Our Seaside Vacation

We spent all last week in Seaside, Florida, one of my favorite places.  I love the sound and smell of the ocean.  I enjoy so much sitting on the edge of the water with my feet in the waves and reading a book.  Seaside is such a neat little town.  It did seem a little bit busier and more crowded this year, but I still love that place.  

This is the one vacation that we take each year where I truly relax.  I wash clothes each day, and I prepare a simple breakfast and lunch for my family, but other than that, I am on vacation.  I always choose a book to read for my beach week, and this year I chose The Count of Monte Cristo.  I did not finish it.  I read for many, many hours, but this book is 1200 pages long!  I did get about half of it read.

I also put a new game on my iPad.....for the children....but I must admit that I played Where's My Perry? a good bit too!

Jimmy's sister and her family (Jenny, Jeff, Will and his fiance' Elle, Seth, and Grace) joined us. Jimmy's brother Russ and his wife Megan were supposed to come to Seaside too, but at the last minute, they were unable to come.  We really missed them!

Here are some pictures from the week.  They are in no particular order, and I am not really sure how to put them in chronological order.

 Eating supper one night at The Shrimp Shack.  As recommended by Kelly, we all ate the royal red shrimp.

 Sam and Clay digging in the sand.

 Reading my book--I was on about page 400 at this point.

 Sam and Clay--still digging in the sand.

 Olivia, Julie, and Clay

 Cousins, eating supper at Pickles

 The Mansel Family

 The Mansel Children

 Our family

 Jenny and Jeff

 Elle and Will

 Clay and Sam

Leaving the beach at 8:00 AM on the morning we left.

 Sam and Clay, walking back to our beach house for the last time.

 the view from the tower

 Clay, Jimmy, and Julie--ready for an early morning run.

 Olivia--reading.  All of us girls did a good bit of reading on this vacation.

 We took 6 bicycles.  The children and Jimmy enjoyed riding around Seaside, and they even went to the grocery store a few times for me on their bikes.

 Sam and Clay

 The Mansel Family--enjoying their dinner one night.

 Julie, reading too.

 We took lots of pictures in our matching shirts.

 more pictures

 and more pictures

 Sam in a tree.

Sam lost one of his top teeth right before we left, and the other one on the first day we were there.  

 Clay

 Olivia and Julie

One last picture---the children playing around on the beach.

Well, now we are home, and the vacation is over!  I have been washing clothes and unpacking all day.  I also had to go to the grocery store and make bread.  

I still plan to finish my book!  In fact, I read until almost 1:00 AM this morning.  The Count of Monte Cristo is going to be one of my all time favorite books, I can already tell!