Friday Flashback

I miss the ocean. I took advantage of the fact that it was always there, while I was growing up. I don't think I've ever lived more than 2 hours away from it, at any point in my life.

Now that we live in west central Texas (which is only temporary, I know we'll be moving soon, to where we're still not sure of), the ocean seems like nothing more than a distant memory. Its been over 3 years since I've had the chance to walk along the shore looking for sea shells, later having to sit down to brush sand out from between my toes.


Christopher and I got married in Seaside, Oregon. It wasn't a big wedding, and it wasn't very well planned out. It was actually very last minute, backed up with good reasoning, though. I was pregnant, and Christopher was about to join the Air Force. There was no reason to wait. We knew we'd be spending the rest of our lives together. At the time, a wedding seemed like nothing more than a hurdle on our track.

We gathered on the beach with a couple of friends and close family members. My dad walked me down the sandy aisle, looking sharp in his freshly ironed suit, while I stretched as much beauty as possible out of an old polka dot party halter, my baby bump blessing me with heartburn every step of the way. I cried uncontrolled tears of both love and fear, as I stood in front of and said goodbye to my past, rushing myself into an unknown future.

We stayed at the Inn of the Four Winds. I'm not sure if this post card came from the front desk, or from the care package that we were given when they accidentally forgot to switch on our fridge, causing us to lose all of our wedding leftovers. They had great customer service though, loading us up with a free nights stay, and probably one of every promotional item that they had.

Next time we go home to visit, I'd really like to go back and stay there again. We never got to have an actual honeymoon. And Since they've been born, we've never had a night together without the kids.

Someday I'd like to put on a real wedding dress. White and elegant. It didn't mean very much to me at the time, but now that its behind me, my missed chance of a somewhat traditional wedding has left an empty place in the part of my heart that holds my childhood dreams. But that doesn't mean that the wedding that we had wasn't beautiful... because it was.