After our quick overnight stay in Vegas, we embarked toward our final destination...Carlsbad, California and the Grand Pacific Palisades Resort! We were very excited to get there and all the adventures that awaited us. It was a quick and painless 6 hours in the car, and the kids handled it great...thanks to the awesome DVD screens in Grandma's van. :)
The Grand Pacific Palisades Resort is a place we've been before. During our years living in California, my Mom invited us to stay there with her for a couple of days while she was on business. It was only a two hour drive from where we were living, and we were happy to go! In fact, I was just barely pregnant with Luke at that time. When we knew Luke wouldn't be with us much longer, Danny and I knew we wanted to leave on a vacation somewhere after the funeral, spend some much needed time with the older kids, and just escape life for a while. My Mom called her friends at the Palisades and they were happy to provide us a room. I was so excited to go back, and for some reason it felt fitting to go back to a place where I had been when I was just pregnant with Luke.
With all their generosity, I could never have expected the greeting we would get. They provided their best...a three bedroom unit! It was beyond incredible, and the view was even better! And on the table were flowers and a card, welcoming our family to the resort. But that wasn't all...there were gifts for the children, and towel animals all over the unit. It made me tear up to think how generous and gentle perfect strangers were being to our family. One of the greatest lessons we've learned through all we've gone through with Luke is the goodness of people.
After enjoying the room for a bit and unpacking for the week, we decided we wanted to hit the beach before bedtime. The kids were so excited! Daddy even let them ride the luggage carrier down to the parking garage. :)
We got to the beach just before sunset, and we were pretty much the only people there. It was serene and beautiful, and the kids were in heaven! Danny and I sat there and watched Claire, Sophie, and Johnny...and our hearts ached for Luke. This was his trip, and he wasn't there with us. We had been doing pretty well since he died. We stayed focused on what was happening at the moment and tried not to let ourselves get swept away with grief. But in that moment, with the beauty around us, it was more than we could distract ourselves from. I cried a bit, and Danny and I just held each and watched our children play. There was nothing to say, nothing to make things be any different no matter how badly we wanted them to be. But even with missing Luke so desperately, the Spirit buoyed us up and helped us enjoy the evening as it was.
We made sure not to stay too late...we had to get to bed and be ready for Disneyland the next morning! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment