Toes in the water....

you know the rest. It's my summertime theme song.

Another beach trip has come & gone. And all we have left are our memories. and pictures. and shells. and souvenirs. and sand, that we'll probably be finding for years to come.

For those of you that are new, my family has been renting a beach house on St. George Island, FL for the past 4 years. This year, I got wise & took a babysitter or rather entertainment for Sass. Not having to listen to her mouth (as much) was worth 10 babysitters! She was a big help with the other 2 too.

W & Baby Girl.
Her momma is a good friend, Bunko Babe & occasional blogger.

One of my favorite things about SGI, is all the cute & creative names for the beach houses. I just love to ride around the island & check out the houses & their catchy names.

Our house was on a canal with boat access to the bay, a dock & fish cleaning area. Needless to say, we have some fishermen in our family. And our house's "catch"y name was the Reel Deal. Get it?

Some of my other faves are 5 o'clock Somewhere, A Shore Thing, As Good As It Gets, Doctor's Orders, Time Out & Yes Dear. But I believe I would have to say Daddy's Money is the best name on the island.

The children had a blast at the beach, but the pool at the house was a definite lifesaver! Theirs not mine. If you ever rent a beach house, I strongly recommend one with a pool.

Guess who loved playing in the dirt sand. And with Thomas, imagine that. This boy loves some dirt.

The children, especially W & Sass, had a big time catching shrimp & crabs off the dock in the back yard. That would be a shrimp that she's holding up.

And this would be Bo's chosen attire for crabbing; his bug shirt, Thomas pj pants & Babsy's flip flops. He obviously did not get his sense of style from me.

How sad is it that this is the only picture I got with all three of my children. It stinks to always be the photographer. And yes, that is the same swimsuit as last year, but seriously- I have 3 suits. that I like. However, you may notice that it does fit a little better this year.

I was sleeping with these two. No wonder my back hurts. And yes, Baby Girl is wearing boy pull-ups. That's a whole other story. One word: men.

Baby Girl was having a meltdown or maybe just some drama, but she looked so cute that I had to take her picture.

Speaking of drama, if you work for OnStar & I let my redneck side out on you last Tuesday afternoon, I apologize. Not really. But I'm just saying.

Okay, here's the back story. Tuesday afternoon we had a pop-up thunderstorm & most of our stuff was down at the beach, including my mother's brand new tent. She was freaking out concerned about our belongings, so to shut her up my daddy & I decided to go to the beach & check on the stuff. We do this kind of thing from time to time.

As I was running down the boardwalk & onto the beach in a torrential downpour, that scene from Sweet Home Alabama flashed through my mind. The tent was toast, but we were able to retrieve some of the things.

We got back to the house & somehow Daddy we locked the keys in the Denali. Well there was no way in hell I was calling Retro, then my cousin reminded me about OnStar. So I called. She found my hubs' truck, my FIL's truck, but not my truck. She kept saying something about a pin number. I even went back outside, in the rain, to get the VIN. I explained that I was on vacation with 4 children, no husband, in another state. I asked her nicely to please just unlock the car. She refused, so I shared with her a few choice words & hung up. I called the dealership where they know me, small town remember & they fixed the problem. Apparently, there was some mix up with the vehicle transfer.

And after my Zanax kicked it, my cousin Lynn & I took the older children out to eat. I wised up this year & left the littles at the beach house with Babsy. Poppa had to go clean up the beach.

Semi-Slacker Mom, Lynn, Jake, W & Sass at Papa Joe's in Apalachicola.

I had some yummy bay scallops & crab claws. Steamed. I'm not a big fan of fried seafood.

And yes, Entertaining Mom, my chest is red, but it's not sunburned. It's the liquor. I promise.

The following day, while on a shopping trip to "town", the children & I almost died had a blast climbing the newly reconstructed St. George Island Lighthouse. All 20,000 92 steps. I seriously thought the guide had said 192 steps until I just now read the website. Still. And it was 98+ degrees. But it was cool. The residents of the island retrieved pieces of the lighthouse from the ocean after it was destroyed by time & weather.

That evening, Lynn & I decide to stop by one of the restaurants on the island, Harry A's, to get Jake some oysters. It was going to take 10 minutes & the bartender encouraged us to order a drink while we wait. Let me just tell you, I either really needed a drink or the St. George Smash is the best cocktail I have ever had. Unfortunately, we only had time to drink 3. each.

And guess who liked the oysters.

These were steamed, but I was about her age when my daddy got me started eating them raw.

Okay, I know this post is waaaay too long & I've been working on it all day, so I will wait & post the infamous "beach at dusk pictures" tomorrow. I may need a St. George Smash to even blog about that drama.