Beach Bummin' Days 3 & 4

Daddy arrived Thursday morning, along with a thunderstorm:

The kids and I watched it roll in from the ocean, torn between the awe of witnessing it's arrival (a day early) and the disappointment of knowing the planned kayaking and sandcastle building would most likely not happen.

Nevertheless, his arrival was met with squeals of joy and much wrestling and this mama was so glad to have him there.  

We watched it rain and trekked out onto the sand when it finally cleared up for a while after lunch.  There were treasures everywhere, driftwood, tiny shells, a huge beetle,

and countless jellyfish.  The kids were morbidly fascinated with the shiny globs of weirdness.  I was just grossed out.

We decided to walk down the road to the Blue Mountain Creamery.  Handmade ice cream, sorbets, frozen yogurt, and waffle cones.  Need I say more?  

This, my friends, is a blueberry, cranberry, pomegranate sorbet.
In a still-warm waffle cone.
There are no words.

A little while later the rain began again.  Bummer.  But Drew had a great idea...Scrabble!
Now remember, he is in first grade and not exactly a spelling prodigy.  Daddy and I didn't keep score really even enforce rules, we just let him go at it.  He won.  :)

What you've never heard of a "pugtrain?"
"People of the world, join hands, start a pugtrain...
a PUGTRAIN!"
Well, we thought it was funny.  Drew didn't know why Daddy and I kept laughing.

So the day ended as it began, with rain beating down and kids watching TV.  But we kept the sliding doors cracked open and were lulled to sleep by the rhythm of the waves crashing.  All in all a good way to end the day.

Day 4 promised to be fun, and it was!  Mari has a friend from Ethiopia, TJ and his little sister, whose family has become dear friends to us.  They live in Alabama and we decided to meet up in Pensacola at the Naval Aviation Museum.  Seeing my sweet girl reunited with her friends, the familiarity of them...the memories they share that I will never know...takes me right back to the Transition Home and the hope that these kids would have a home soon.  Little did I know that I would have BOTH of them in my car, laughing with Mari and TJ's arm draped over Drew's shoulder in that beautiful sign of Ethiopian friendship.  My heart was full.

We met them at Whataburger (per my hubby's request...and it was so good!) and escaped before our ten kids dumped ANOTHER drink on the floor.  (My apologies to the girl with such patience.  I hope you make more than minimum wage because you really did your job cheerfully.)

We drove to the Navy base and explored the museum.

It was amazing, it was FREE, and it was a field trip!  Win-win!  If you are ever in the area you must go.  It will remind you why you should be PROUD to be an American.  Our military just makes my heart swell.  Those guys are the cream of the crop in my book and always will be.

And then there was the ride home.

We were on 98, scoping out restaurants for fresh Gulf seafood.  Traffic was very heavy and suddenly came to a standstill.  We stopped, the big pickup truck behind us stopped (barely) and I said, "Whew, I though he was going to hit us."  Katie turned to look back at him and BAM.

Seven car pileup.  We have a dented bumper, the truck behind us had minimal damage, but the lady behind him (who shoved him into us), and the cars behind her were totaled.  Because Katie was turned around during impact her neck was hurt so we got a nice little ride in the ambulance to the local ER.

Thank God she only has whiplash, but it was scary seeing her strapped to a backboard and loaded onto a stretcher.  As we rode in the ambulance I just kept thinking of all the babes whose mamas have watched fight for their lives back there and thanked God that this was only a precaution in my girl's case.  Still, I was relieved when the doctor said everything was intact and she could go home.

By this time it was 9pm and my hubby arrived after three hours at the scene with the other four kids who were now STARVING.

We ended up at Chick-fil-a.  Not exactly seafood but we were so hungry we no longer cared.

The next morning I awakened to this, after two days of cloudy skies the Lord gave me this.

My heart took it as a sweet love note from my savior.  A reminder of redemption and the new mercies of every morning.  Then we drove home and arrived to a Tennessee in full Autumn splendor!

And though I would love a redo of those last two days, sunshine and safe travels, I am thankful.  We had a great week, we witnessed the glory and the power of God in creation, and we were cared for by a wonderful, friendly medical team who joked along with my girl when she mused about the possiblity of this being on "Untold Stories of the ER."

Yep, I figure the mystery will be how this fashionista ended up in their ER!  Oh yeah, and I found selfies on my phone.  She was sending pics of herself in the neck brace to her friends while we waited for X-ray results.

Love. Her.