Vacation Rewind - The Beach

My vacation got off to a rough start, and by rough I only mean that it didn't start at 5:00 on Friday as I had bragged and hoped it would.  It started when I left work at 7:30 that night, and arriving at the beach house at 9:00.  Christopher ended up having to work that evening so our plan for him to haul all our goods and Bella to the beach house early were thwarted.  Needless to say, by the time I made it to the beach house, I was ready for an ice cold beer.  I got everything unloaded, checked the new place out, opened my cold beer and caught up with my sister-in-law Keri.

I will admit it took me a couple days to finally relax, unwind and not feel so tense.  My dear friend Lauren came out Saturday and Sunday to hang with us.  I loved having her there.  I think my family was surprised I had a friend because I never really have friends come out to the beach house. I really shocked them this year because my friend Callie came out for a bit Sunday and early, early Sunday morning before everyone woke up, honey joined us as well.  Was excited that both Lauren and Callie were finally able to meet honey.  I've talked about him enough.  Honey stayed until Tuesday morning after breakfast and then had to head back for work. Sigh.  Having him there for two full days was so nice.

The week went by pretty fast.  I cooked, read a little, baked a little, sat on the beach a little, searched for shells a little and just really tried to enjoy my time away from work and the stress of it all.

One of my first trips down to the beach...chilling with my brother :)

Photographic evidence that honey was there.  

Poor guy, when he left, his belly looked like a lobster.  

The two littlest monkeys buried in the sand.  I've never heard so much giggling before.

One of the few pictures I captured of my son.  He wasn't into the beach that much this year.  We suspected it was because Paul wasn't there.  When we asked him about later in the week, that was his exact response, I miss Paul.  Poor kiddo.  I know he misses you too. 

So our beach house neighbors were out fishing Monday and caught this sweet little hammerhead.  I have never seen one up close and personal so I asked to hold it.  They were a bit shocked but I thought it was totally cool.  Honey snapped this picture.  

My sweet girl ready for the beach. She got a little red the first day on the beach.  Note to all awesome moms like me...if you have a bottle of sunscreen that has been unopened and you're not sure how long you've had it, then its probably been too long and its no longer good.  #lessonlearned #expired

Makenna and Bella ready to hit the beach!!  

This is my favorite picture I captured that week.  Brady, Bella and I went walking one evening looking for shells.  We were walking back to the beach house and I snapped this picture of them walking.  

No filters y'all.  Just beautiful.