Family Vacation

I am coming to the end of a family vacation to the beach at Port Aransas, TX.  We have spent the last 4 nights laughing, talking and hanging out together.  We used to come to this beach as kids with my parents and grandparents and TB and I have been coming the last few years with friends because we like it so much.  This time we came to celebrate my dad's 50th birthday and enjoy time together.  My grandparents came with and all of us 3 kids had a significant other to bring.  Its really fun and sorta weird.  We used to play in the sand and build castles and run in the waves as little kids and instead this year my brother proposed on the beach with the whole family watching.  It was really wonderful.

I haven't lived at my parents' house for 5 years now.  I don't get this big family interaction every day like my brothers do that still live with them.  Being surrounded by all these people and having such a nice time makes me feel full.  I feel like my life is/will be fine without children.  I also can see towards the future when we come back with a brood of my nieces and nephews to show them the beach.  My family is weird/difficult/complicated and so much fun I can barely stand it sometimes.  We are truly a circus sometimes.  But they are my family and I love them with everything I have.  Watching my brothers lovingly dote on their girlfriends, seeing my parents hold hands and listening to stories of when my grandparents were newly married makes me know that these people are my home.  They are my heart.

I know that TB and I may not get to do this with our kids in the future but I know that we will be included when my brothers do it with theirs.  We will have little ones to run around in our lives whether they are ours or not.

Days like these make it easy to think I will never have a traditional family life because I ALREADY have an awesome one.  Kids or no kids, life can be good.  Just like right now.  As everyone starts to wake up and pack to go home because they have other obligations, we get to pack and move to another condo because our friend KA is driving down today and we get a few more days at the beach with friends.  I could not do that if I had kids in tow.  I am grateful for the things in life that show me that it will be ok.