after being away for a week, j did a water jump into the ocean at tybee island.
at first i was a TAD stressed. can we discuss the amount of planning, list making, and packing that it takes to get four little chickies to the beach (to stay for four hours) all by YOURSELF?
luckily, i’m a master list maker and i only forgot underwear for the girls to wear under their sundresses on the way home.
oh well, it was just us howells in the van anyway. HA!
we got to tybee around 8:30 am to see this:
a beautiful day at the beach indeed. in fact, almost perfect. warm but not hot, breezy but not windy, no sand gnats.
after patting myself on the back for about five seconds (i did after all get a cooler, towels, toys,sunblock, two baby carriers and two bigs down to the beach all by myself!) we headed down to the water and looked up to see this:
does anyone see the helicopter up there?
and guess who the first one out was?
that’s right!
(he’s all the way to the right here).
i have to be honest that watching this i felt two things.
a. nervous, b/c that’s how i am, my stomach gets in knots whenever i watch him do things like this.
b. JEALOUS. all i could think was how much i wish i could have been drifting down towards the ocean, with no one saying MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY look at me! with no one needing to be held or fixed…just the sky and the water and calm.
b/c back down on earth? life was anything but calm for me.
harper was FREAKING OUT. over what you might ask? why over these:
she pointed and SCREAMED
OOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! THOSE BIRDS ARE GOING TO PECK MY HEAD TO A NUB!!!!!!!
really harper? REALLY???
and sadie kept yelling “IT’S TOO DIWTY (dirty) OUT HERE!!! TOO MUCH DIWT ON MY TOES!!!”. and i kept trying to tell her that it was sand but she wasn’t listening.
and both harper and sadie kept coming to me and telling me they had sand in their bajunejunes (i’ll let you guess what this is code for) and i kept telling them
IT’S PART OF LIFE IF YOU GO TO THE BEACH AND ARE A GIRL. YOU GET A SANDY BAJUNEJUNE.
but no one was listening to me. no one.
I NEEDED A PARACHUTE, dang it!
but it was awesome. this is h and her sweet friend b watching their daddies come back down to earth.
harper posing (as always, even when she doesn’t know she is being photographed)
she kept calling it “the sea”. as in “oh, i didn’t know the SEA was this wonderful!!!” ahahha
and a pic of sadie doing i don’t know what. strutting maybe???
but this picture makes me laugh so hard. HAHAH.
the babies napped, i think they loved hearing the REAL ocean, as that is what they hear on their white noise machine every night.
and daddy was back, and all was right in the girls worlds. and sadie was pretty pumped that daddy wore her elmo sunglasses for a bit with nary a hint of embarrassment.
best daddy ever, i tell you.
i am DAILY so proud of j and what he does. but some days? it’s just extra cool. and hot. i won’t lie.
there’s something about seeing your man jump out of a helicopter that is kinda hot.
and that is one of the MANY reasons i love what he does.
happy saturday, sweet friends!
xoxo
s