Time for the Annual Beach Trip

In just a few days, Andy and I will be off to Sunset Beach for our annual summer trip with the cousins. We started this trip back in 1999, when Andy was 7 years old. Since then, we've added 2 little girls to the list of cousins and we've gotten the packing down to a science.

Highlights of our beach week include:

* playing on the beach (which is where I would stay the entire time if I could!)

* going to Sunday morning "church-on-the-beach"

* the NASCAR SpeedPark

* playing miniature golf in Calabash (last year, we played in Ocean Isle - see the picture above)

* eating at "the Pink Restaurant"

* catching the latest summer kid's movie (Nemo will forever remind us of the '03 beach trip!)

* picking up souveniers at the gift shops (I gotta bring George back some taffy!)

* sleeping on the front porch

* sitting in time-out when a week of togetherness just gets to be too much!

* posing for pictures (3 scrapbooking mommas can take lots of pictures!)

* Friday night Pizza Parties (This year's will be a birthday pizza party for me and my niece, Hannah. Her birthday was a couple of weeks ago but she wanted to celebrate at the beach with me!)

This year, Andy and Charlie are adding a new highlight. They are cooking us a huge breakfast one morning, complete with eggs, bacon & sausage, biscuits and hashbrowns! We'll see if it becomes part of the tradition!

We're going a couple of months earlier this year than in the past couple of years. As the kids are getting older and in to more things, it is getting harder to find a week that there are no sports events, scout or 4-H camps, and Vacation Bible Schools. I'm not liking the weather forecast though- there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms a couple of days! With 7 kids, we need the sun to shine!

This year, I'll be chauffered part of the way down. Since Andy has his permit, he is looking forward doing some of the driving. He really wants to drive across the floating drawbridge!

It doesn't seem like 9 years ago that we made that first trip for family fun in the sun! I'm glad we've been able to give the kids this bit of tradition. It will be interesting to see what they do with it as they grow older.

That's it in Shari's World....