Beach!2012

So I'm back with some updates on our trip to South Carolina. ('bout time if I do say so myself) Warning: it's a long one.

I must first say that Matt and I are so incredibly thankful to the family that invited us to the beach. This family that I speak of has been Matt's second family since he was a youngster. Matt's best friend, Jonathan, only lived a few houses away from Matt growing up, so since age five these boys have been best friends. I just loveee seeing them together. I only wish I had such a strong friendship with someone as long as Matt has had with Jon.

Jon's family has been graciously inviting Matt on their beach trip for the past 6 or so years, and once I came a long they included me as well! This beach trip was my third Isle of Palms trip with this great family, and I love these trips dearly. First beach trip!

So I will start off by introducing you to the people that are more like family than friends:

Meet the family: 

This family is made up of some really great people. Jon recently married the beautiful Kelsey:

 Jon's older brother is Brain. Who has a lovey wife named Kristen:

And then there is PDR. The 'rents! Such a great couple, with a whole lot of generosity for including us on their family trip!

Jon and Brian's Aunt also came along for some fun beach vaca time:

In addition to all those great people, Kelsey's parents (such wonderful people) also joined us all on this vacation:

Now on to Jonathan and Matt, the two best friends:

And the two best friends with me:

Ok... so now you kinda know the family. Here is where we stayed. Talk about a gorgeous, amazing, beautiful, dream home:

We hung out at the pool a lot. It was the most perfect little pool. Hours were spent laughing, reminiscing and catching up!

Meet turtle. He never stopped smiling :) 

 

 

We hung out at the beach a lot too. Played some bocce ball, walked the beach, jumped some waves and I managed to get stung by a jelly fish. Guess what? That hurts a little bit. And then gives you weird complexes about getting back in the water. But don't you worry, I got back in and plan on enjoying the ocean on future vacations. :)

I got stung right below the knee cap. It was kind the perfect place to get stung because it's good tough skin. 

We enjoyed the beach at sunset and flew some kites. Matt and Jon are avid kite flyers, so this is a staple beach activity. 

We also hit up a catamaran sunset cruise! This was so pretty and peaceful. A fun way to see Charleston--from the water!

We also went out to eat a couple times. One night we went into Charleston and ate at a favorite restaurant of all of ours, Coast. If you are in Charleston, then you must try this place. We have now gone every beach trip in the last three years. It's that good. 

Seared Ahi Tuna! This is delicious. But it was Matt's meal, I just stole some bites!

After dinner it is tradition to hit up the Gelato/Cannolli store right next to Coast, (convenient for sure). The problem with this place is that we are already stuffed from dinner, but the gelato is just too good to pass up. The other problem with this place is that we have to watch Matt over indluge himself in way too many cannolli's and then endure him complaining about tummy troubles. He is also known for wearing a good portion of the cannolli. :)

Then we hit up breakfast at the Sea Biscuit Cafe right on IOP. Once again, a yummy yummy meal.

And then sadly... it seems all fantastic vacations must come to an end. Boo.

Like I said before, Matt and I are so thankful for these people in our lives. I know Jon is more of a brother to Matt than just a best friend and I thoroughly enjoy Kristen and Kelsey as my "sister-in-laws". These are very special people to us and the week at the beach is always a special time for Matt and I.

*and an update on my jelly fish sting. It happened exactly a week ago and all seemed fine only a couple hours after the sting. However I woke up today with a crazy itchy leg. I could not figure out why it itched so bad, and then I remember my friend the Jelly Fish. So this is how it looks today, who would have thought:

Well that's all folks. If you can't tell, it was wonderful. And now that I'm into my first week of grad school assistantship (real world) I look fondly on these amazing memories made....

Thank you, thank you, thank you PDR!