Good times and getaways

I’ve never stopped to count exactly how many vacations I’ve taken in my life, but if I were to try to guess a general number I’d say it was somewhere around a whole heck of a bunch. (Thank you, Mom and Dad! You really are the best.) I have lots of wonderful memories of visiting some amazing places—from Florence, Paris and London to our nation’s capital and the scenic Highway 1 on the coast of Northern California.

Having seen so many neat places, it surprised me that my most recent vacation—100 miles north of our home on a lake in Georgia—registered so high up on my list of favorite vacation memories. The setting was beautiful—a lake home lent to us by a couple in our church—but the company was even moreso.

It was only the second vacation I had ever taken with my husband. (Our honeymoon 18 months prior was the first). While Tom’s a hoot to have around, it was our miniature-sized mister that made the trip one for the memory books.
First of all, the kid is a road trip master—he jabbered sweetly to himself during the three hour trip, never once letting out a single cross peep. (In case you wondering, no, we didn’t travel at a speed of 33 mph. Yes, we did take a wrong turn and drove an hour in the wrong direction before realizing it.)

Secondly, he had his vacation mojo on all week. And, let me tell you, it was awesome. I’ve never seen him so chill.
We put his bouncer on the back deck, and he was in love. For an hour, he would sit calm and still watching the trees swaying in the wind. While inside, he sat grown-up style on the plush recliners (with us in arm’s reach, of course!) and rocked away.

When we took him down to the dock, he laughed at the swooping birds, stared in wonderment at the waves and clapped with excitement at his new surroundings. (The clapping, by the way, he learned a few days earlier while on Skype with my mama.)

I know that lots of moms and dads talk about needing a vacation away from their munchkins, and maybe that’s something I’ll “get” when I’m older, but for now, I can’t imagine a more perfect getaway. Watching the world through Jacob’s eyes transformed a simple lake house in north Georgia into the most wonderful place on earth.

Here’s a quick glimpse of our getaway: