favorite places.

last week we took our fifth annual siesta key beach trip with the perlins. we loaded up the old mountaineer and headed south. even though our car is full, we really did a good job packing! gotta love the "little potty" as henry calls it. nothing like traveling with your very own bathroom, ha ha.

10.5 hours later we arrived in siesta key. here are h & o all loaded up. henry did AWESOME with the potty training and had no accidents the whole way down, during the trip, and all the way back. now, last weekend appeared to be a different story when visiting family, but we were so proud of him. both boys traveled well-they were good to us!

cute owv

owen's first time to the beach - he liked it. he just hung out and was pretty happy go lucky.

henry LOVED the ocean. last year all he wanted to do was run up and down the beach and wasn't crazy about the water. this year he didn't want to get out of the water.

here is adam! adam had fun playing with our crew. every day he would give many kisses and hugs to owen, which was adorable. he liked henry but LOVED that owen.

one day the guys played golf and the girls and boys headed to the beach. everyone did great - although I would recommend bringing a baby bjorn or carrier of some sort for the littlest one. holding owen for the 2.5 hours we were down there got a little tiring. henry wanted to be in the water the whole time so owen had no choice but to be held, which of course he didn't mind. :)

henry and adam raced their cars on the window tracks morning and night. fun fun!

who are these guys?!?

ice cream at BiG OLAF's - delicious!

group shot ... next year we will add one more kiddo to the group as kevin and sue are expecting baby #2! exciting. so ... next year everyone's ages will be: 3 .5(H), 2.5 (Adam), 18 months (O), and 6 months (Baby P). wow!

thanks to gary's mom for the cute matching lobster and crab outfits!

the last few years we have done a low country boil for dinner one night (my favorite). time to feast!

gary william and owen william.

the girls and the boys. the little boys that is.

is owen giving a west side?

look at the expression on henry's face - pure joy.

ah the beach. one of my most favorite places. and to be there with such dear friends. doesn't get much better than that. now we are home. back to work. back to normal life. back to normal routines. back to the doggies, who we missed and have cute little summer haircuts. back to the laundry, oh the laundry. back to the endless vacuuming and dish washing. back to work outs. back to family and friends. back to a home and a town we love where traffic is minimal. back to a church that is such a wonderful place. back to dirt we can dig in and sprinklers we can run in. back to life in auburn as we know it.

and you know what?

in pure honesty ... this is my favorite place and it doesn't get much better than this either.