If you know the Sponsel kids you know that they love the beach and pretty much have grown up around the water. Our summers are filled with pool days at my parents, vacations throughout the year to the Carolinas, Florida or Alabama.
Something about being at the beach, literally the only worry in the world being if my drink is cold and did I put sunscreen on the kids or did I miss that spot. It truly is to feed the soul for our family. We do absolutely nothing planned, rarely get in the car and drive anywhere and have no assigned bed times or agenda.
This March we were fortunate enough to go on Spring Break with my family, parents and sister. We were absolutely overtaken by kids but were lucky enough to have a rental that was smack dab on the beach.
Never in my past have I experienced being steps from the beach and where the steps are mine for a week. It was incredible. The sunrises, the sunsets, the kids up and down from the beach. My mom even slept on the covered balcony every night with the sound of the waves and the fresh air.
We had several homemade pina coladas, pizza, spicy shrimp from the bar across the street and even scored time for a family dance off on the back porch. You can see from one of the pictures below my 6 year old niece was clearly the winner. Her pure happiness and belly laughing at her parents, aunt and uncle trying to dance like her made the entire time there just worth it.
People have often said, “oh your kids are so lucky, you take them on trips to the beach so frequently.” While I 100% agree, I think that my husband Bobby and I are the lucky ones. There will be a day when the kids grow older and spending a week with their parents will be more than enough and I will be lucky to even coordinate the schedules. There will be a day where the kids don’t want me to help with sunscreen, when they won’t come running into my arms for a towel and a nap at the beach, a day when the capri sun flavor isn’t the only worry in the world. So for right now I think Bobby and I are the lucky ones.
I hope their memories are filled with going on vacations with their siblings. Spending every single Spring Break in Panama City with their cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.
