Summer Vacation

For the last 6 years of so, we have traveled to the Seaside (30A) area for a week of beach vacation.  I have difficulty flying and we all love this area so it makes for a great family vacation.  Some years my sister and her family join us.  This year, they could not.

Since we know our family dynamic is going to change a lot next year when Will leaves for college, I told Dave that I think we should spend two weeks there this summer. We debated it for a while as we wondered about the expense and whether we would get bored.  I searched the area we stay in on VRBO and found a house we had stayed in before.  I called the owner and got a GREAT rate for 2 weeks.

Hands down this was such a great decision.  We always have fun but this vacation definitely ranks as one of our best ever. And for that reason, I will likely post too many photos.  Also, since we were gone 2 weeks (and added a stop to New Orleans on the way home) they will be spread out over a few vacation posts.

For the first 5 days, my childhood friend, Stacy and her family stayed with us.  They live in Florida so we don't see them as often as we'd like.  Our families get along so well.  Stacy has a heart of gold and she is so much fun.  She makes us all laugh.  Her girls are the kindest, most thoughtful girls you'd ever meet and her husband, Larry is so nice and easy going.  We just love being around them.

Kylie, Larry, Stacy and Kassi.  I cannot even tell you how much we love being around them.

 These photos were right before we went to our favorite Cafe 30A for dinner.

All the kids together.

 

We spent most of the day everyday at the beach.



Will, Kate and Kassi.

 The water was perfection.

Harry coming in from kayaking.

We brought our kayaks and the boys took them out and went fishing a bit too.

A few years ago, I bought a camera that can take underwater photo and video.
It was a fabulous purchase.
The ocean was so clear that it almost looked like pool water.

As always, there was a lot of this going on too...
 

Kate never stops tumbling.  She can do an aerial now but she would not try one on the beach for me.






Kate bonded with Mr. Larry.  He introduced her to the fried bologna sandwich.  She had never had one before but she is a fan now!

Harry and Dave playing frisbee in the ocean.



Kylie and Kassi, the sweetest teenage girls you will ever meet.

Kate's favorite part of the day is when the ice cream truck comes down the street right after lunch.  She starts asking at 9:30 am what time is it and when will the ice cream truck come:)  No joke!

Kate and Kassi.  Kate loves these girls so much! 

She calls them her cousins but she told me she really feels like they are her sisters.

This last photo sums up what happens when we are around the H family...

My lens was foggy as we had just walked down to the beach from the AC.  This was going to be the first photo of our first full day.  See the two photo bombers.  I love it.

More soon.

More from Seaside...

Thanks for all the gout advice but after seeing the doc, it turns out it is probably not gout.  Her prior diagnosis was over the phone based on a medicine I was on and the onset of extreme pain.   After seing me though, she thinks I have fractured the bones in my foot.  I stub my little toes A LOT.  And I have broken both of them a few times.  Dave teases me about how fat they are from all the stubbing.  Well, we think I had a hairline fracture from a recent bad stub.  Then I decided to run/walk 45 minutes (well 43 minutes really) on the treadmill the other day even though I have not exercised in MONTHS! So, I would have made that hairline fracture into a worse stress fracture. Anyway, I need an X-ray but as it is the weekend, I need to wait until Monday (for insurance to cover it).  So, I am sitting here with my very painful foot elevated and feeling  extremely guilty for not picking up the house, doing laundry, etc.  It is even worse watching Dave mow the lawn, return the library books, do the grocery shopping and cooking dinner while I sit here.

Anyway, I figured I would post a bit more about our trip to Seaside.  Whenever we vacation with my sister and her family, we try to do family photos.  The problem is that none of us wants to get up at 6 am for the morning light and we are usually out to dinner during the magical evening light.  So the lighting is not perfect in some of these (too harsh) but we did get some good ones.  We even got some that I might use for Christmas cards but I'll save those for later.

Wish we took this one above of the cousins later in the day but we had to get to George's for dinner.

 I took some of my sister, Dawn and her son, Ashton and husband, Joe.





My sister took some of us too...

Thank you Dawn for taking some great photos of our family! I am not sharing them all just yet because I don't know what we will use for Christmas cards.

I have big, exciting news regarding Christmas cards though that I will post about Sunday night:)

Surprise get together

I got a text from one of my friends yesterday asking where we were on vacation. Turns out she and her family were vacationing nearby.  They live in our neighborhood and go to our church and schools too:)  So, we all met at a chocolate and tapas place last night....

Of course I took a few shots before we left....

Tapas and chocolate ---what a brilliant idea!

The food was so good and the company was great.  We had a blast!
 I did not get a good photo of me and my friend on my camera but we got this one on Monique's phone.

The kids LOVED the fondue!

They were kind of like vultures going after that chocolate!

Hi Mom.  We miss you.