So, a little background here...Garrett started a work assignment the first week of January that was one of the most demanding assignments he had been on to date. He was working 6-7 days a week and working very, very long days. We had seen very little of him, it seemed. So the assignment wrapped up the Saturday before Mardi Gras. Yay!!! So, we knew Mardi Gras was approaching, which meant Tyler was out of school for the week and that Garrett's office would be closed for Fat Tuesday at least. We also figured he deserved an extra day or two off that week as well. :) So, Sunday after church, Tyler was so excited to have Garrett around that he had put together a 'schedule' for the rest of the day's activities. And it was precise, I tell you. I wish I had a picture of it. It included things like: Fishing--5:01 pm, Kite flying--3:54 pm, Play catch with football--2:19 pm, etc. It was awesome! :) But Garrett and I had actually been talking about getting out of town for at least a little bit of time since we were just feeling like our family needed something of that nature.So, that Sunday afternoon, we told Tyler to pack up all of the items needed for the activities on his schedule so we could go to the park. And we told him we were going to a park a LONG ways away. He happily obliged. I also packed an overnight bag for everyone as well. So, it was a huge surprise to our kids when we pulled into a hotel in Biloxi for the night. I thought they'd be so excited to realize that we'd taken then for a little beach getaway, but instead Tyler got frustrated because it wasn't the park! But then he finally put it all together and figured out that he would still be able to do all those things on his schedule--they would just be done on the beach! So, here are some pictures to recap our fun little 24 hour surprise getaway, which was so fun!
When we got there and got checked into our room, the sun had just set, but we knew we needed to head down to the beach anyways. So, these first few pictures were taken at night. I was still playing with the wide angle lens and having a TON of fun with it at the beach!
The next morning, I somehow managed to get up and out of our room before anyone else woke up just to get a walk on the beach in the early morning light. It was actually VERY cold and I wasn't dressed well for the occasion!
After we had a chance to lounge around the hotel for a while, we set out to play on the beach. It was a very chilly day, so we were about the only ones there. And all I had packed for the boys was shorts. But they didn't seem to mind! It was windy--perfect for flying our Blue Angels kite. We spent a ton of time with it and got it doing all sorts of tricks. It was great!
And no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep them out of the water. I knew it was cold and that they'd freeze, but at that moment, they couldn't have cared less! But later on, they definitely cared. :)
We took two soaking wet and freezing cold boys back to the car and changed them into some warm, dry clothes and headed back towards home to continue on with our Mardi Gras festivities. It was so much fun to go. I think it is true that sometimes it just does wonders for everyone to just get away...even if it's only an hour away. It's away and that's good!
