Our Week in Pictures

We had a wonderful time at the beach last week! Here are some pictures to show what all we did. "Our" beach is St. George Island, FL (on the panhandle off of Apalachicola). My mom and family were born and raised in Apalach, so we have gone to St. George Island as long as I can remember. My grandparents have had a house there that we've all used since I was very small, so it's like a second home for all of us. It is my favorite place in the world- hands down. My sweet hubby proposed on the beach there, too, so that makes it even more special!
I know there are too many pictures, but there just weren't any I could leave out!

When we got there, the boys got to hang out with my cousin Deen's son Braden:

Then the next night we had a big birthday party for our cousins Lacy and Hunter (2 July birthdays) and they graciously let Owen blow out the candles.
Harris got to hang out with Aunt Renn:
And we got to spend the whole time with Marcus and Holly at a separate rental house! We will definitely do that again next year. Too much fun! Next year they will have another baby joining us. We'll need even more room! Marcus commented on how much stuff we had with us. Just wait...
Then it was off to the beach! Harris liked this chair that I bought for Owen-
And Owen liked to hang out and run around chasing beach toys. Neither of them liked the water. Owen said, "Mom, it's scary" about the waves and I guess that's true...

But, he loved the idea of the water and he especially loved that we got to see MANY schools of dolphins/ porpoises up close. It was really neat- and a little odd that we saw so many. I think if we would have been swimming out there we would have been able to touch them. Who says you have to pay big bucks at Sea World to swim with the dolphins?My cute hubby trying to get rid of his self-proclaimed "IT tan" (he's a computer guy). I told him as long as he didn't have "IT breath" it wouldn't matter.We got to eat ice cream on the beach! We had to eat it fast, but that wasn't a problem for our crew.Then, my dad, Big Daddy, took us all out on a boat ride on their new pontoon boat!! I think this was Owen's favorite part of the trip.Harris learned to do the splits. Ha!And here's the captain. Dad graciously took many people on several boat rides. We love the new boat! Thanks, Big Daddy!Second captain and first mate:And a really large pelican that decided to hang out with us. Here's my cousin Jacob's son Lucas taking over the wheel (they'll let anybody drive in Florida!)Now, for the MAIN EVENT. The big annual Fourth of July party! This year we also celebrated my Aunt Reba's 60th birthday, so it was double the event. We always have a DJ, tons of food, lots of family and friends (one year the local paper even sent a reporter to the party!) stocked bar and our family tradition (thanks Aunt Renn) is to read the Declaration of Independence. It's always very moving- especially with so many people reading it together. Here's GiGi with Harris:

And my best attempt to get pictures of these boys in their matching 4th outfits. I got nothin'. Ugh.Now, WHEW! If that wasn't enough for you. We drove to Atlanta Saturday to visit Jason's family and celebrate our neice Maya's first birthday! It was extra special because of all the visitors. Carrie's husband, Ismael, is from Mexico and his mom and 3 friends from Mexico are there for several weeks visiting. His mom can't speak English, but everyone else is fluent and there was a lot of translating going on. Here are Carrie and Jason (can you tell they're related?) with their 2 youngest ones (can you tell they are teething?)- only 3 months apart!Here's the birthday girl! High on birthday cake before the nap. Isn't that how it always happens? She had a great time, though. I always love that look on their faces like, "is no one stopping me from this?"
I hope you had a wonderful week! We certainly did. I can honestly say I got to relax (a little) and had a really nice time with all family. We can't wait to do it again next year!