Mom is forever at the beach

Part of the reason I went to Florida in the first place (besides the obvious reason one visits a sunny place with a beach and family when it's overcast and gray in one's hometown) was to be there for distributing the last of Mom's ashes. Mom made her wishes known about where her ashes were to be placed: some at the Barron River Lake where her Bridge Babes often partied and some in the gulf of Siesta Key. She was no dummy... she wanted to reunite with earth in the most beautiful spots! What an afternoon: Jackson, Aunt Jo, Uncle Darrell, Dad (who was visiting Florida himself for a few days; our time there overlapped by 2 days), Chad (our chauffeur), and I loaded Chad's magnificent boat (Chad is a good buddy friend of the Hills whose offer we accepted during our March Spring Break trip, when Mom was still with us but declining, to go on a boat trip... it was such a nice time, and it felt surreal this time around the remember the last time we were on that boat, Mom was too) and headed out on the water to where we could get a view of the beach upon which our family has vacationed since before I was born. Aunt Jo had brought along some gorgeous yellow and white daisies, Mom's favorite, and we experienced our goodbye's individually and collectively. It was sweet.







Jackson was napping while these emotional moments transpired, but was quickly reinvigorated when it came time to cruise at a whopping speed of 48 miles per hour (for those of you who aren't boat people, that's FAST) back to the dock. His little eye lashes were fluttering a mile a minute. But he, like usual, didn't seem to mind.







So that was one biggie for the week. But there were so many more. Namely, that I was offered the luxury of being a "kid" again. 2007 has required so much responsibility of me and, for the most part, I have met it with few complaints. But to be away from my home, away from laundry, away from my cell phone (for the most part), away from Christmas shopping (OK OK, we squeezed a little in at the end), away from anything truly requiring anything of me... that was golden. My meals were provided for me. Babysitting services were provided for me. And - best yet - a guaranteed spot reserved for me in that family was provided for me. So I kinda went into "kid" mode... just carefree and fun loving. It was just what the doctor ordered.







And the two mornings I went to the beach alone were also what the doctor ordered. I'd share what revelations I uncovered, but then no one would pay money to buy the book I'm gonna write. Ha. We'll see if that actually happens. But it IS crossing my mind...







And watching two girly movies was just what the doctor ordered: The Holiday and The Notebook. I like holidays and notebooks. And I like stories about deep love. And so it really worked out that Jackson decided to nap when I wanted to lounge on the couch and watch them with Aunt Jo.







Jackson experiences a plethora of firsts (but don't tell Scott, he's already depressed that we were away from him so long...). 1) His first time at the beach, 2) his first time in a pool (he prefers warm water, thank you very much!), 3) his first time sitting on Santa's lap (the nearby church where I interned one summer 7 years ago offered a Breakfast with Santa last Sat morning... how perfect!?), and 4) he rolled over from back to front for the first time, much from the coaching and practice Aunt Jo and Uncle Darrell offered.