the 4th of july beach trip

finally, the beach trip was here!! after chris's surgery, it was a much needed escape from life and all that it has to offer us sometimes. we rode down with mom and dad and charlie did great in the car trip! we left early enough that he was sleeping most of the first leg of the trip, and we had to stop 4 times to feed him. (mom thought we could just feed him in the car seat but i informed her that this was NOT a safe thing to do....HA!!) but all in all, it was a great trip down.

everyone from my whole entire dad's family made it down to the beach at some point in the week. it was so great to be together for that length of time, b/c holidays tend to be short and sweet and hurried. mel, david, john and mary would set up camp each day pitching tents for everyone to be under. the first day, there was a HUGE storm, and mom got caught in it. she had gone to publix to get food for us, and the rain was pouring down. with our luck lately, it was just fitting! when it got really bad, laurie, ann noble and i joked that she was probably on the floor at publix in the cereal isle! mom called a few moments later, and said, "it's a tornado here! and i am sitting in the cereal isle!" she is predictable, and also smart for sitting among items that wouldn't crush her if she got hit! we told her she better not come home empty handed!

the rest of the week shaped up as far as weather goes. we had a yummy shrimp boil one night, and just spent time hanging out - talking, laughing and running around having a good time.

the men in my family call chris by his last name, only they pronounce it "veet"...with a redbeck accent. chris had brought down our favorite game, "ladder golf", which quickly got changed to "veet ball". and thus the tournament began! we had a grand tourney the last day of the trip, and the winner was......john dorough! chris and i got beat out at our own game!

charlie loved the beach! he said so actually. no, we would typically feed him in the morning, and then haul him to the beach for a little nap time. then when he would wake up, we'd feed him again, make him sit on the side of the pool for 30 minutes, and go swimming! he really enjoys the water, he said so!

the week ended with another cook out and fireworks on the beach. it couldn't have been more perfect. thanks to granddaddy dorough for taking us all down there!

the ride home was not NEAR as successful as the ride down. charlie developed an aversion to his car seat, and thus cried the last 2 hours of the trip..........can we say, NOT FUN?!?! but since he did so well the rest of the week, we decided to let him off the hook this time!