The beach trip preview

Well vacation is over, and now I need a get away to rest from all the "relaxation" I endured last week. In case you didn't know, the beach is some hard work. And for me, the last few weeks have been filled with preparation for the vacation which involved lots of trips to stores, followed by a night's stay in the hospital and surgery. Fun stuff. I don't want to bore people with details, but after many years of doctors telling me my gall bladder was fine, I had my gall bladder taken out. And guess what? The pain I've had FOREVER is gone. So thankful about that. But, because surgery one week before vacation wasn't in my plan, it made things a little more challenging.

But when Friday and Saturday came, 30 people left from 6 locations in 7 cars with one destination in mind. Florida or bust. Just for fun, the cars were numbered to see who got there first.

You'll have to stay tuned to see in what order we arrived. And once we got there safely, it was down to the business of beaching it for a week. The details of the trip will unfold in the weeks to come. With over 1000 pictures taken, it's gonna take that long to cover it all. Lord help me cause I hate the uploading process.

But for now, here's a short sneak preview. This is a combination of mine and Melanie's photos. Between the two of us we covered a lot of ground. And yet I know I wish mine were better and wish I had a do over. Sigh....

The first evening we always meet on the beach to enjoy the first sunset. To be honest, the sunsets at home have been pretty hard to beat.


But we had some pretty ones.


Emma was excited to be at the beach.


Some of the boys hanging out on the first day.


Didn't take John long to land a shark, sadly this was the only one of the week. Austin wrestled him after John landed it, but after the photo op, they parted company.


The next day, William made his debut with the parents. That's one cute hat and glasses on the boy.


There was much kayaking over the week.


I continued my streak of awesome hat pictures. Werqing it!


These g parents enjoyed their time with cutie pie Ila Marie.


The Billie June made it to the beach thanks to Jared and Austin.


Maxine and Lydia enjoyed the sun.


Ila enjoyed her apple.


Baby feets by the sea. This was Carrie's idea. Love it.


Olivia tried to console a stressed William.


GAC and GAB with William? Ummm no.


After gifting these sarongs to the girls multi years ago, Grandma was finally able to enjoy them in action. Actually she threatened disownment if it didn't happen.


For the first time Joe and Mary and Jim and Connie joined us at the beach. I think they had fun!


Liz and Ila Marie won the prize for traveling the farthest distance, although there was no real prize.


My grown up boy.


Ila's feet by the sea.


The day always ended with a chair line up at the water's edge.


More feet by the sea...thinking about this as a Christmas gift for Whitney.


And John hoped for more fish.


And I took too many pictures of the sunset....again.


And there you have it, the short version of our vacation.

Progress may be slow coming, but I'll get there. So stay tuned.

But for now, later home skillets.