Net of Wonder...

The Sea, Once It

 Casts Its Spells,

Holds One In It's

Net Of Wonder

Forever.

I have always loved the sea...

and have always found myself there as often as possible.

I have written about it extensively and still can't believe that for the last almost 18 years I have lived an hour away.  I let out a little gasp every time as it surfaces into my vision.

It takes my breath away... 

Every.Single. Time.

However, the past year I have found myself on the Pacific ocean a lot.  I mean a lot a lot. 

I know that I have mentioned that my Brother in law and Sister in law bought a house a block from the beach in Carmel-By-The-Sea.

 My favorite place on this whole planet and I'm serious.

But I don't know if I have ever said that they are our best friends. Probably, but it can never be said enough. 

Our families are best friends.

My kids and their kids are like siblings without the fighting...well most of the time.  :)

My dad said it best when he said it is hard to tell where one family ends and the next begins.

We have done everything together for 18 years.

18 Years!

They make my life more meaningful in every way.

There are actually no words to describe my love and gratitude for this wonderful family that I get to spend time with.

No judgement...just understanding and love.

They bless us in ways that they will never fully understand and are my children's second parents.

I love their kids like my own and now I love their spouses like my own.

Sometimes I will be just driving down the road  and I will just start to cry with thankfulness.

My heart is so full with gratitude that I have been so blessed to have them in our lives.

My honey is best friends and lives under 10 minutes from his brother.  That just doesn't happen for most people  They run every day, get their Diet Coke, drive around, and then John gets ready for work at our house every single day.  I joke they are more like 2 giggling girls then like brothers.  They are each others biggest support and confidants.  Sometimes I feel like my house is a sit com where the husbands brother is always over and it it makes me smile.  I am just so happy that they have each other.

We have laughed, cried, celebrated and played and done so much over the years it is just crazy. 

Then that family goes and buys this house a year ago in my favorite place in the whole wide world. Then they freaking invite us down to stay with them on so many weekends I am speechless. And we get to go to the ocean at Carmel and stay all the freaking time. (I know I just said freaking 2 times in 2 sentences but I just can't handle any part of this at all.)

Are you kidding me?

No words...

Just no words.

The Sea has cast a spell over me and I hope I never recover.

My heart is to the bursting point.

I am so grateful....

 I am getting caught up and so this is a couple of trips and there are tons of pictures because I take 1 billion pictures.   

I have my little rituals now and running along the beach every morning is one of them.

Waking up to this is something that happens only in dreams.

We sometimes go to brunch at MPCC.

I know this life, with these people, my heart.

Then we drive along the 17 mile drive back to their beach home.

 They thought paddle boarding would be fun...so they bought two.

I didn't know about paddle boarding. First, I had never done it and I was a little intimidated about getting over the waves and Secondly, and most importantly, nothing or no one was getting me in that ocean. I would hesitate to save my own child. Ok I'm kidding but that does get the idea across.

 I am cold. ...always.  

I start to warm up if it is 85 degrees and I may shed one of my 3 jackets and 1 of them is a full winter ski parka. So if I am cold on the beach then it would take me a year to warm up after being in the water.  I mean the Pacific ocean on the Northern California coast takes cold water to a new level.

I look at other people in the ocean as some type of freak alien that clearly had to be from a different specie. So I always sit/play on the beach loving every minute but fully aware of my limitations.

The water to me was like flying to the moon....impossible.

Then on this day...the best of all days.

Ann says to me, "Just put on one of our wet suits.  I promise you won't feel a thing... these are extra thick"

I wanted to paddle board sooo bad that I believed her.  Really any other time I wouldn't have believed her. Deep down I just couldn't see how a wet suit could help that much.  I have worn crappy ones in the past and when I went in the water it filled up with cold water and I froze and I would think to myself, That it was not even worth the effort to pull the dang thing on." 

I suppose she just really caught me on a weak moment.

So all of this is to say that I pulled and I tugged and I tugged and pulled some more and I got that dang wet suit on. 

Without being too dramatic it changed my life.

My life is broken up into two equal parts.

BEFORE the wetsuit and AFTER.

I grabbed that paddle board and gingerly tippy toed onto that unknown substance that had been off limits to me for so long and I got knee deep and then waist deep and that is when my world got shifted on it's axis and I realized that Ann was not lying to me...I didn't feel a thing.

Hallefreakinglujah!!!!!

It was my best day ever.  

Well let's just say that paddle boarding was an absolute ball and this was my funnest day ever until my next funnest day. Ann and I laughed so hard I could barely breathe.  Plus once I was out there and wasn't spazzing out and falling off my board it was so relaxing and peaceful and 

I WAS NOT EVEN COLD!!!!!!!! 

I was that alien that got to play in that water!!!

This guy that photobombed this picture was out doing something in his sea kayak and we made friends with him.  He trusted me with his camera and we traded shots,  Did I mention I was not even cold?

So after our turn was up and we took the paddle boards back to the beach Ann and I just boogie boarded and played in the waves.  I din't want to get out. I never wanted it to end.

Tom and John made dinner and brought it down to the beach and I stayed warm in my new whale blubber.

The sun went down over the ocean while we ate and everything was just as it should be in my world.

 I am now officially in the AFTER wet suit portion of my life.  

Do I even look cold?  Nope

Last time we went we went to Pebble Beach and I am done writing and I want this to be over but I loved it.

This is what we do. This is how we spend a lot of our week ends.  After our fun is over we wait until like 9:00 and then the kids fall asleep on the way home.  

I am just so grateful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!