and then it rained

Last week we spent back in St. Augustine with Char's mom.  There's a good chance we won't see her for a year or so, so we decided to head back there on our way back up to northern Florida.

It rained.
We stayed inside.
This is a very exciting blog.
The taxes are done.
Lots and lots of laundry is done.
We moved to Topsail Preserve State Park on the Florida Panhandle over the weekend.
It rained.
We watched "Because of Winn-Dixie," because we'd shopped at the Winn-Dixie.
We rode our scooters out to the ocean, through the rain, to celebrate a break in thunderstorms.
And today, it stopped raining!

Before we left Ohio, my husband had been saying he felt like we were too busy.  It's true, as we all know, that by the time the kids spend the day at school, they get home and you spend time helping each of them with homework, attend practices, games, and go to meetings, life feels pretty busy and crazy.  It was pretty much okay with me, as I like busy and crazy.  However, to appease my husband, I'd been trying to cut back on the "crazy."

I knew this trip would be interesting, as there would be no homework that needed to be done, no practices, no games, and no meetings.  It's just our family.  We go on adventures together at lunch times, and adventures again after work and school in the afternoon.  It's been really nice, and it will be a tough transition back to the crazy and busy American life we all lead when we settle somewhere again.
However, it rained.  When it rains, there's no lunchtime adventures, no late afternoon adventures, and a lot of thoughts on my part about how nice it would be to take the kids to a practice and let some coach run out their energy while I sat and chatted with a friend.  There's nice things about the crazy-busy life, especially when it rains.

But, we made it through the rain, and here are some pictures.

This campground is full of great scooter paths.  This particular path was under at least 6 inches of water for 20 feet.  I've never seen such joyous scootering as I watched my kids try to create high-speed splashes through this river-path.  Char and I probably enjoyed it just as much as they did.  :)

The beach here is wonderful.  We love the mile scooter ride out to it, and then the sand is the whitest, and the water the blue-est, of any beach we've visited on this trip.  The boardwalk over the dunes, the heated pool, shuffleboard, playground, and basketball hoop are nice, too.  As for a beach vacation - this seems to be a great spot!  The beach is open and beautiful, empty of developments.  Topsail Preserve State Park - remember it if you want a nice beach camping spot!

At the beach, there were more effects of the rain.  A new, temporary creek had been created by it all, and fish were floating down into the ocean.  Here, our kids are "fishing," by scooping up fish with their hands.  They put them in "Fish Adventure Park," to keep these freshwater fish out of the ocean.  It was a fun time!

Scootering through a river-sidewalk and creating Fish Adventure Park.  Good things result from the rain, even if I had been grumpy that our adventures had been limited to laundry.

Leviticus 26:4  "I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit."