Beach Days

We live about a 10-15 min drive from a beach. I grew up basically around Dallas, TX. For those of you who don't know, it's landlocked right in north/central Texas. When I was a kid, I remember my friends talking about going to the coast for summer vacations. I didn't really know what that meant but I knew it sounded fun. As I got older...actually I was in high school...I went to Galveston in southeast Texas where the coast was. Well I wasn't all that impressed. It was kind of dirty and the seaweed gave me a rash on my legs. I could take or leave the beach. 

Then in college I got to spend 2 springs breaks in Panama City, FL and my friend got married in San Diego, California. Then I got to experience the beach. Beautiful sand and clean water. Then I loved it!!! Now we live right on the Baltic Sea. You may not think of Poland as a place to visit for the beaches but they are really nice. The sand is soft, ankle deep, wonderful. Of course the beaches in the city/bay area are not as nice as the beaches on the open sea side but for an afternoon it's just fine. The water is also fairly cold but my kiddos still swim in it with all the Poles. I love living here. I love the beach. 

Last week we spent a gorgeous afternoon on the beach with our friends Ute and Blix. It was so nice!!!

Ella and Blix played a mini tennis game. 

You should never send 3 kids with $20 (50zl) to get ice cream and trust them to come back with change. Haha!

Ella asked Macie and Blix to bury her. Of course they were more than willing. Ha! 

We may not have warm water like Croatia, Greece or Spain, but we do have wonderful beaches. And we are so blessed to be so close and experience God's beauty in the way. :) 

Riding Horses

My kids have ridden horses more in Poland than they ever did in Texas. Haha! Today we spent the day with a local pastor/church planter and his kids. We took all of them horseback riding this afternoon. It was a lot of fun. Macie was quite brave. She would ride with one hand on her hip and one on the saddle. And even got brave and held both hands on her hips. She would reach up to the horse's ears or back toward her tail. Of course, an instructor was asking her to do this. Ella was more safe and didn't even want to wave. Lol

Enjoy the pics! 

This pony thought Krysia tasted good. 

Ella was in heaven with the animals just wandering around. 

The drive out was also so beautiful. We live in a beautiful area of the world. 

Eleven Years!

On June 22, we celebrated our 11th anniversary. WOW!! Crazy how fast time goes. James did an AWESOME job planning a wonderful anniversary get away. He got a babysitter for the girls and booked a hotel with massages, dinner and breakfast in Sopot. I was so excited. Of course, we all know I decided spending a few days at the hospital with appendicitis would be more fun. NOT!! But the hotel was gracious and allowed us to change the dates. My mom was here, so she got to spend the evening with the girls instead. What a treat for everyone.

We got to the hotel and got all checked in. It was right on the beach in Sopot. The first thing we did was change into swimsuits and hit up the rooftop pool. What a cool thing, right? And there are not many days in Poland that you can swim outside. Thank goodness this was one of them! We swam a little and laid out a little.

Then we had dinner at the italian restaurant in the hotel. We got appetizers...James at seared scallops on saffron risotto and I had carpaccio. We both chose sirloin steak for dinner...we ordered it medium, it was well done. This is not the most amazing steak like I have written about in the past! Then we had dessert...I had tiramisu, and James had a chocolate lava cake with ice cream. This may seem like a lot of food, but it was small portions so we weren't stuffed. Which was good since we had massages at 8:30pm. No one wants to have a massage feeling full, right?

We went to have massages together. This was James's first time for a massage. I think he enjoyed it. It may have been the best massage I have ever had. I needed it too!! After the massages, we went for a walk on the night beach. It was gorgeous. The weather was unbelievable and I got some cool pics. There were even some cool boats on the shore that made a great photo op!

Back side of the hotel walking up from the beach.

 The last thing we did was have breakfast outside on the terrace. I LOVE breakfast and there was so much yumminess to enjoy. We had such a nice getaway...even if it was only for about 18 hours. I hope we can do this again!! I love you, James and am thankful God put you in my life!!!