Seasons of love

1,801 miles and 10 days later, we are home from vacation!  Although many are celebrating the 4th of July today with bbq's and fireworks, for me it somehow it doesn't get more American than packing the car to the gills with beach toys, food, luggage, and kids and spending a week playing at the beach.  (Also, very relieved to have un-stuffed the car's gills and be settled back at home!)

While nobody needs a good reason to spend vacation at the beach, this trip revolved around several special occasions, including Hubby T's grandparents 60th and his parents 35th wedding anniversaries. As we drove off the island on Saturday morning, heading home after a great week of fun in the sun, the song "Seasons of Love" from the musical Rent popped into my head, not because the song particularly relates to the week but the phrase does.  The season of love that Hubby T's grandparents are in is truly beautiful, being surrounded by and reflecting on the fruits of 60 years of labor and love.

Yiayia and her first grandchild

The season of love that Hubby T's parents are in is beautiful and awesome in its own ways.  They shared a villa with my four, and sometimes I couldn't help but think that they put in their time for years and deserved to have a quiet vacation room to themselves.  But Mom-Mom's love for her grandsons knows no bounds, so hopefully they didn't mind the pitter patter of little feet early every morning!

Chasing Mom-Mom on her bike

And then there's Hubby T's and my season of love.  We're celebrating nine years of marriage later this week, and are solidly in the season of living the reality of the thing we wanted most, children.  I won't deny that we had our moments of jealousy watching everyone else being able to relax by the pool or at the beach whenever they wanted, or sleeping in as long as they wanted.  Instead our lives were dictated, as usual, by these little guys.  And as much as little kids make vacation hard, I wouldn't trade them for anything.

On top of the lighthouse, 129 steps!

This picture pretty much sums up our vacation.  We all smiled and had plenty of fun, but a fair bit of wrangling was involved.  Despite their reluctant appearance in this picture, the boys did have a ball.  Their season of love, at least for this past week, was defined by early mornings to themselves on the beach, exploring the sand bar for hermit crabs, splashing in the pool, listening to books, watching Zootopia too many times to count in the car, and being overly tired for dinner every night.  I know they probably won't remember much from this trip, especially Little P.  But I do know that the time they spent with their extended family, who all overflow with love for them, is building them up so that they are confident taking their next steps in the world, however soon or not soon they come...  (Somebody tell me we don't have to do back to school shopping yet!)   

 Seasons of love friends, keep trying to treasure them all.