Beautiful Flowers

​Are these not the most beautiful flowers of all time? They're stunning in person and brought me so much joy over the last week. A sweet friend brought them to me. 

OIB Home Maintenance

​If you know you know but places at the beach take soooo much extra maintenance. 

It's everything - the usual stuff like smoke detectors, hvac vents (did these two things this past weekend) but it's also trimming palm trees when they get shoots. And power washing the house every year because of the salt. And having the dryer vent cleaned. And in our case getting our fridge fixed twice since we've had the house, changing out the hot water heater, getting a new compressor on the HVAC, replacing a leaking window then finding a small gutter leak and mold so having to replace a lot of wood. And keeping the garage blown out because so much sand gets in there. The golf cart maintenance and annual inspection. The termite and pest control stuff. Replacing plumbing on the outdoor shower because it wasn't insulated enough one winter. 

I'm sure I can come up with a lot more fun things we've had to do! Not that we really wanted to do! 

Things that we've wanted to do have been some new furniture a few years ago, a new back deck, sod and irrigation in the backyard, added a couple of uplit palms, new dock, new boat lift, widened our driveway and added stone. We've really shipshaped the place and made it our own. 

Painting and maybe redoing bathrooms is on our list but not a high priority. We also need to replace the front stairs and porch.

Yes I promise it's fun and worth it all but it's a lot of extra work! We have had it since 2021 (Grady was 2 when we go the place!!!). It's given us so many wonderful family memories! Now it needs to cool down. Fall at the beach is our very fav!

OIB Weekend

Before and​

After haircut! She majorly needed a healthy chop!

Grady didn't feel good last week. Camp crud I guess. Who knows but by Friday he was back to normal! 

He got himself quite comfortable at the beach within 3 minutes of walking in.

Concert on Friday night 

These two think they're super cool because we let them cross the street by themselves to go to the sunset slush store!

We ended up with friends on our porch til after 11pm so Saturday morning called for 59 Causeway breakfast! We also took a cinnamon roll to a neighbor who had a birthday!

Had a canal day on Saturday. 

Saturday night dinner at Inlet View 

Then our go kart race where Molly Anne smoked all of us!

Skiff likes the beach

He can't stand to not be near her!

Thursday Looks

ONE - white jeans and I love the wide leg. Easy to throw on a top and feel put together. ​$70

TWO - this skirt with the white cropped tee I posted about a bit ago

THREE - been looking for some shorts that are comfortable and look a little neater than cut offs  

FOUR - I have this top in another pattern and LOVE it. Super cool this time of year but can layer later.

FIVE - because cereal bowls (or cottage cheese bowls in my house) don't need to match the rest of your dishes

11 Year Old Gift Basket

​Ever since Molly Anne saw my friend Hilary's present for one of her girls friends, she has wanted a "gift basket" for her birthday. 

I got a teal bin from Dollar General then went to town on things she would like or wanted on her "would like" list! The wrapped things were a red white and blue needoh, a sincerely yours lip gloss and a bubble face wash! She loved it!

Molly Anne's Birthday

​When we got back to the beach, we celebrated Molly Anne's birthday as she had turned 11 at camp!

Beachwaver curling iron was her fav! Second to her gift basket. More on that tomorrow! 

It was fun celebrating! 

They're Back!

Just a boy that's ready to see his little people! Best part of the weekend was we got the kids back on Friday from camp! ​They had been gone for a month!

We took Skiff with us to pick them up. Molly Anne wrote Skiff so many letters!

Got Grady first - that was what we all decided before drop off. We took him last and picked him up first. Molly Anne preferred that so she could be at camp longer and she knew Grady was a bit apprehensive about 4 weeks! He had the  best time. When we pulled in, he was still in his cabin and his counselor said he wasn't ready to leave it yet. When we finally saw Grady he said he wasn't getting in the car! I'd say camp was a success for him! He LOVED it!

Then we got our Molly Anne!

Skiff was the star of the show. All of the counselors and other campers loved him too!

Molly Anne was ready to come home but she is a camp lifer! She accomplished so many ranks this year! We are proud of her too!

We always take a blanket and or sweatshirt because they're not used to air conditioning. They haven't had it for a month. Grady took a 20 min nap! They make them sleep a good amount there so neither of them were totally zonked. 

And then the laundry commenced at the beach where my dryer leaves a lot to be desired! But I got it done! Took an entire day of constant loads. 3 sets of sheets, 4 sets of towels and 2 weeks of clothes per kiddos! (They do laundry 2 times at camp for them and return it all nice and folded)!

Until next year!