The Beach Bums have returned home (Warning: EXTRA long post with LOTS of pictures)

We're back! We had an incredible vacation!! It seriously was the best I can remember since my honeymoon. Gavin had a great time, was a good little boy and LOVES the beach. The time with family was wonderful. We truly came back with a new sense of how important our family is. We had good weather with the exception of one day and who could ask for more?? Now. . .for the details for those who are really interested!!

The drives to and from the beach went quite well. We took my 88 year old Grandmother and Gavin & Granny entertained each other quite well. We didn't even USE the DVD player until about 4+ hours into the trip! Brandon & Jody left much earlier that morning and had the house opened and all ready for us. WOW--What a HOUSE!! We were absolutely thrilled with our house. My Mom did HOURS of research on houses and boy did it pay off! She did a great job--our house was incredible! Unfortunately I didn't get many pictures of it, but here's a few:

A couple of the bedrooms

The view from the porch of the ocean & our pool

Our house from the ocean

We had lots of family and friends there this week. Some of our family came and stayed with us, we had 12 people total and some good friends were just 4 houses down from us! Needless to say it was a great time for all. We really enjoyed getting to spend quality time with everyone.

We took my 88 year old Grandmother with us. This was her first time being on the beach--EVER!!

Gavin had so much fun playing on the beach. He kept saying it was "a BIG sandbox". He loved the sand and water. He LOVED collecting sea shells and got quite a few! He had a blast playing in the sand with Daddy and with our friends too!

Gavin really enjoyed all the time he had with family too. . .

One day we went to the Aquarium, lunch & played on the beach with friends. . .

One little incident that didn't prove so much fun was My trip to the local ER. Oh. . .we had to have some excitement somewhere!! Sunday night we went out and stuffed ourselves at the Calabash Seafood Buffet. We always do this once for the guys. . .to get their fill of crab legs and other seafood. As most of you know I am only a shrimp lover when it comes to seafood. I do love shrimp though and have eaten it all my life. Well apparently I have developed a shellfish allergy. So anyway, we went to eat a late dinner, came home visited a while and headed to bed. I woke up an hour or two later just itching all over my body. Turns out I was having a reaction and was swelling quite badly all over my head & face. You should have seen my ears!! Dave called me Dumbo for quite a few days--and that was no exaggeration! Dave rushed me to the closest ER (thankfully we just passed on that evening and knew the location) and they gave me some big ol' shots and stopped the reaction. I was forbidden to eat any seafood the rest of the week. Also because of the steroid they used I had to limit my time in the sun! Well. . .no seafood, no sun, they took $100 of my vacation money--YIPPEE!! I thought my week was off to a great start! Thankfully I was wrong and we had a great time anyway!!

Thanks for reading my Novel of a post! We had a great time of fun, family, friends and relaxation. It was wonderful and we are very blessed.