Vacation 2008

Well, our trip to the beach is over and it's good to be home sleeping in our own beds. We had a great time with the exception of a couple of little set backs. The kids enjoyed playing at the beach, the pool, shopping, putt-putt, etc. We had some sea food, as well as, our favorite Zaxby's. I'm sure the kids will share some of their experiences on their blog.

As I mentioned, there were just 2 little set backs to the trip. On Wednesday, we all loaded up in the van to go find a LifeWay Christian book store. After spending several minutes loading all 10 of us and heading down the road I noticed that something just wasn't right with the van. I stopped to investigate and noticed that one of our tires was completely flat. Thankfully we were just around the corner from our house so I eased back home and parked it so I could change the tire. So, instead of going out to lunch like we planned, everyone (except me) when back in the house to fix sandwiches. I spend the next 20-30 minutes changing the tire. To get the jack and tools out of the van I had to take our double stroller out, so I put it next to the steps so we wouldn't forget it later. After changing the tire I set out to find somewhere to fix the tire. When I found a place, they looked at it and said, "I'm sorry that tire can't be fixed." So, I ended up repacing the back two tires and spending far more on this vacation than I planned. It never fails, everything on that big, green, beast of a van is always expensive. For example, if I take it in for something fairly simple they would say, "For that part it's just $12.95. Oh, wait a minute, you have that BIG van. That will be $99.95." So, a few hours and a few hundred dollars later I'm back on the road headed to the house to pick up the rest of the crew to continue our day. Once we loaded up (again) and started to LifeWay, I remembered that I needed to put the stroller in the van. I dropped everyone off at the store and drove back (Did I mention that BIG van is not good on gas?) and discovered that the stroller had been stolen!!!!! What?! I couldn't believe it. Someone came up to our house, and walked off with a stroller of all things. And not only that, they put some of their trash in our trash can. Of all the nerve. ha ha. Being the very perceptive and the oldest private investigator want-a-be, I figured that it was probably one of the construction workers working on a house 2 doors down. It looked like their trash judging from the snacks they were eating. I also recognized that one of them had a slight over bite as I inspected a partially eaten twinkie. Ok, not really. I went over and asked one of the men over there and he didn't know anything about it. I didn't really think he would but I thought I would try.

To make a long story short, after buying new tires we then had to shop for a new stroller. Even though these things are pretty minor, God was so gracious to us and good to us. We still enjoyed our time and these little things that could have ruined it didn't.

God blessed us with great weather, protection while driving, and so many more blessings of being together and (for the most part) enjoying each other. You know how families can get when spending alot of time together, the usual frustrations, etc. We hope you like the pictures. We thank God for being so good to us!!!