Beach Trip

While our house dried from "The Flood", we decided to keep our plans and go on the vacation we had scheduled for a few months. We joined the Keever Family down in Edisto at Kelly's dad's place for a few nights in October. It was so fun and relaxing! We biked and even got to go to the beach on a warm day, and again on a cold day. The kids did not care, so I tried my best not to complain about the cold. There was "putt putt putt", as Kate called it, and Ryan, Jeremy and Calahan went shrimping one night and caught just enough for us to eat for shrimp boil. 

Most of all we really loved hanging out with the Keevers and their kids and made some fun memories and had great conversations. The kids got along great, and Kate got to have a sleepover every night in Harper and Calahan's room. Kate learned the word "beehonkus" and by the end of the weekend I was getting Harper to say "fwamwich" as much as possible ("sandwich", in English). 

After our time in Edisto, we headed up to Litchfield to join Ryan's parents at their condo for a few nights. We were able to have another warm beach day with the girls, and even visited the Atalaya Castle at Huntington Beach. But Ryan was spending  a lot of time on the phone with my brother, who was going to our house to empty the dehumidifier under the house and check how the floor was drying.  We stopped at the Columbia zoo on the way home and had a quick but enjoyable trip. It was a fun way to take a pit stop and sure beat the Columbiana mall (which in my Sonshine Festival days considered it to be a huge mall!)

On Huntington Beach State Park. I thought Ryan's face was funny.

At Litchfield. A sweet daddy moment.

Kelly reading to Kate, Harper and Nancy.

Yes! Bathing suits! It was great!

So cute in her suit.

We returned home to stay with my folks for 2 more nights. The first night we were home, my brother and sister-in-law stopped by to give some exciting news - they are having a baby in June! The next night Ryan and my bro, Ray, were at our house until 1am fixing the carpet. Ryan crawled into bed that night around 2am, and woke at 5:15 to go to Bible study! We were away from our house for 10 nights, and I was never so thankful for our 1300sq. feet. And I still am! It has been a month since I tried to wash my loofah in the sink, but sometimes when I am rinsing something out in the sink in the bathroom I get a pit in my stomach, as if somehow the water will just start rising and overflow again and I won't be able to control it. I am just so thankful for Ryan and his patience with me, and for Ray and his hard work. We would have never been able to fix it without him! For my parents who let us eat their food and use their laundry detergent, it was nice to be someplace familiar. And for Kim DeLoach and her dehumidifier and Lee Anne for playing with the girls while we cleaned up the mess, and the lifetime supply of loofahs! Thanks!