Sunset

Tonight I was driving home from the park with the kids and we witnessed the best sunset ever.

Not THE sunset, but not too shabby either! Siesta Key.

 

 

 

 

 I won’t even attempt to describe it because I would need pictures or a video or something more than mere words to accurately describe the way the sky was on fire and how we appeared to be driving right into it as went up the causeway that crosses the IntraCoastal Waterway. It was the kind of sunset that makes your soul want to give glory to God. I was driving, so falling to my knees or raising my hands were not great options. But I could whoop and yell and so I did, and the kids loved it. We shouted together about how the sunset was amazing and glorious and thanked God for it and basically made a ton of noise. Addie echoed everything I said in her own way ("Thanks God! For all these things! And you're welcome for Bitty Baby and this parkslideswings! And we love the sun and moon!") and Graydon just laughed and shrieked. I’m pretty sure they thought I was crazy, but in the best possible way. By the end of the light show we were home and my face kind of ached from smiling. It was a fitting end to a great week.

Also not THE sunset. But also not too shabby, eh? Also Siesta Key.

We took a vacation within our vacation this past week and headed down south of Tampa to Siesta Key, which is in the Sarasota vicinity. Being there was great in and of itself, but the fact that we were there because of our friend Grant and his family made it even nicer. 

Grant was in medical school with Tim, and he was part of Tim’s study group. The guys in the group slogged through the academic years of med school together and became great friends in the process. In our final year in Philadelphia, the guys took a trip down to Grant’s parents’ condo in Siesta Key and went deep sea fishing.

We got to spend some time with Grant and his girlfriend Jenna this summer and he very thoughtfully offered us some time at the condo. We said that would be amazing, but at least for me, I thought it was a really sweet offer that wouldn’t come to much, because you know, people get busy. And we probably weren’t foremost in Grant’s mind as he works through his ER residency in Boston...awesome though we may be and amazing as Grant's memory is and all that. 

Happily, I was wrong, and Grant and his parents arranged for us to stay in the lovely Casa Mar, which is about 20 steps from a swimming pool and about 20 steps from a beautiful beach. This is a great time to say a huge THANK YOU to the Swisher family for their generosity and kindness. Grant, the next time I am tempted to pull against the Patriots I will remember this and cheer for them instead. No small sacrifice for a Panthers fan still tasting the bitterness of a Super Bowl defeat.

I love being wrong.

If you’ve ever spent some time in Florida, you know that the Gulf Coast is really different from the Atlantic Coast. The Atlantic has the typical East Coast type of grayish beige sand, rough surf, and murky olive oil green water. And great white sharks which may actually be hunting right offshore (headline news our first week here). 

The Gulf is calmer, the water is a clear emerald green, and the beaches are white sugar sand. The movement of great white sharks is undocumented. It’s beautiful. The kids loved the sugar sand. Addie would lay in it and roll around like she was in her bed. I’m pretty sure she still has sand in her hair, in fact. 

Happy girl

Serious boy

We spent four days in Siesta Key in a relaxed round of visits to the beach and the pool. And every night we’d take a drink out the beach to watch the sun touch the ocean. 

My favorite time of the day...sunset!

Me and my little lovin' life.

Best buddies

Little ones also got special drinks for sunset viewing.

In all of these pictures, you're thinking "Where is Addie?" Answer: doing this.

And also stuff like this: interpretive dance?

 And then we’d eat dinner, put the kiddos to bed, and drink some more. We might have also done TWO 500 piece jigsaw puzzles in the spirit of "when in Rome..." since we were in Sarasota. It was unhurried and deeply satisfying. 

You know what's crazy? Rochester also has marvelous sunsets. You think I'm sarcastic but I'm dead serious. When we first moved to MN, we were driving home one night and I turned to Tim and said "This place gives great sky". And that is absolutely true. Frequently I do find myself grabbing my camera and running outside to snap a picture of the sky.

With the exception of the best sunset ever, the sun really isn't more magnificent here in Florida. It's just easier to bask in it because we're happier and because we have time to pour a glass of wine and to appreciate the way the rosy light glows on our babies' faces.(Note: basking is also enhanced by not ballshrivelingly cold weather.)

I told you she still has sand in her hair. This is post shower!

 The downside of vacation is that it ends, right? But I don't think that the mindset of drinking in life and drinking in each other has to end just because we don't have time to amble out to good viewing spot with an actual drink in hand. We applauded the sun every night on vacation, but I didn't see my very best sunset until I was back home in Jax. And there is a small but important lesson there for me: I can still appreciate the light after vacation ends.

Although if the Air Force decides to post us somewhere on the Gulf Coast, I am not going to be crying.

 I still cannot believe I gave birth to a human with dimples.

TWO humans with dimples! My cup runneth over!