, really. we spent a lot of time in the ocean this year. jumping the waves. playing frisbee. floating. avoiding the gigantic jellies. {that were actually few & far between...}

so i will choose not be disappointed in the amount of pictures. i will relish my memories... sappy? yes. reality. yes. 

i heart the beach. can't wait to take my littles in a few weeks. love.

the weekend.

jeff came home last night & while we were eating dinner he said "your blog post today was kind of....... heavy today."

i told him that it was just so heavy on my heart that i didn't feel right posting about our wonderful weekend away. he totally got it. it weighed heavy on him as well, so he knew where my heart was on it.

and thank YOU for letting me share. i love blogging when it becomes an avenue to share some of the deepest thoughts and realities of life.

and when it can becomes an avenue to share my faith. praise the Lord. 

the funeral for this sweet girl is today. she is still on my heart. it must be amazing to be with Jesus. we talked with brady last night about heaven. and i couldn't help but think that maybe pops {jeff's dear grandfather who went home to be with the Lord earlier this year} has found this precious girl in heaven. and they're sweet friends. 

 just a note: i don't presume to know how heaven will look like. and i'm not a theologian, so just know it was just a thought. but a precious one that lifted my spirits and reminded me that we should look forward to going to heaven.

okay. enough of the heavy stuff today.

i wanted to share about our weekend away with some dear friends to the lakehouse!

we didn't have kids with us.

so we woke up late {a.k.a. 8, 9 or 10 for some of us!}

we walked. we sipped coffee instead of gulping it.

and then we packed lunch and went out on the boat.

and stayed out there for a LONG time.

enough time for all the boys {who don't think they need that much sunscreen} to get sunburned. {burnt or burned?}

we ate lunch with plenty of pringles and jalapeno cheetos.

{have you had those? they're actually really good!}

we floated for 3 hours. seriously. and parker only got 'fish bit' twice.

apparently none of the rest of us were appetizing to any fish. hmmmm....

 

we borrowed some crazy cruisers from our neighbor.

they are funny. you have to stick your behind out and wiggle it to get them going.

love it.

and let me say that some of us got it down better than others.

and i won't expose any names.

but i'll say that i did make it up that hill without pushing off.

enough said.

going up the hill was tough.

but coming down it was totally worth it.

as you can tell by the blurry julie pictured below.

we watched the sunset.

we played games.

and it was quiet. just what we all needed.

thankful for sweet friends to share some big laughs with.

as one person put it this weekend...we had a few times where we went to that really happy laughing place.

you know the one.

where there are tears streaming down your face and if you've birthed two kids, you just might be in trouble? 

yeah, that one.