Take off your flip-flops and stay awhile.

One.  Two.  Threefourfivesixseven.  Eight.  Nine.  Teneleven.  Twelve.  Thirteen.  Thirteen sets of visitors in twelve months.  Thousands of dollars in food, hundreds of hours of soul filling conversations, thousands of miles put on the van, hundreds of gallons of gas, one ripped set of guest sheets, over 50 late nights visiting, ten trips through the everglades, hundreds of crocodiles and alligators spotted (two touched - Dave (and, thankfully, zero injuries - Dave)), one trip to Disney World, one drive to Key West, and amazingly, only one popped air mattress.

Guest #1 - Brian's brother, Dave.  

(This man deserves some sort of medal.  You should have seen the work he had to do in order to help us move into our 11th floor apartment.)

One of the great things about blogging is that with all of these memories recorded, we will someday be able to look back and see through this window stories of the way things were.

Guest #2 - Brian's sister, Heidi.

One of the not-so-great things about blogging is that it's nearly impossible to record the stories in their entirety and so, much is left out and much is forgotten.

I didn't write about all the visitors that came to visit throughout the year - not because I wanted them to be among the left out and forgotten, but because, frankly, it was quite overwhelming to keep up.  I had so much else to say and so little time to spend here saying it (it's that whole four-kids-at-home-all-the-time thing) that I knew if I devoted time to blogging about each visitor that that would be all I had time for.  And I knew I didn't want that, either.

 Guests #3 - My parents

But now, as I scan through the pictures of our year on the beach, I find myself lingering longest in the hundreds and hundreds I have of you. They're not the most beautiful, by far, in terms of composition and lighting and other technicalities, but they are the most beautiful, by far, in terms of the warm memories they bring back to the surface.

And it would be terribly sad and rather misleading to not spend some time stamping the memory of 'visitors' into this moment in time. 

Because it was such a big part of our year. 

Guest #4 - My sister, Michelle.

I mean, without Michelle, the above picture would have never happened.  Because I certainly was not brave enough to try gator nuggets without her.  PS - don't try gator nuggets.

I took a look at myself after our very last set of visitors caught their plane back home.  I smiled because the bags underneath my eyes were so puffy that it almost looked like I was wearing a cartoon mask. 

Guest #5 - My brother, Brian

(Sorry, Brian... I didn't mean for your picture to fall right after I said the words 'cartoon mask', because now everyone is thinking the words 'cartoon mask' as they stare at your face.  You don't look like you're wearing a cartoon mask... pinky promise.) 

I deserved those bags under my eyes.  I worked hard for them.  I earned them.  And oh, how I loved them. 

 Guest #6 - Heidi (again) and her boyfriend-at-the-time-turned-husband, Adam

I didn't love the way they made me look, let's be clear.  But I loved the way they made me feel.  

Those bags forced me to recognize my bone reaching tiredness, for sure; but what I found inside was that it was ultimately a happy and satisfying tiredness. 

Guest #7 - Brian's brother, Dave (again (this time he didn't have to move any furniture))

I guess it's the sort of tiredness that comes from living life.  From having fun.  From connecting with others.  From loving and serving and doing.  

Which, when I looked at it that way, made sense of my longing for more.  Please come! I said to those who expressed interest.  I tried not to be pushy, but in my own head I shouted Please come! at them for days afterwards.  

 

Guests #8 - The Birdnos

And while I ended the year exhausted, I started the year hoping we would be able to share our life and our home with our families and friends. Our year was more than we could have dreamed for - and I wanted to share the beauty with everyone I could. 

And they came.

Guests #9 - Brian's brave parents (they did the whole Disney thing with us this year)

You came!  

You came even though you knew we didn't have beds for you.  And we didn't have an extra bathroom for you.  In fact, we didn't have much square footage to offer you at all!  You didn't mind that we couldn't fit a kitchen table.  Anywhere.  And happily ate your meals with us on our couches and floors. 

(confusion buster: the kitchen table in the above pictures is in our rented room at Disney.  Funny that the only pictures of a kitchen table in this entire post come right after I mention the fact that we did not, in fact, have a kitchen table in our house.)

Guests #10 - My wonderful parents (again)

You brought out fun sides in my kids.   

You helped us explore new places.

 Guests #11 - The Larsons

And, best of all, you kept the beauty and the majesty of life alive in all of us. 

That last sentiment is true for not only those that were able to come and be guests within our walls (because I know there were more of you who wanted to come but couldn't), but also for those of you who shared our year through this blog, too.  With each fresh pair of eyes we saw the beauty all over again.  On my tenth visit to the everglades, for example, I saw just as much beauty as I did the first time... because someone was seeing it for the first time.

Guest #12 - My dear friend, Cindy

After staring at the same ocean and the same slice of beach from our windows day after day, we found new beauty and wonder from your comments and through your eyes.  Every time you'd gasp from the beauty, I'd see it again.  Oh yeah, this is incredible.  And since that happened so often, you helped me milk out the most enjoyment and the most fulfillment possible.  

So thanks for coming, guys.

Guests #13 - My sister, Michelle, and her boyfriend, Jake

And thanks, beach, for being a place that people wanted to visit.  You all made the year awesome.  (cue song and dance. Everything is awesome!  Everything is cool when you're part of a team! Everything is aweSOME!... You're welcome for that.)

Now.  How about a visit to Vegas? *wink*