Happiness.

Christmas on the beach was the best idea ever.

It was our first time seeing the Pacific Ocean.

Our dog, Austin, loved racing the waves and running around the beach like a mad man.

Austin's enthusiasm and pure happiness was amazing. And contagious. There was something healing about it. Magical, almost.

There's just something about the sand and the waves. I felt like a little kid again. Running as fast as we could in every direction and splashing through water and racing away from waves. Laughing so deeply that we couldn't breathe. Completely forgetting that the outside world even existed.

It was happiness, in its deepest and purest form. Happiness that I haven't felt in such a long time.

And of course, no trip to the beach is complete without writing your name in the sand. But instead, I wrote my babies' names. And some of the other babies that had been heavy on my heart all week. Austin even tried to help, deliberately stomping his paw print wherever I was trying to write.

Work starts again on Wednesday. I'd rather just go back to the beach.