The Beach

The sun rises early in Litchfield Beach, South Carolina.

(And heck no, I didn't take this picture. I was fast asleep. Photo credits to Hugh who was crazy enough to give up sleep for a sunrise picture.)


Our awesomest newest friends, Jayme and Hugh along with their gaggle of boys, convinced us that accompanying John to work meetings does not qualify as a real vacation.


They put up with our crying and whining and hemming and hawing and having the swine flu and then not having the swine flu and told us to just get in the car and get down to the beach already. Cause they were having a load of fun and we were just party poopers if we didn't show.


So we jumped in the car, drove a couple hundred miles and were glad we did.

The weather was perfect, even in the last week in Sept.
We relaxed in the sun.


We dug big holes to China, although some of us dug way more than others.

We kept 3 boys happy for 2 days with only water, sand, a bucket and heavy duty kid size shovels.

Ava fished with her own homemade pole.



We applied and reapplied sunscreen to many sandy bodies many times and only let one big boy's back fry on accident. Even this guy didn't get burned.


Nathan relaxed in his "office".

I did not get "frust-er-ated" or yell at my kids for 2 days.


Unless this counts.

John captured all 6 kids attention with his crab digging skills. Then we wore the poor crab out chasing it all around.

Lias let it all hang out, tried on everybody's flip-flops and got as dirty as he wanted.

We didn't separate Ava or Mason for two whole days, except to go to sleep.

John discovered our kids are too little to appreciate the waves, so body surfed by himself to his hearts content.

And wished he had a kid as brave as Mason.

We all discovered the sand makes an excellent drawing board and covered the beach with huge dinosaurs, Earths, Moons, starfish, whales and trucks until the tide came and took them away.

We hopped from the hotel pool to the kiddie pool to the beach all day long.

We learned swimsuits are not the most comfortable things to wear for 2 days straight.

We took long sunset walks on the beach. We only left whiny boys behind.

Ava ooohhhed and awed over way too many seashells, then brought home each and every one we picked up. She and Mason turned them into seashell necklaces while we all napped.

I looked for love in all the wrong places and finally chased him down only to biff it big time in the surf. I spared you the pictures of my downfall, although Jayme got the whole thing on camera.

We did not loose, drown, or permanently bury any children in the sand. Even though we were highly outnumbered with 6 kids under the age of 6.

We'll be back next year, as long as Jayme and Hugh drag us, kicking and screaming, along again.