When you spend hours planning a vacation, you hope and you anticipate, but really you don't know how it is all going to turn out. But, you put in the time anyways. You hope. You dream. You plan. You persevere through the packing and the wining and the stress. And then, as you are sitting in the last few hours of the setting sun, on your last full day of vacation, by the side of the pool at your resort in Florida and all you can hear is your three girls laughing and playing in the water. You smile. As you feel the glow of the sun warming your shoulders, as you look up at the brightest and fiercest blue sky you have seen in ages, you realize just why it was that you planned and saved and packed for this vacation. It was for moments like these. Moments that you want to freeze. Moments in which you want time to stand still. As you sit, lying on a lounge-chair watching your three girls and now your handsome husband laugh, splash and throw each other around in the pool, you think to yourself - you are going to love this memory. As fate would have it, you forgot your camera that afternoon. Oh well, you'll just have to capture this memory in your memory bank. As Brene Brown would say, you lean into joy. You won't be able to handle it any longer - the next thing is, you put down your book, take off your cover-up and jump in the water with your four favourite people on earth. Yes. That's exactly what you will do. You might even go down the waterslide with your five year old. Just because she asks you to.
Thankful hardly even begins to describe is how I feel today. Full. Savouring. Treasuring.
Granted, this family vacation was our most elaborate, to be sure. But, the thing is - we've had similar experiences and build great memories while camping on the shore of Lake Huron or staying overnight at a hotel in Niagara Falls. There is just something sweet about setting aside time to be together. Time to laugh. Time to rest. Time to invest. Invaluable.
