Mother's Day Retreat 2011

First, I have to apologize for anyone who reads this blog solely for the "creations," because this post will have absolutely nothing to do with my artwork. This post is about my husband forcing me to take time for myself and relax with a road trip to my best friend Gentry's family beach house in St. George Island, Florida. It was probably the best Mother's Day gift anyone could ask for, and I am so thankful I have a husband that loves me enough to recognize I need time for myself--even when I don't realize it myself. It was really hard for me to leave, and even though I knew it would be fun, I would cry every time I talked about going. I have never been away from Jude for more than one night.

Gentry and I used to spend our college Spring Break in this house with her late beloved grandmother, Granny Tucker. We haven't taken a "girls" trip to the house in 10 years, so it was long overdue and incredibly nostalgic. 

While Gentry and I were in college, we were volunteers with a ministry called YoungLife (where we met both of our husbands) and we worked with high school kids. Two of these students (now no longer kids, but 26 years old!) joined us for the trip. They were our comic relief and kept us from getting too homesick or taking ourselves too seriously : ). They are amazing girls--Jenna (2nd from the left) is now a pharmacist, and Brooke (next to me) is actually in the middle of the adoption process herself! Brooke has also started an incredible foundation for special needs children called InRhythm and you can check out her blog here.

Anyway, the beach trip was amazing. In St. George, you pretty much have the beach to yourself. No one was around for miles, and it was just us girls, so we found ourselves doing things like this...

 and this...

and this...

Richard called this one my Matrix move

It was a great long weekend of sleeping in, digging my toes in the sand, eating when and whatever I wanted (I was on a diet of Diet Coke, roast beef & swiss sandwiches and Ranch Doritos--just a few of my favorite unhealthy things), watching chick flicks and staying up late talking about any and everything. When it was time to go, we were ready and rested and couldn't wait to see our babies (okay, we almost broke down and left a day early because we missed them so badly : ). But we knew we'd be back to reality soon enough, and the trip almost seemed like a blur once we got home. We are lucky girls, lucky mommies. I hope all the mothers reading this had a wonderful Mother's Day this year!