My sister, niece, and nephew have just returned home from a 6 day vacation to Tybee Island. Our main activities, of course, revolved around water. Every morning we went swimming in the tidal creek behind our house, and every evening we went to the beach and played in the waves, runnels, and on the sand. At first, Jeanne-Marie and David were a bit skeptical about the creek, especially jumping off the dock, but as you can see in the slide show, they quickly lost that fear and did many a jump and a splash into the water. We also used the mud on the creek bank to give ourselves a facial and practiced our floating and swimming skills while chil-laxing. (For those of you unaware of Hannah Montana jargon, that's chilling and relaxing combined.) We even had an adventure floating down the creek holding onto a kayak. We passed the 4H Center and landed at our neighbor's dock down the road. All this was just our morning or early afternoon activities!

The evenings were reserved for the beach. The tide coming in made for some good boogie-boarding waves, and as we looked behind us, we saw the sun setting beyond sea oats and sand dunes. David remarked that this was usually his time to go to bed, but instead we're swimming in the ocean watching a sunset! Aah, vacation.

Where was Mathieu in all this? For the majority of the creek activities, he was in the house sleeping while his mother cooked. Cheryl, Jeanne-Marie, and David were always ready to give him lots of smiles and attention. He rewarded them with many smiles and chuckles back. He joined us for the beach evenings, and either took a walk with his auntie Cheryl or Daddy, or else he hung out in the cabana or on a blanket. Mathieu is a happy kid outside and really enjoys the panoramic views of nature.

What a wonderful time I had with my sister, niece, and nephew. Every summer my parents took us to the beach when we were kids and I loved it, but to spend a whole week at the ocean would have been a dream, and to have adventures like floating down a creek to an unknown destination ... well, I only read about them in my many books. To share this amazing place where I live with two amazing children was a very special moment.