Our 5th Year Anniversary & Reunion (Pawley's Island)

Well, to say it's been a busy week and a half would be an understatement!  Our 5th anniversary, Griffin's 2nd birthday, a week in Pawley's Island, a bachelorette party, and a birthday party just about sums it up!  The Monday after Griffin's party, we headed (EARLY) to Pawley's Island, SC, to meet up with some friends from New York.  We met Jen and Keith Hunter (Huntah, as I like to call him) at Huntah's aunt's beach house. They have a son, Jackson, who is 2 1/2 and sweet daughter, Olivia, who is just 4 months.  Brian and I met Jen and Huntah in St. Lucia, 5 years ago, while both on our honeymoons.  We have kept up through Facebook ever since.  To meet up with them, and celebrate our 5th year of marriage was so special! Our kids played very well together, which is a good thing, since the sun was only out for 2 of our 6 days that we were there :(  Jen, Huntah, Brian, and I didn't skip a beat.  It's like we had been hanging out regularly since 2008.  We had SUCH a great time with them, and hope to get to meet up again sometime soon.  They are really great people!

Here are LOTS, and LOTS of pictures from the trip...hey, I couldn't decide on just a few.  The kids are too darn cute!  I loved getting my baby fix. I think I only heard Olivia cry ONE time the entire week.  Seriously.  The best baby ever!

I met Aunt Miss and Andy for a pre-beach pedicure, so Miss Priss wanted her nails painted also!

Boys throwing football.  HA!

Keith and Jennifer Hunter...our honeymoon couple friends :)

Almost like St. Lucia, lol!

I wish I had a surf board...the waves were awesome!

Payton's first kite and kite-flying experience.  She liked it, for a minute, then was onto other things...

Who needs a pool when you have Tupperware?  Lol.

Excuse me, is there room in there for me?

Griffin and Jackson...good buds!

They seriously loved this little tub!

Jackson is SUCH a sweetheart.

And this little Olivia...I could eat her up!  I miss these sweet baby moments...well, sometimes ;)

Little GQ

I was asking him how old he is...you're not ONE!!

Yes, you're TWO, big boy!

Fun climbing a sand hill...

Wait for it....

Excuse me, do I have a little something in my teeth?  He was smiling ear-to-ear after this.  NO sand got in his eyes, miraculously, and I was laughing so hard.  Look at his teeth!  Yuck!

Gorgeous Morning on the beach.  One of the few, but we soaked it up.  I went for a nice run.

Little Mermaid

Baby(s) got back!  We are jealous of G's tan!

Cheers to 5 years of happily ever after!

"Huntah" with the ladies!

This thing is SUPER cool!  About $800 worth of some foam material that is stable, floats, and is so much fun!  Probably not best used in the ocean, but the boys were having fun!

Payton made a little friend, Helena (5), who was staying next door.

Jaybe and his fiance Sharon, who live in Seattle, were staying about 25 minutes away, and came to say HI! 

It was great seeing Jaybe, and meeting his fiance.  We can't wait for their proposed 2014 beach wedding :)

2 thumbs up for the BEACH :)

The kids played the "running game" which is something we made up to get them to cooperate in pictures.  Silly kids.

The beautiful Hunter Family

This was to get to the dock, just across the street.  Water on both sides of the house was awesome!

Watching the sunset

And someone, not naming any names, wasn't happy about it!

Our attempt at "Ghost-Crabbing."  The crabs were so ghostly, we never saw any :(

Helena (the neighbor) and Payton

                                                                         Ring around the rosey...

One of the few men who can actually multi-task.  Sorry, guys...it's true!

Clamming!  Come on Griffin!

Such sweet friends...

DETERMINED to catch "A" fish.

Proud moment here...for Huntah.  Lol. Nah, they had a great time playing "dress up."  Jackson was a good sport!

Okay, Jackson.  You are getting way too comfy with all Payton's pink stuff. Lol.  They had a great time trying to ride Payton's bike.

So, this is my friend, JJ, from college.  We went to ASU together, and are great friends.  He was nearby, for work, and stopped by.  We had caught LOTS of crabs (and clams) that day...I shot this picture at just the right moment!  These blue crabs CAN pinch backwards!

Dinner (or so we thought)...we left them out overnight.  Ooops.  I guess it doesn't work that way, as they were dead and stinky the next morning.  I was bummed :(

JJ is marrying a friend of mine in October.  Another beach trip, YAY!  We're hoping for SUN on that trip!

And here's the little photo sesh I did with the kiddos.  Daddy helped with the giggles.  These are great!

And then the rain REALLY moved in...and didn't quit.  The kids did get to go to their FIRST movie theater movie...we took them to see "Planes."  It was a perfect first movie for them.  Griffin got a little antsy by the end, but so did every other kid in the theater.  It's a cute movie, but doesn't top "Cars."  We managed to play games, entertain the kids, make drinks, and play in the rain.

Dumping what was once our dinner.  Sad face :(

Always wanting to be a babysitter...always keeping an eye on Olivia.

Griffin also kept an eye on her!

On our honeymoon, there were multiple swim-up bars. One of the most popular/famous drinks is called "No Pressure, No Problem."  We had to re-create it for our 5th year anniversary.  Brian did a GREAT job, and it almost took us right back to St. Lucia!

One small break in the rain.  It was COLD!

Thomas.  Always in hand.  Always.

Payton took this picture!  Not bad for a 3 year old :)  I was scared to death that she was going to drop it in the sand, but she didn't!

Jackson is so handsome!!

More running game...

The rain started, so we put a movie on for the kiddos.  Our "babysitter," if you will.

Another rain break.  Attitude.  Serious attitude.

Aw, there's our sweet princess P!

Time for some Hold 'EM!  Brian took home the winnings.  They were light as air.  Wait, as a matter of fact, the winnings were air.  And pride, and stuff.  Lol.

Before the rain started...last day :(

Our digs for the week!

Feeling more determined than ever to catch that fish.  That ONE fishy.

Huntah's cheerleaders.

We can't forget the littlest cheerleader :)

He FINALLY got HIS FISHY!  Hilarious.  Um, can we split that 7 ways?

Kind of our theme for 4 days.  Small breaks, but mostly rain, cool, and windy.  NOT the way we all wanted to spend our vacation...especially Jen and Huntah.  All the way from NY.  :(

Last night at the beach.  Booooo.

Okay, not the greatest group picture of us, but it was pushing 7pm, and I thought the kids did excellent!  We had dinner at Frank's Outback (thanks for the suggestion, Stonie!)

So, although we got more than our fair share of rain, we thoroughly enjoyed our time spent with the Hunter family.  They are such fun, giving, and nice people.  We hope it's not another 5 years before we connect again.  So, to you, Jen and Huntah...CHEERS!

As I mentioned earlier, we were busy.  Busier than busy, the past week, or so.  We pulled into our house around 1:30pm on Saturday.  The kids were ready for naps.  See?

So, we put them down, unloaded the car, suitcases, etc, then I hopped into the shower.  I re-packed the suitcase...see I had Jenn's bachelorette party uptown that afternoon, and had plans to stay with everyone, at the Omni.  All the lack of sleep from the previous week had finally caught up with me, and I was exhausted.  I made it until midnight, and decided to go home.  It was rainy, I was tired, and ready to sleep in my own bed.  And boy did I.  Whew.  I think Jenn had a great time, at least I hope so, and I only wish I had been more rested.  Remember JJ, the one getting snacked on by the crabs, in some of the pictures above?  Well, JJ is marrying Jenn!  We can't wait to be a part of their wedding...SOON!

Once the kids woke up from their naps, Saturday, Brian took them to Kyler's birthday party.  Like I said, we are busy people!  Kyler was supposed to have a pool party, but the damn rain rained on his party.  BOO!  The kids had a blast playing with all his toys.  Here they are...

This picture cracks me up.

Well, that about sums up our past week and a half.  I did come home to a shiny new snowboard and boots from K2 the other day...you see, the rep, who I met on my Snowshoe trip back in March (remember the blizzard trip? Ahhhhhh, I do!) thought enough of me to ask me to be on the K2 Snow Alliance team.  I have to post a few pictures on social media (duh, I do that anyway), promote the K2 brand, and work an on-snow demo.  Then I got hooked up with a new set up...board, boots, bindings.  Hello?  Sounds good to me.  I think the kids may have been more excited than I was!  And with all this crazy weather, I can only hope that this El Nino pattern results in LOTS of snow this winter.  WOO HOO!

And here's Griffin this morning. He picked out his own outfit, well, mostly.  The hat and the shades, mostly.  Either way, he was proud of himself.

Little Stud.

And last, but certainly NOT least, a follow up on my dad...he's been doing awesome!  Some pinches and pulls here and there, but the doctor said that what he's feeling is the nerve endings growing back together.  Sending a signal to his brain that stuff is healing, so that's GOOD news.  To no one's surprise, his surgeon said he's ahead schedule for healing, and that everything looked great!  They did do another CT scan, but that was just to determine a baseline, as a comparison, for moving forward.  Tomorrow, Friday, August 23rd, he'll get his port installed.  It's a procedure he'll be put under anesthesia for, but hopefully it won't be too unpleasant.  They actually cover the port with his own skin.  EW!  He's going to start his chemo treatments, 1 of 12, on Wednesday, Sept 4th...finishing up the first week in February 2014.  So, here's to February 2014, continued good news, and saying ADIOS to that nasty "C" word, once and for all!