Howell Cordell Beach Fest

After going to the beach with the Cordell family for the last thirty years, this was going to be the first time that the Howell family didn't go.  My mom had cancelled our reservation because of my due date, which is why we went to Seagrove in April for a week as a family.  After all the events that transpired, Clay and I thought it would be good for us, and for George especially, to take a little vacation.

I'll go through the week in pictures...in case you don't follow me on instagram :)

We got down to the beach on Sunday afternoon.  While we were unpacking, George found his way into Katie's room.  He came out absolutely BEAMING with this little Woody get-up on.  I mean...could there be a cuter cowboy in existence?

After we got unpacked, it was that magical beach hour when the sun is behind the buildings but it's still daylight.  The kids ran all over the beach and got so excited about what we would do the next day.

George is in absolute heaven at the beach with his dad.

The only family picture of the three of us!

Everyone except Scooter and Pop.  Saty was behind the camera.

We had a few rainy mornings, but the place we stayed had an AWESOME indoor pool.  I think George liked it just as much as the outdoor pool because there were little ledges all around the pool that he could jump off of and swim around on his own.  He's become quite the little swimmer this summer.

Clay FINALLY made it to Doc's for dinner.  After coming to the beach off and on for the last thirteen years, he's never actually eaten at Doc's.  Dreams came true.

Pop gets excited about few things the way he does a Big 'Un from Doc's.

This was taken on Wednesday (I think...) just before we rented a sea kayak.  It was such a beautiful day and we packed as much fun into it as possible!  Somehow I don't have any pictures from the actual kayaking activity- but it was so fun!

Wednesday afternoon Pop, Clay and I went deep sea fishing.  Thanks to this little patch, Clay was able to actually enjoy it.

We had SO much fun being out on the water!  Here Pop is reeling in a mackerel of sorts.

These are two of our eight fish we caught.  We've never done an activity like this on our weekly beach trip, but it was such a great way to shake up the normal beach routine.  It was pretty mindless fishing- and we were able to just relax on the boat and hang out just the three of us.  While we absolutely love being at the beach with George, there's also something really wonderful about uninterrupted adult time.

Thanks for such a fun memory, Pop!

Meanwhile, back at the condo...Saty is up to all kinds of tricks of her own.  Here she is in the tunnel, and George and Rogers are going bananas over her.  The two of them would just sit outside her bedroom door calling for her while she was getting ready for the beach.  Those boys LOVE their Saty, and I can see why!  She makes the beach all about them, and what would be the most fun for everyone else.

For instance...how about a Dolphin Cruise?!  

While we were deep sea fishing, Saty, Katie, and Erie took the kids on a Dolphin Cruise.

I think this picture is pretty sweet.

DOLPHINS!

They even got to catch little fishies of their own while they were waiting on the dolphins.

Since we had cancelled our condo reservation, the Howell's stayed at the Turquoise Place about 4 miles down the road from where the Cordell's stayed.  It was so sad not to be in the same building as the Cordell crew, but we made the best of it.  Here is just about everyone for a Generation 2 dinner at the Cordell condo.

Since Bradley and Sara are in town this summer from Ukraine, I had to make my special cookies for them.  Sara had baby Ben just two weeks before this trip, so we tried to pack in as much of the 'beach experience' for her since they are headed back to Ukraine in mid-September.

George sleeps REALLY hard at the beach.  He woke up with some crazy bed head, and this one was my favorite.  I love morning snuggles with my Georgie.

The kids would tolerate the beach as much as they could, but everyone can only take so much sand, salty water, watching our for jellyfish, etc.  These kids came alive at the pool.  Here, Rogers is demonstrating his 'cannonball'.  He would yell 'CANNONBA--' but wouldn't get to finish the word because his belly flop would interrupt it.  He just kept doing belly flop after belly flop.  It was hilarious.

Here, Saty and Clay have Rogers and George on their shoulders.  Yes...that would be a grandmother with a three year old on her shoulders.  As I said before- Saty's goal at the beach is for everyone else to have the best possible time.

Something about this picture just makes me laugh so hard.  Savannah has the bubble gun going full blast, Owens is trying to pop each individual bubble, and George is in an absolute euphoric state because he is just about enclosed in bubbles.  

Saty and Georgie!

I call this...Ping Pong Georgie.

Notice George is holding on tightly to this little Elmo Car.  He never let it go.  This tossing of George back and forth went on for so long that I was able to get my camera out and take a video of it for about 15 seconds.  George could have gone on all day, but Scooter and Clay's arms got a little tired.

Sara, baby Ben (in the bjorn) Becca, George and me on the beach in front of the Cordell condo.

George, Clay, Kevin and Lucy

All-in-all, it was a good trip.  It was the first time that Clay and I had really been around people for any extended amount of time, and it's been good to learn how to do that again.  We had some hard moments, and some really really fun ones, too.  But for where we were in this season of life, I think a getaway was just what we needed.  

Thanks for such an awesome week, Saty and Pop!