Beach week in a nut shell

More details and photos to come later, but what follows is a very brief synopsis of the highlights:

♥ Beach week was almost lost when we learned that the air conditioning unit in our rented house was cashed. Todd, Maria and Abby spent Friday night at 95+ degrees fahrenheit. I spent said night searching for backup houses. A substitute was found (pictured below), but Zoe was no longer invited. Thank you Caroline and David for graciously taking such wonderful care of my baby girl!


♥ Games were played. I reigned as the master of Clue. Miss Scarlet proved to most often be the criminal. She possessed murderous skills wielding several weapons.

♥ Olives must've been on hiatus. Most found were either tiny or ancient. The shell seekers were bummed.

♥ Abby lost a tooth with a bracket attached! In the words of my father the dentist, "she was an excellent patient - really she was - very good." And he was telling the truth. I was quite impressed with her myself.

♥ We made good use of a gift Abby received a couple of years ago - ladder ball. Great beach game. I acquired enough skills so as not to be completely embarrassed by my performance, but Todd was clearly the most talented player.

♥ I read a fabulous book, Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer. I couldn't put it down. I will provide a more detailed post on it later, but I really loved it. Todd allowed me to borrow Under the Banner of Heaven by the same author, which I plan to read after finishing my current read and the book I have on hold at the library.

♥ I learned the origin of the ridiculously annoying word "mayhaps" that my friend Jen uses quite often - the movie Up. While I loathe the use of that word, I admit watching the scene where it is spoken more than a dozen times. For those of you who have seen the movie, all that needs to be said is, "SQUIRREL!!!" Very cute movie.

♥ The name of the house we rented was "Great Expectations." While I don't think any of us had any after the rocky start to our vacation, we found ourselves in a position to realize and enjoy our great vacation expectations.