Where, o Where, to Start :-)

I realize that it has been a LONG time since I last blogged, and I am now making an attempt to rectify that. As we all know, we traveled to Gulf Shores, AL on April 18 for the much-awaited Beach Retirement Trip! It was everything that I hoped it would be and more (including some hospital excitement that I will get to later in the post!)

Jim, nephew Matthew, Sophie dearest and myself arrived at our lovely beach home late at night on Saturday, April 18. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at our home away from home. It was literally only about 100 steps from the deck steps to the water's edge. Just what I had hoped for!

(2nd from front - NOT the yellow one!)
It was really pretty cool when we arrived but we had to walk on the beach just to take it in. On April 19, I had walked the beach twice before 11 a.m. -- I really seem to thrive with beach life! My cousin-sister, Karen, her husband, Dana, and Aunt Margie arrived about 4 p.m. this day.


We went into town to get groceries and what a load of stuff we got! Got home, unloaded the grub, then went just about 1/2 mile down the road to Tacky Jack's 2 for our first seafood of the trip. (I really hate to do this day by day, but there is something to tell about each and every day so bear with me -- I am also going to attempt to get the pictures in the right places but who knows how I will do with that -- I am totally out of practice!)

We had our first full Beach Day, with great sun on Monday, and thoroughly enjoyed the time together.

nephew, Matthew, holding Sophie "like a purse" in her doggie life jacket!


Dined at LuLu's in town this night -- Jimmy Buffett's sister's restaurant -- pretty good food with GREAT atmosphere!

And on Tuesday, Patrick, Amy & Deacon arrived -- what a joy to see them drive up! Deacon had grown so much since we last saw him for his birthday in January, and the grown-ups ( I still want to refer to them as the "kids") looked great.



We cooked a wonderful dinner at home that night and everyone just enjoyed being together, watching Deacon play and roam around, and the guys (+Amy) played a rousing game of Texas Holdem. The next day brought more beach time (Deacon was not a fan early on) and that evening, Amy's family joined us for a few days (Bob, Regina and Jared). We cooked another fabulous dinner at home and again, thoroughly enjoyed our time together. After beach time on Thursday,

we headed into town to do a little shopping at The Wharf,


then out to dinner at Bahama Bob's on West Beach Blvd.





The ultimate beach day was on Friday -- Deacon really decided to enjoy it this day -- and we grilled burgers for dinner, while trying to clean out the leftovers from the dinners at home.






We also took lots of family beach pictures for all to share! And we were also joined by Karen and Dana's daughter, Laura and her sweet husband, Nick, for the night. They were en route to Florida to board their cruise ship. We really enjoyed our dinner and visit with them -- everyone just enjoyed being together and it was apparent -- we had a great time!








Saturday, I was sad to see EVERYONE leave. Everybody got away fairly early and Aunt Marg and I took Jim to the airport in Pensacola, and this is where things started getting a little hairy!

After a quick bite of lunch on the way home from the airport, Aunt Marg started having severe abdominal pain. We were planning a nap anyway, so we headed back out to the house (Keep in mind, we are about 20 minutes down the Ft. Morgan road) and at least 20 minutes from the restaurant -- one way to the beach house at this time is 40 minutes. She was in extreme pain on the way to the house, but just wanted to lie down so there we go...this situation did not get better and after about 1 1/2 hours, I made an executive decision to head to the ER (our house had many steps and I was afraid I would not be able to get her out of the house by myself!) It was a LONG journey to the ER in Foley, AL (not many miles, but it was Saturday afternoon with lots of traffic and A.M. was in severe pain, so it seemed to take FOREVER!) After many, many hours in the ER, with MANY tests being performed to ascertain the problem, we were finally admitted to a room at about 4 A.M. on Sunday. The surgeon came in shortly afterwards and determined that surgery was necessary to find and fix the problem.(That is another story for another day -- he thinks I am a loon!) She would up having a small intestine obstruction that had to be removed (not cancerous, thanks be to God) and had another kink caused by an adhesion. Pretty scary stuff!!! Burt was able to catch a ride on a friend's private plane and arrived mid-afternoon to take over at the hospital. (remember, the doctor still thinks I am a loon!) And that was just the first week!!!