Beach Birthdays

Well, life is very busy right now, but I wanted to take a little time and share about the best beach trip ever.

Keith and I left home around 9:20 on Thursday night and headed down to the beach. I was absolutely determined to get there in a timely manner, and since my husband drives about 60 mph all the time, I drove all the way down. We finally arrived around 1:30. Amy and Sean had managed to stay awake and give us directions to the house. The house was so beautiful, and Amy and my birthday weekend had finally begun (Amy turns 21 on May 10), but all we could think about was sleep!

Friday morning I woke to the wonderful smell of fresh brewed coffee. I love coffee, but Keith does not, so I don't fix it for myself. Steven had gone out earlier that morning and brought back some incredible doughnuts for breakfast. Shortly after this, we all headed to the pool. It was so wonderful. We and maybe 10 other people had this huge pool all to ourselves. It was about 80 degrees the sun was shining...I hope you can get the picture. Although the weather was beautiful the pool was FREEZING...and I hate to be cold! Even though it was quite frigid we did all manage to get in...briefly. Keith was a little more hesitant than everyone else, but he resulted into making a water slide out of the stair rail...yes he is a child! After lunch we all headed to the beach...this is where my skin started to fry. I must admit I had told Keith before we left home, "make sure you pack sunscreen because you know how easy you burn"...needless to say you reap what you sow. We spent about 45 minutes playing a game of massive horse shoes. Guys against girls..guys won...of course! Then I spent the next hour under Keith's tshirt and hat. We were able to get a little time in the ocean. Amy and I share one major thing in common...we don't swim in the ocean. I can remember a time around our 8th grade year where we spent hours floating in the water, but not anymore...knee high is as deep as we go! The waves were huge and the undertow was at it's worst, but it was so nice!

Later that night we all headed to Red Bar. For those of you who have not experienced this place you need to! It is basically an old shack filled with colorful junk, but they have some of the best food! This year I took a chance and I actually tried the crab cakes that everyone raves about...they were delicious. Amy and I also had the shortest birthday song ever sang to us by one of the waiters (we think he could have been high...it's debateable.) Notice the picture at the bottom...it was a whole apple covered in cinnamon and then fried...glorious! After this we did a little shopping...Amy found the perfect dress for her brother's graduation, and then we headed back to the beach house. Steven and Mrs. Theresa had planned the best birthday celebration for us. We had the coolest cake and goody bags filled with toys that kept us occupied for the next two days. I am so blessed to have these people in my life...they made this very important birthday the best yet!

The next day was not as sunny as the first, but we did not let it stop us! We headed to the pool expecting to get some of that overcast sun...nope, did not happen! The house was calling our name, so we left the pool and found ourselves on the couch watching an E true story hollywood story about lottery winners...it was very educational! Keith had been dying to go to the Polo outlet, and since it was not very sunny we all consented and headed out to shop...Keith's favorite thing! After this we ate at Pandora's...this place had the smallest crab claws that we had ever seen...they were so tiny! The highlight of the evening...the "all girl band" with the accordion and the fiddle...heck yes! Keith (the music man in the group) said they were horrible! Amy just liked the fact that they had an accordion!

After dinner, we had big plans...we were going crabbin! So Amy, Sean, Keith, and I headed over to Rosemary beach to catch us some crab...we stopped by Starbuck's first and this guy made me a frappucino he created all by himself...it was really good! Then the crab hunt began...Amy sat on the boardwalk because she couldn't imagine the crabs crawling on her feet, and Keith would not touch a crab to save his life (he has a major phobia of spiders and I think that the crab looked too similiar). I think that we finally caught 5 or 6 crab. Most of them were very small, but we did catch one huge one! We wanted to show Steven and Mrs.Theresa all our crab, so we decided that we were going to take them all the way across the street to the house. For some odd reason I was the lead bicycler at this point...Amy was behind me and the boys were trying to keep the crab from crawling out of the bucket! Then it happened...I almost killed my best friend! She told me if the road looked clear then go ahead and cross the street, so I looked one way it looked clear, but looked the other way and realized it was not, so I slammed on the breaks and the next thing you know Amy is laying over her bike on the road! We were both laughing so hard we could not breath...cars were passing by and there's Amy laying in the road laughing. I felt so bad...and once we finished laughing Amy realized that her back was actually hurt! Nothing serious, but it is possible that she does have bruise from my stupidity! Sorry Amy!

We all made it safely back to the house and the crabs and the back injury were proudly displayed! This was our last night, and it could not have been better. Keith and I woke up the next morning and left the beach around 8:30. It truly was one of the best beach trip ever! We caught crabs, listened to an "all girl band", I learned what a "Rosemary" is, Amy broke her back, we ate good food (minus the claws), and Amy and I turned 21!

Here are some pictures from the weekend!



The first day at the pool!



Amy and Sean in the freezing water



The house



Amy and Me at the Red Bar



Us and our very interesting waiter



Our Birthday dessert





Keith and Me after the Red Bar



Amy and her mom (Mrs. Theresa) laughing...most likely at the Rosemary



Isabella (my cuddle buddy) and Me...I fell asleep before everyone!



Steven and Me at the beach...when we discovered I was fried!



The beautiful birthday cake...Steven got it from Publx!



The bicycle bruise! My bad Amy!