Summer!

I love vacation. I SUPER love vacation with Ben! Saturday morning we helped some friends move to a new house. They are going to begin fostering, and needed more space to do that. I think that's very cool. I enjoyed getting to help and watch Ben with his friends. Those guys are really fun, and hilarious.

Saturday afternoon we went to the lake house that Ben's surrogate family has at Lake Martin. (Sidenote: I love that he has a surrogate family in Opelika just like I do - and that those families know each other well. He's perfect for me. We talked about how nice it is to be adopted.) The lake was GREAT! We swam and went tubing (just a nice ride - no getting thrown off. It was plenty thrilling for me!). We went on a boat ride which was glorious. Ben had told me that the boat ride was his favorite thing at the lake and I have to agree with him. Oh, but then there was the food - that was maybe my favorite part of the lake! My mouth is watering just remembering it, haha. Grilled pork chops, green beans, macaroni and cheese, black-eyed peas, creamed corn. Ah-mazing.

Saturday night I played guitar for him and we went to walk at the park. Taking walks is our favorite. Ok I'm going to stop saying favorite b/c I've totally overused it already in this post. Taking walks is on our top tier. Along with me cooking for him. (He appreciates it, I like being helpful, and I like when he takes leftovers to work and shows off for his coworkers!)

Sunday he picked me up after church and we loaded up the car to go to Orange Beach! We were invited to join Julie, Will, and Julie's brother Tim on vacation. Road trips are decidedly better with Ben Steele. He likes to drive, he lets me tell endless stories, he holds my hand, he doesn't get mad when we miss our exit by 12 miles, he finds signs funny like I do. Top tier Sunday night was Tim getting my earrings off - they were the starter earrings that I got for my birthday and I couldn't get them off for the life of me, and neither could Julie, but Tim did. So I enjoyed trying out new earrings with every new outfit!

Monday we walked on the beach, swam, went to lunch at Bubba's, and sat on the balcony all afternoon talking (we started a couples' devotional book this weekend and we're getting a lot out of it: Devotions for Couples by Patrick Morley).The balcony is top tier for me at the beach. I like looking at the water without having to be in the sun or sand. It's breezy and wonderful. Also on my top tier at the condo - the ice machine!! I love that ice. (Sidenote - I just looked it up online to see if I could ever have one of my own, and apparently they cost more than a whole refrigerator/freezer?! Absurd. Ah well, I'll enjoy it when I can on vacation.)

We left after lunch at Doc's (top tier!!) on Tuesday. We had used google maps to get us to the beach and went through FL to get there. Since we didn't have any problem getting there we figured we could easily get back by reversing the directions...yeah, well.. We took a scenic route through some part of FL I've never seen, and got out the atlas, and finally found our way back to AL. He's such a good sport...he never got frustrated. We saw some pretty funny signs on our detour. One of the funniest was in a neighborhood where we turned around. It was on neon green poster board and said,

"Thievery is afoot.

- Be aware.

- Lock up.

- Pay attention."

We laughed soo hard! I kept thinking of who would write such a sign, and decided that it must be an elderly lady who had a lawn gnome stolen from her yard.

We ate at Cracker Barrel on our way home which felt like a bonus date. I love his companionship and enjoy him SO MUCH! He makes my life really fun. 

I'm going to add the picture of us from his deacon ordination which was May 20th. He looked way too handsome in that suit not to show him off! I'm so very proud of him, and SO proud to be with him!