Thanksgiving on the Beach

So for Thanksgiving this year we felt truly blessed.  A friend of Dustin's from work couldn't use their time share down at Hilton Head for the whole week for Thanksgiving and so they offered it to us....and we took it!!  So all 10 of us went down, the parentals, me and Dustin, Jessica and her then boyfriend Carter, Sarah, Josh, David and Grandma!!  

The places was super nice and there was a pool right outside the front door.  Then they gave us bikes since there were bike paths everywhere and so you could bike to the beach.  And when the tide went out you could even ride your bike along the beach.  

We also got really lucky and got great weather and so we swam in the ocean.  Here we are building our sand castle.  It was here that we learned how good Carter was at architecture....and Josh got a bit excited.

Josh building his awesome bridge.

Jess and Carter working hard.

We never actually finished it since it got destroyed, but we thought it looked pretty awesome.  Grandma even made these really cool stairs up to the look out tower.  Yeah, we're pretty hard core with our sand castles.

Dustin playing frisbee with David.

David excited about his awesome toss.

Mom taking another look at the castle.

Here we are Thanksgiving Day with some of the spread.  We had quite the meal for bringing everything with us and making dinner there.  We had the whole thing, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, jello, sweet potatoes, and pies!!! 

I was excited about my banana cream pie.  Dustin requested that I make it since it was his favorite so I tried out a new recipe and it was delicious!! 

After lunch we went out and played a game of football on the beach.  I wish we had taken pictures because it was awesome!!  3 on 3 and we saw how awesome Carter could throw a football and how fast David and Dustin were.  Poor Josh got pelted with the football up close in the ear, but he took it like a man and we played until the sun went down.  SO fun, and we will for sure do this again next year.  But football on the beach is a for sure must.

Here we are on the beach.  We got up and watched the sun rise and then we went and saw the moon over the ocean a few nights before.  It was SO beautiful.

Excited about our BYU/Ohio State representation!! 

We love BYU and Ohio State!!!

Setting up to play a nice family game of "Cracker Wacker".  Yes you read that correctly.  You tie a saltine cracker to your waste with it hanging over your behind.  Then everyone gets a rolled up newspaper and you make some small boundaries.  You are out of you step out, and out once your cracker is gone.  Last one with their cracker wins.  Here is Dad sporting his cracker proudly.

Everyone with their crackers ready to go!!

And we're off!!

Mom and I got out in the first 60 seconds or so. 

Dustin lost.

For the next round we made the boundaries much smaller.

Dustin and Dad and Josh battling it out. 

Next round David and Sarah tied. 

Then Dustin and I took a break from being wacked and went for a ride down the beach.

How can you not LOVE this!!!???

Racing....

We kept finding jelly fish after we got pretty far...it was cool since I'd never seen one before.  Good thing it was too cold to swim that day.....

Heading back home.

 

 On one of our walks we were watching all these turtles and then the next thing we see is a Croc!!

 I seriously had to try and restrain Dustin from wrastling this Croc.  He was super excited!!

 And then we had a visit by a Blue Heron!

 Happy Happy Happy Sarah.

We had quite the adventure.  It was a blast and we'll do that again anytime.  Then we played lots of games and just relaxed, but it was nice to come back.  The drive back we for sure got stuck in all the Thanksgiving traffic heading back north and finding a church building on the way home was quite the adventure.  Like not stopping for potty breaks or to fill up with gas to get to a church on time, and the gas light going on with 10 miles to go, and being blessed with a gas station right across the street from the church and walking in right as they were beginning.  Grandma rode up and back with me and Dustin, and Jess and Carter came down late and had to leave early because of work, but we were glad they made the drive, even just for a day and a half!!!