Brace yourselves, people.  We just got back from a pretty stellar beach trip with my family, and I have a ridiculous number of pictures to prove it.  I have always named Corolla as one of my favorite places on earth.  I spent much of a summer there doing obgyn clinical hours while in grad school.  And I toted a six month old Carson there for three weeks back in those crazy sleep-deprived days of infancy.  Now, I have found myself chasing three littles along the beach, surrounded by cousins and grandparents, and it couldn’t have been better.

pause: I don’t think I can adequately emphasize the significance of this picture.  Elizabeth came home from Congo terr.i.fied. of any animals.  particularly dogs.  particularly my parents’ dog, Sugar.  now she walks and hugs and pets and kisses Sugar completely willingly.  craziness.

another pause: only a doting grandmother would be willing to take her grandson on a crack-of-dawn sunrise shell hunt on the beach.  huge props to you, mom.

It seriously was an awesome week, and I have never felt a vacation fly by as quickly as this one did.  Corolla, we miss you already!