sun in seaside...

we spent an afternoon in Seaside, such a lovely beach town. We all went and it was pretty hot so most of the group were ready to go back pretty quickly.

Don, Monie, Ray and I stayed to explore while the hot and bothered peeps went back home.

Don and Monie just outside of Bud & Alleys, a great beachview bar with a fab ocean breeze. We had a little snack of peel and eat shrimp coctail, sweet potato fries, rum punch and iced tea.
below is a picture of the neighborhood school in Seaside, SO cute!
next is a picture of rooftops in the arts district.

they all have cool rooftop spots to see the ocean.
store sign in town... everything is so bright and colorful
a taco bar, we definitely have to go back next time we are in Florida and have more time to go in all the neat spots.
on the way home we got a little lost looking for the right highway for a quicker route home. We were actually really glad we did because we would not have seen the amazing house below. The picture doesn't do it justice- it is really neat- looks like a ship... sort of...

sandcastles...

We had quite the snd castle artists in Monie, Ray and Dad. They did sand castles 3 days. I don't have pictures of the first one, so I will post some later.

This was the second castle... each of them took a side to create a diverse castle that drew everyone on the beach to look at it...

Below is Ray's side...

next is dad's side- he did castle ones because the little boy nextdoor really liked the first one he did the day before that was very "lord of the rings"
and finally we have Monie's side, very artistic, she had the sea shell and stair skills down.
this is a picture of the whole castle so you can see how the three fit together... sort of...
finally, below we have the one that Monie just did the final day. It had a shell and was very organic looking with lots of large tunnels. Later that night there were about 10-15 sand crabs that had made homes inside and on top of this castle.

miramar beach, florida...

we had a wonderful week in Miramar Beach, Florida. It was so nice to go back to where Allison and Andrew got married 2 years ago, and to be able to just have fun, not prepare for a wedding. fun we definitely had... I am waiting to get more pics from my sisters from our actual vaca spot. The pic below is taken from one of the balcony/ porches of the house we stayed in. It is a picture of our beach that we played on all week. I got REALLY sunburned the first day on the front of my legs ... REALLY sunburned... It kind of cramped the first part of my fun, unfortunately, but I still spent some good times at the beach. Now, I am peeling and itching like CRAZY. But, really what is a beach vacation without someone getting sunburned, right?

Below is a picture of some entertainment provided pretty much daily by four guys in matching speedos and hats. Our beach setup was just behind them. They liked to go "frolic" by the water up and down the beach. Pretty bold, and humorous...

in 5 days...

we will be in Miramar Beach, Florida. I am so excited to be doing alot of this (Ray loves building sandcastles)...

and definitely a lot of this... with a book-

We are going back to stay at the beach house where Allison and Andrew got married two summers ago. Mom and Dad, Ray and I, Allison and Andrew, Rebecca and Tucker and Don and Monie are going to stay at the house and enjoy the sand and sun for a week! It was a blast when Allison got married and it will be even better without having to prepare for a wedding. Can't wait!