Beach Week 2011

The first leg of our journey we spent a few days at the beach with my mom's side of the family. 50+ years ago, my grandfather began organizing beach trips among all of their friends from their hometown. They'd go to a South Carolina beach for two weeks in which he'd plan crabbing, games, skit night, a bonfire on the beach, huge meals and lots of togetherness. Not a whole lot has changed through the years besides the attendees. Thomas absolutely loves the chaos of it all (sometimes I think I married a version of my grandfather), and while I do love the time with family, it pales in comparison to his passion for Beach Week. This year did not disappoint, and a wonderful time was had by all. 

We designate who is in charge of meals each night, and Thomas and I made tacos one night. Here is my cousin with a gigantic plate of tacos. He can almost eat as much as Thomas. Not kidding. 

 On one of the nights we have a bonfire on the beach and cook s'mores and hot dogs. Is it illegal to have a bonfire on the beach? Probably. Do we care? Nope.

Here is a photo of the beloved sectional. We've rented this house two years in a row just because we love the sectional so much. I'm kind of kidding, but not really. It holds at least 12 people (comfortably) and is a highlight of our trip. We were playing a really fun game called Pit in this picture. Thomas looks angry in the photo because he'd been winning for a few hands and my dad convinced the rest of us to gang up on him and not let him win. It didn't end well.....

Here we all are celebrating my grandparent's 60th anniversary. We don't usually all wear matching t-shirts, but it makes my grandfather happy when we wear our Beach Week t-shirts at least once during the week. 

Thomas and our friend Tyler participated in Skit night by rapping a Shai Linne song. In matching "soli deo gloria" t-shirts. It was priceless. 

If you ask me, being on the beach in the late afternoon is the absolute best time of day. The boys especially enjoyed riding the waves and playing football together. 

I couldn't help but include this picture. I asked my nephew to pull the kayak out into the water. He tried...and tried....and tried. It made my day. 

On our last night, Thomas' sister Bekah had a few hours she could be away from Campus Outreach so we took her to dinner and to Costco. If you want to feel like you've really made someone's day, take a college student to Costco. The sheer joy that Bekah expressed was gratifying. We were thankful to get to spend a little time with her!