The Generation-Beach Style

We headed out last Tuesday night to our final beach trip of the Summer. Keith, Jess, Matt, April, Cooper, Autumn, and I left Birmingham around 7:30 Tuesday night and made it to Destin in a little over 4 hours...thanks to Tom Tom. Our annual Generation beach retreat was scheduled for Labor day weekend, but we all decided to head down a little early and enjoy some extra time on the beach. After checking in at Sand Destin, we arrived to our room around 12:00 a.m. As soon as we heard Matt laughing we knew that something was not right. The room was the size of some walk in closets. After some laughing and a little planning, Matt called the front desk and politely asked for a room that he could "at least turn a cart wheel in". The woman on the other line laughed a little a then gave us a great upgrade. We moved to a two bedroom condo with a sleeper sofa and extra floor space. We finally settled in around 1:30 and we were all exhausted and quite delirious. The next morning we woke up at a descent time, and Jess and I took a trip to Publix. After shopping and spilling spaghetti sauce all over the parking deck, we all headed down to the beach. It was gorgeous and there was hardly anyone else on the beach. It was glorious! We spent the entire day on the beach...which is amazing for Keith and me...we are not big fans of the beach or the ocean. We went to eat that night at the Crab Trap. The food was great and Keith some got great pictures of our college minister's family. We ended the night on the balcony playing a "friendly" game of spoons.

The next day started a little earlier. The guys woke up in great spirits because the first football game of the season was on television that evening. It was very difficult pulling them away from Sports Center, but we made it back to the beach. Keith and I spent a little more time at the pool on Thursday, and he and Matt headed out early to start setting up for the retreat. The girls headed back to the condo to begin preparing dinner. Stephen, David, and Garrett joined us for spaghetti and some of Autumn's incredible Strawberry Punch Cake. The guys enjoyed watching the game...most were shirtless. April and Brent left us to travel down the beach to meet up with some other friends, and Cody (Autumn's boyfriend) joined us at Sand Destin.

We packed up again Friday morning and moved into the houses we would be staying in over the weekend. Keith and I decided to stay in different houses for the retreat. Jessica and I stayed together in the cutest little beach house. We had turtles in the pond behind our house and plenty of room to move around. The rest of the weekend was wonderful. The retreat was amazing and the weather held up until Sunday. I was forced to endure a house full of Alabama fans for the Saturday night upset against Clemson. Alabama did win, but so did Auburn...WAR EAGLE. We had planned to stay until Labor day, but we all headed home Sunday evening to avoid the possible wrath of Gustav. Overall the entire week was great. The end of our Summer could not have been any better.



The group on the beach



My hubby and me



Spoons


Autumn dealing out the cards and Keith's handy camera work