St. George Island 2012

Today I sadly realized that our vacations are over until next June, when we head to Disney with Brad's family. I'm not sad we're heading to Disney, or that we're going with Brad's family...just that we won't get another vacation for 10 months :( We spent the last week with my family at a beach house on St. George Island. There were 11 of us total staying in a 4 bedroom, 2 bath house, and although the space was limited at times, we had a great time, and the week went by incredibly too fast...like it always does.

"It's All Good"
 

Our car trip down there didn't go as smoothly as our previous beach trip, but it still wasn't as bad as I was thinking it was going to be. I was nervous because Avery no longer has her paci, and she's become much more antsy these days, so I thought her sitting still that long was going to be challenging. Neither of those things were an issue at all, but poor Avery was a little constipated and was in a bit of pain :/ She went through little spouts of crying and trying really really hard to fix her problem, but seriously for the most part, she was great and we finally made it about 6 1/2 hrs later!

Unfortunately, it rained monsooned the first two days we were there...

Driving around with uncle Taylor, in the rain

So, we welcomed the heat and sun on Wednesday with open arms. There's really not much to do on the island, so we pretty much spent the remainder of the week laying around on the beach :)

Avery even warmed up to the ocean and let Rissa, and Brad take her out while she floated on the boogy board, and by the end of the week she was laughing as the water rushed under her feet while she stood on the shore!

 

 

 

The boys fished...

 





 

 

 

And we really just goofed off...a lot :)

 

Avery thought Daddy jumping over her was hilarious

Brothers!

My adorable nephews :)

 

One of the coolest things about our trip this year was getting to see George. George is a local, who we met when we first started going to St. George Island on vacation (I was 12, Reece was 11, and Taylor was 6...George was also 11, and was pretty much on his own from a very young age). Anywho...every summer growing up we hung out with George on the beach for a week, but after he graduated high school we lost track of him. The last time I saw George (before this past week) was my freshman year at Valdosta State (his senior year of high school), when he stopped by campus on his way home from Atlanta (he stopped and visited with my parents and brothers too). That was about 9 years ago!!! Over the years my brother, Taylor, has made friends with quite a few of the locals on SGI, and every summer he asks about George. We had always heard he was doing well, and still around...just not living on the island anymore. Well, this year when Taylor asked around, he was given his phone number. Kinda crazy, but Taylor didn't care. He called, and come to find out, George and his family had just moved back to the area about 7 months ago, and George was working on the island! And yes, George knew exactly who Taylor was after all these years. So, after work on Friday, George came over to the house for a little bit, and that night we met him and his wife at Harry A's (one of the few bars on the island) to hang out and catch up!

 



George & Taylor being...well...boys

 



Even though I think I was in mid sentence here, I'm glad I got a picture of the 4 of us

 

St. George Island is always a lot of fun, and bringing my family back to where I grew up vacationing is kinda neat. Luckily, we had great timing this year, with hurricane Issac and all...but I sure hope Mr. Issac plays nice to the gulf coast so that we have an island to go back to again next year!

BrAiN dUmP :)

It's been awhile, again, so here you go...

• Brad is back to normal, and his heart is all better :) When he went back for his check-up a week after his "spell", all the fluid in his heart was gone! Thank goodness...I know he was dreading the alternative, which would have been to have the fluid surgically drained...Yuk!

• My big girl is officially paci free! It went way smoother than I ever imagined, and it was not the traumatic experience I was worried about. I woke up one Saturday morning, about 2 weeks ago now, and decided that was the day I was going to try and get rid of it. So, while she was busy eating breakfast I took a pair of scissors and cut the end of the paci...not completely off, just enough to take the suction away. She asked me for it a little while later, so I gave her the "broken" one, and she immediately knew something was wrong. She took it out of her mouth and looked at it, put it back in her mouth, then took it out again to inspect it again...this continued pretty much all day. She never cried or asked for another one...she was just confused as to what happened. That next day she said "broken...trash" and threw it away, and THAT WAS IT. She asked for it a few times after that, but I just told her "remember it was broken, so you threw it in the trash. You don't need it anyways because you're a big girl" and that always seemed to be an ok answer for her. By the next night she hadn't asked for it again, and we haven't looked back! I'm super proud of her :)

• Speaking of Avery being a big girl...I think she's ready to start potty training. She tells me, or Nana, or whoever really when she wants/needs a new diaper...and lately it's been right after she has pooped. She also knows what the potty is, and watches Rylan use the potty like a big girl. I think we're going to start that adventure when we get back from the beach. Wish me luck because I have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to potty training :/

• Yep, we're headed back to the beach! Sunday we leave for St. George Island with my side of the family. There will be 8 adults, 1 almost 5 yr old, 1 toddler, and 1 baby staying in a 4 bedroom house for a week...yikes! We're excited...now to just actually pack and get everything ready.

Ok, I think that's good for today...here are some random pictures too.