[ Back to the Beach ]*

****I drafted this post over a month ago****

Okay, before I share YET ANOTHER batch of beach photos, I feel like I use share a few disclaimers.

We take a lot of long weekend trips rather than longer trips.  That way we are able to spread out vacation time which keeps us from getting burned out at work or burned out on the beach too. :)

Also, we have a lot of generous friends who invite us stay with them when they travel.  We are not spending money on anything really other than food on these trips.  I just felt like that was important to say because it might appear as though we are blowing gobs of money traveling all of the time, when in fact we are not.  I just really wanted to explain that because it could appear very hypocritical that we are talking about the desire to sacrifice for our friends in need around the world and then it looks like we live the lifestyle of the rich and famous.  Like I said before, we are surrounded by generous people who are too good to us, which allows us opportunities for adventure that we would otherwise not get to experience.

Whew. I feel better just getting that off of my chest.

So, with the disclaimers declared, let's talk beach.

David kicked me out of the house July 4th weekend so that he and Bear could install insulation under the girls' room.  (We are super concerned about helping them be as warm as possible when they come since they're used to temps well above 100 as the norm and bundle up in hats and coats when it dips below 85.  And...we just happen to live in a house built in 1929 (ie pre-insulation/ energy-efficiency.)

Goodness, I am wordy today.

So, he kicked me to the curb.  Kristen picked me up on the curb and we headed down to the beach.

We were about 15 minutes from home when I realized I forgot the camera. MORON! So the trip had to be captured on my ghetto phone.  Some of these pictures might require you to close one eye, squint and do the hokey pokey in order to make out what they are of...but you should get the idea anyway.

First stop: Sprayberrys in Newnan.   If you have never been before, I'm going to need you to walk away from your computer, get in your car and drive there now.

Meals like this were consumed:

Because 3 out of the 4 of us were on very strict diets, I will not say how many of us consumed meals like this.  And chocolate milkshakes. And bowl after bowl of pickels.

My mouth is shut.  (It was not however that night.)

Jonah wanted two photos in front of the sign.  A "serious" one and a "inja" one.  We think he means ninja.  I also think he uses inja for indians, which might confuse the girls when they come and Jonah calls them ninjas.

 

Let me interrupt to say that I now sport a new do.  Some days it is a mohawk. Others it is like the side-spike from the 90's.  I felt like this was important to note before it makes an appearance and you freak out thinking I may be undergoing chemotherapy.  I am not.

As I am going through the pictures on my phone, I am quickly realizing that it was practically a food-tour. Yikes. So, I guess let's continue on a tour of restaurants on the Gulf.  At the condo, we are lots of M&M's:

Esther Grace's bookbag of toys for dinner at Boondock's:

KD & Cobb at, you guessed it, dinner.  My goodness, this is getting embarassing:

Jonah, doing another "inja" chop.  Umm, this face is hilarious and scary all at the same time:

View from Boondock's:

Jonah talked about getting a tat all week. KD told him to keep it tasteful.  He wanted a Superman symbol with tribal barbed-wire.  Well.....

Cobb is originally from Texas like David, so of course, we had to introduce the kids to Whataburger.  HUGE hit:

Esther Grace's lunch:

 Her lunch choice led to some devastatingly potent diapers.  Please note Jonah's reaction and then her response:

Back to Whataburger.  Jonah adopted my habit of two straws. . .only to decide that three was actually better. 

He could barely fit them in his mouth!

Outlet Shopping.  What beach trip is complete without one?  I had Jonah walking through the stores saying, "Oh, I am definitely going to buy this." and "Oh, this blazer would go great with my khakis".  I may have even told him he "needed" a seersucker suit.

His mom wanted to kill me, I am sure.

And then.....

Jonah decides that he HAS to buy some "weiss-beaters" (wife-beaters).  He was adamant about this.  I thought it was hilarious and when I could finally keep a straight face I asked him, "Who do you know that wears those??"

He said, "My daddy."

???????  So, we store to store and I made him ask the clerks if they sold wife-beaters.  We finally scored some at the undies store:

He quickly removed his polo and wore the "weiss-beater" in its place.  He also went shoeless.

Did I mention that his mom probably wanted to kill me?

Kristen's Dad came down a few days later.  And here are the boys at....dinner!:

While at dinner, David sent me a text that said, "This is what I look like after a few days with Bear." There was a photo included. He was a filthy mess.  (He looked like Bear).

Kristen's dad, Rick, sent him these next two pictures that said, "This is what your wife looks like after two days with me"

That night, at dinner. Esther Grace, cuddled with her parfait:

One night we took Jonah to this really cool place called WonderWorks.  We did things like lay on a bed of nails.  (Which huuurrrrttt, by the way.)

Played virtual reality games on a green screen.  See Jonah as an NBA player??

The BEST day of the trip though was when Rick took us out on the boat to Crooked Island.  It was AMAZING.

I rode on top of the boat.  And there were a few times that I imagined myself as a rodeo cowgirl. I was holding on for dear life!  LOVED every minute.

Esther Grace did too:

We collected BUCKETS FULL of shells, conchs and sand dollars. 

 View to the left:

View to the right:

KD used her swimsuit to hold about 30 lbs of shells. No joke. It was ridiculous and I didn't think David would believe me about the insane number, so I took a picture.   Unfortunately, my thumb blocked the evidence.  But, take my word for it. :)

On July 4th we sat on the 14th story of the condo and watched fireworks at eye-level for hours.  It was such a unique experience.

And, to cap-off the trip, on the drive home KD, Cobb and I discovered a drive-thru convenience store.  YOU DROVE THROUGH!!  How cool is that??

(The attendant to the left of me, was scared out of his mind. I think I said to him 10 times: "You literally drive-thru!!")