I have had the most amazing weekend with my children and my parents in Georgia. Yesterday, we spent several hours out on Tybee Island at North Beach. It was fun, it was sunny, and it was just soothing.

As I watched my oldest child swim in the ocean and my youngest collect dozens of seashells, though, I couldn’t help but think about Emily because she loved doing both of those things since she loved the beach.

Emily Loved The Water

Before Emily and I even started dating, I knew she loved the water. She enjoyed swimming, boating at the lake, and going to the beach anytime she could. It didn’t matter if it was freshwater or the ocean — if Emily could stand at the edge of any body of water or, better yet, get in it, she was going to.

Thanks to her internship for grad school, we got our first chance to visit the ocean together in November 2021. We were only in Florida for 48 hours and over 8 hours of that was dedicated to helping run a workshop, but we managed to squeeze in several hours at the beach.

I had never seen anyone so genuinely happy to feel sand between her toes. I loved seeing her there, perfectly content with life. That Sunday morning was the best, because we took coffee with us to the beach and just sat there watching the waves come in, enjoying each other’s presence.

From that moment on, I knew I needed to take Emily to the beach anytime I could, because it made her so incredibly happy. And, if you haven’t figured this out yet, seeing Emily happy was one of my favorite things in the entire world.

Beach-Themed Christmas

In case you missed it, Emily loved Christmas. However, I would be missing an opportunity to stress how much she also loved the beach if I didn’t bring up her beach-themed Christmas tree.

When we started discussing Christmas decorations in 2021, we decided to put up two Christmas trees: one with just random ornaments, and one that was beach themed. Emily not only had a lot of beach ornaments, but she’d actually DIY’d her own beachy ornaments by hot gluing sea shells to blue and gold bulb ornaments because she did a beach-themed tree before. When we combined these with Eleanor’s numerous beachy and mermaid ornaments, it transformed into the most adorable little tree.

We decided the beach tree would be a recurring part of our Christmas decor every year. Unfortunately, we never got a redo.

Her Favorite Place in the World

Although I firmly believe Emily was happy at any beach, her favorite place in the entire world was Hutchinson Island, Florida. Her family vacationed there nearly every single summer at the Turtle Reef Club condos. Because of this, I think she considered the island and surrounding towns just as much her home as Knoxville.

In 2021, Emily went with her family on vacation as usual. Although we didn’t get to talk on the phone much during that week, she sent me pictures and text messages every day. When she got back, we sat in bed and looked through all of her pictures from the trip while she told me all the places she couldn’t wait to take me in future years.

She held true to that promise, and the four of us (me, Emily, and my two kids) tagged along on the Hardin Family Vacation the following year. Getting to see Emily there, fully in her element, was one of the best experiences. She took us to her favorite little spots, showed the kids how much fun it is to swim in the ocean, and shared all of the traditions her family had. It was one of the best vacations of my life.

As we headed to the airport to return to Tennessee, we discussed return trips to this magical place. The kids agreed that it would be fun to make this a yearly tradition for our little family, and Emily and I both giddily discussed how much fun it would be to see our future child grow up with this yearly adventure as a part of their core memories.

The Beach Will Always Remind Me of Emily

I know that there are a lot of things that remind me of Emily. However, I think the beach will always be a place that makes me feel closer to her. Of course, that also means it will always be a place that makes me miss her, too.

Because of Emily, I have many great beach memories. I just hope that I can hold onto those and never forget them because they were truly incredible moments with her.