Homeward Bound

We are all a little sad that our vacation is over, but we are also looking forward to being home.  We have enjoyed the simplest of pleasures, but so many of them.  The sound of surf, the feel of soft sand between our toes, games of frisbee on the beach and football in the waves.  We have created and laughed and sung.  Mostly we have soaked up each other's company not knowing when the next time will be that we are all together.  Some of us headed down to the beach one last time this morning to watch the sun rise and feed the "chickens." I think a sign of a good vacation is the feeling that you wish you could stay a bit longer.

Last Day

I can't believe this is the last day.  We have had such a great time.  Today we will go down to the beach with  the Brays who are here to take Ethan Bray back to Greenville.  There have been some shenanigans, though. Someone cruelly replaced the Waffle Crisp in the Ethans' villa with Corn Chex.  They discovered this around midnight last night and raided our villa to rectify things.  It seems that nothing is safe anymore.

You are probably wondering about the facial hair competition,  Seth challenged his brothers not to shave for the week of vacation.  Seth has the best beard/mustache combo going on, but the Ethans have declared that Matthew's mustache makes him look "friendly."  You will just have to judge for yourselves.

Family Picture Day

Yesterday was yet another fun day on Kiawah Island. After eating breakfast, everyone (except for the Ethans) hopped on their bikes and went on a bike ride to one of the marsh lookout towers. It was a good ride, but a hot one! Wilson enjoyed riding in his bike trailer. So much in fact, that he fell asleep on the way back. After our bike ride Thomas, Julie, and Wilson headed over to Georgetown to have lunch with Julie's Aunts, Margaret and Roberta. 

   It was a little bit stormy yesterday, so we spent the late morning and early afternoon in the villa. It didn't rain at all, but there was a lot of thunder. Later in the afternoon we headed down to the beach and played some bocce. 

After some fun beach time we ate mom's delicious chicken casserole for dinner, then took some family pictures out on the deck. It was pretty fun trying to get Wilson to smile and sit still for the pictures. 

Over and out,

Faith

Craft Time

Yesterday after lunch we made placemats.  Here is Julie's.  Her design really captures some of the important aspects of our vacation.  Do you see the mouse in the corner?  That's right.  We have a mouse in the house.  He ate a tomatoe, a nibbled a hole in the sealed bag of coffee, and he broke into Wilson's penquin crackers.  That's OK.  It is the stuff vacation lore is made of.  Last night we hid all of the food in the cooler, the oven, and the microwave.  It seemed to work.

Do you see what appears to be a colorful ladder?  It is Matthew's redneck golf game.  It is great fun.  The brothers, Walt, and Faith like to play it.  There are pairs of balls connected with a string.  You toss the balls at the ladder in hopes of wrapping them around the rungs for varying amounts of points.  Wilson quickly figured this game out.  He walked over, picked up a pair of balls, and hung them on the rungs.  Many points!

There is also a gator.  There is a gator living beneath our dock.  He comes out when we come out.  The Ethans have named him Steve.

The wagon has also been a huge feature of this vacation.  Wilson loves his red wagon.  It is a serious business when he gets buckled in.  He holds on tightly with both hands.

Today we will laminate these keepsake placemats so that Wilson can use them at home in Nashville.

Everyone is here!

It is so good to have everyone here.  Thomas and Julie and Wilson appeared at our door at lunchtime.  Here you see Wilson modeling his new hat and eating a banana.  When we got down to the beach, we discovered our cabana was kaput.  But that's OK.  We got to watch Wilson discover the ocean and beach for the first time, and that was priceless. He loved the sandcastle that Papa and Seth had built earlier in the day. It had lots of sticks protruding from it, and Wilson felt it was his duty to remove each and every one. At one point he fell into a hole in the middle of the castle complex.  Pretty funny.  Last night we enjoyed a supper of flank steak and baby potatoes.  Later we had drumsticks, of course. We were too tired to play a board game which Ethan really wanted to do, but there is always today.  It would take a whole other blog post or two to describe the escapades of the Ethans.

Bass Pond Sunday Night Sunset

This is the sunset that Walter, Seth and Faith saw Sunday night on the Bass Pond on an evening bike ride. There were a few people fishing on the dock. Seth got some better pictures than this one when the sun was a little higher, so maybe we will get to view them sometime. We also saw a young gator who seemed to like hanging out at the dock. It was the second evening to spot the big gator in our lagoon. He swam up to the deck next door, then made his way to ours. Faith was the only one on the deck at the time. As the gator swam directly at her, she actually started backing up as if the big guy was going to come out of the water and join her on the deck!  -Walter

We Have Arrived

We arrived at Kiawah around 4:00 PM. The trip was uneventful in spite of heavy traffic.  Everyone helped unpack, and I put the Buckey's BBQ in the oven to heat.  It turns out that the guys are having a facial hair contest.  I don't think the Ethans  will win.  Seth texted Thomas during dinner to let him in on the contest.  After eating we discussed the gist of the whole Bible 'cause we could.  Just before riding bikes to the beach, we spotted a gator in the lagoon - mark that of the beach pail list!  It was great to see the ocean and walk in the surf.  Seth and I even discussed some poetry - 'cause we could.  That's what vacations are for.  The Ethans rode over to check out the basketball court at Night Heron Park.  I am thankful for so many things - my family, this beautiful island, a safe journey, and the clip-on headlight that Walter bought for my bike.

And We're Off!

Vacation, here we come.

Wishing You Could Come, Too

I have had a great time blogging about our vacation preparations.  It has been fun to anticipate it together.      I appreciate all of you who have been following my musings - mostly my mom and sisters.  I wish you could come along with us.  Please continue to follow our vacation journey.  I will try to update once a day with a picture or two, I hope.  And please pray that that we would have a God-glorifying, grace-filled, relationship-building, memory-making time together.


For right now, it's off to the grocery store!

New Car!

Well, he did it.  Matthew purchased a new (to him) car this afternoon.  He and the Ethans have already road tested it on a trip to Target.  Surely we will have plenty of room to carry all that we need.  I think Matthew is pretty pleased with his purchase.  He is going to retrieve his old car from Alabama tomorrow morning.  They still aren't certain what is wrong with it, but Matthew plans to drive it to Greenville, regardless.  Do you know anyone who would like a used red Tahoe with or without a working fuel pump?

Thinking about the beach, from so far away

Oh, the beach. I have a slightly weird attitude about the beach this year... I don't know why. Well, I do know why. This week for Thomas and me is crazy. Truly crazy. It's the AGO national convention. We have a wedding and reception to play Saturday, strings are playing Sunday, car needs new tires, the summer camp I teach is 1 week after get back, Seth and Steve are visiting, out late for fireworks, out late Monday night for the Yale ISM reception, and Thomas is hardly home because of the Fisk being tuned and 2 recitals happening today at Covenant. Meals have been flipped upside down because of our opportunity to eat with some pretty cool organ people. Basically, I can't really dwell on the loveliness of sand and water because we have a crazy week that we are in. BUT, we (Thomas and I) have made a pact. Crazy week this week for a wonderful, amazing, relaxing, edifying week next week. Thomas and I are going to do everything in our power to be able to leave Nashville behind us - which is consequently making this week crazy. But, sometimes when I'm just drinking my coffee, I start thinking about it and it literally makes my heart beat faster I'm so excited. I mean, we haven't done vacation (for more than 36 hours) since our honeymoon. And, on top of that... with you guys. I'm so thankful for the hard work you've (Grammy) put into this trip. Even though it's for the whole family, I feel (as everyone probably does too) that you are putting in special effort for each of us. I love you guys invited us, I love that I get to spend some good quality time with my SEESTAR (Faith), I love that I get to bond and get closer with my MomR, I love that Wilson is going to just explode with excitement on this trip, and I love that our family will all be together. So, MomR, thank you for your hard work and love. I'm right there with you getting my family ready for the epic-ness and I know how hard you are working.

This is how I feel inside about the beach "just give it to me already" - This is also a good indication of what we will all have to encounter at the beach - CRAZY MAN WILSON!

Vacation Blahs

Our much longed for and anticipate vacation is two days away.  What?!!  So why am I feeling weary and let down instead of excited?  What have I been doing this week?  Well...

a lot of this

(Math tutoring - that's right - some students come in the summer time, too.)

A good bit of this:

(Wedding Director stuff)

A whole lot of this:


(Tutoring and wedding directing involved a lot of email this week.)

And mostly this:

(I'm an incorrigible list maker, but I'm still overwhelmed.)

What to do about this state of mind?  I will tell you.  Think of something to be thankful for!
Here is one:

I get to spend time with the Love of My Life next week.

I am also pretty excited about this:

With those things to be thankful for, I think I can overlook the bicycle parked in my living room in front of the pile of STUFF for the beach. We are almost there!

Henna-body Want a ...

... Tattoo?  As part of mandatory craft time this year the Russells will once again have the opportunity to get tatted up - with henna, of course.  We already know that Seth has a knack for creative designs, but I suspect that Julie and Thomas do , too.  Sadly, the Ethans may already be too golden for henna tattoos to show up no their well tanned bodies.  Too bad.  But everyone else should start thinking about where they would like a tattoo and what kind of design they would like.  Dare to be radical, at least for a couple of vacation days.

Vacation Snags

This post could be titled, "When Your Car Lets You Down."  That's what happened to Matthew on his journey through the deep South to get home to Greenville.  His trusty Tahoe kept taking unscheduled breaks as he was tooling down the highway through Mississippi and Alabama.  An incompetent tow truck driver towed the car to a repair shop after leaving the stranded man for an hour to go and ask Daddy how to operate the tow truck.  No vacancies at the motel meant that Matthew spent the night in the uncooperative car in the midst of record breaking heat.  The next day the knowledgeable people at the repair shop replaced the battery and assured Matthew that all was well.  It wasn't.  The Greenville folks heard from Matthew again when he was outside of Anniston, Alabama.  The car was up to its old tricks again.  Matthew coaxed the car to a Chevy dealership.  The repair shop was closed (of course), but the helpful salesmen tried to help Matthew locate a rental car.  No rental places open on a Saturday afternoon.  Walt to the rescue.  Walter left Greenville around 5:30 PM to drive to Alabama and retrieve Matthew.  The tired pair rolled in around 2:00 AM Sunday morning. As of Tuesday morning, no word from the repair shop.  Once repaired,  he will have to figure out how to go back and retrieve his car. Or sell it on the spot.

I might need to start rethinking that Beach packing list.  We might all end up in one car.  These are the trials that keep us dependent upon the Lord.  They also make for great vacation stories.

Home Guard

Job will be one sad puppy when his people abandon him for the beach. His people will miss him, too.  On the bright side, Job loves neighbor Doug whom we hope will take care of him in our absence. And Doug loves Job and lets him in his yard to play with Mia and Diesel.  More importantly, Job will be around to guard the old homestead.  I don't think anyone would dare mess with our stuff after hearing his ferocious bark.