Cocoa Beach Vacation {and one off to college!}

Our family decided to go on one last trip before our daughter went off to her freshman year in college. I wrote about her graduation earlier. We decided on a Cocoa beach vacation, since a friend of ours had a condo there.  I was really glad we had this quality time to spend together.  I will be ever grateful for that time. We also spent a day at Disney World. She took this picture of the beach where we were staying.  She has a knack for picture taking.

Cocoa Beach, Florida

This was the pathway to the beach from our condo. It was great having the beach at our doorway!  The only thing is it was around 100 degrees everyday.  It was way to hot for me.  I was usually only down there for about an hour.  Luckily there was also a pool with nice shade. The kids and my husband were able to stay on the beach much longer.

My fifteen year old son, soon to be sixteen walking on the beach. I can’t believe how fast he has grown up!

There were lots of storms in the evening that we got to watch from our balcony. The kids thought that was pretty cool.

Our family selfie on the balcony!

Kids chilling on the balcony!

We got to see some baby alligators up close. The kids got to feed them hot dogs on a string and hold one of them!

Even though my kids are teenagers they still loved magic Kingdom, especially my daughter who loves all things Disney.  They had only been there once before when they were very small.

This is the first time I got to see the fireworks over Cinderella’s castle.  It was an amazing sight! Of course my daughter took lots of pictures!

We had a really good time, but it also was bittersweet.  I knew when we got home from vacation that two days later we would be packing up my daughter and taking her to her new dorm room for her freshman year at college.  Where did the time go?  It seemed like I blinked and she grew up. My son will be sixteen next week and is now taller than me with a deep voice.  I always thought my kids growing up would be far off. Well now the time has come and I am still trying to adjust to having one less mouth to feed, to mothering one child at home, and passing her empty room.  I keep expecting her to come running downstairs to tell me something she learned or some exciting news. My mom reminded me that I didn’t lose a daughter, I am just forging a new relationship with her. I am figuring that out one day at a time and giving myself lots of time and grace. I’m sure I will be keeping you up to date on my journey.