Hello Monday (the beach edition)

 

Happy Monday, friends! I'm squeaking in late in the day on Monday to link up with Holly and Sarah for this weekly blog post. Since my life stopped here early Thursday morning last week, I'll pick up there with that day and the rest of the weekend. 

Most of you know that I'm on a writing team by now. We co-write Bible studies for the women in our church and in other churches and are in the process of writing our fourth study that will publish this summer and will be taken in the fall of this year. We are a group of friends in all stages of life who have grown extremely close in the years we've met and have been working together. God put us all together and we are so grateful for the bond we've formed since we met. That being said, we love to go on "writers retreats" together and this is our third trip. It's the first time we've all been able to be together and we had the best time. We left early last Thursday morning and got home today at one. We spent three full days together at the beach in Destin, Florida.

We all arrived by Thursday afternoon and the minute we unloaded, we headed to a nearby Mexican restaurant for dinner. It was a little later and we arrived at different times. Dedee and I rode together and we skipped out on lunch that day, so we were STARVING by five. Lynn, Barbee and Amy got there after five. After dinner, we went back to the condo and sat and talked until we went to bed. (We did a lot of that this weekend.)

The next day we woke up, ate breakfast, talked and then finally made our way to the beach. 

It looks beautiful and it was, but man was it windy! It was also cold. We stayed there for a couple of hours before leaving for the warmer waters of the hot tub. We didn't actually get in, but we all put our feet in and it warmed us up. We headed back to the house and snacked for lunch, then we all got cleaned up for dinner that night. 

(In the picture above, left to right are Lynn, Barbee, me, Dedee and Amy.) I can't remember the name of the place we ate, but it had stunning views as you can see above and the seafood was AMAZING. I had some sort of crusted red fish on a bed of sautéed veggies. We had fun taking all of these pictures and then we went to Target for a few necessities, where someone was cold and borrowed a jacket for the duration of the time we were inside the store.

Amy looked really cute in the jacket! 🤣 After our Target run, we went back to the house and sat and laughed our heads off. Someone crossed the line a little over into delirium and had her giggle box turned over!

Barbee gets so funny after nine! I don't even know what she was saying, I was just cracking up listening to her laugh so hard. 

We tried to go to the beach the next day, but it was even windier than the day before. Amy and Barbee walked on the beach for a bit, but Lynn and I stayed in the house and worked on a few things. That night we went to dinner at The Back Porch.

We ate more delicious seafood, we shopped for souvenirs, then we went back to the house and were talked into walking onto the beach, in our clothes and in the wind, for some pictures of our last night. We were reluctant to do this, but I'm glad we did because of the memories we made and the laughs that we had. 

If you could have heard us laughing, you would be laughing right along with us. My personal favorite is the one where I look like Cousin It.

We had so much fun! 

Lynn, Barbee and Amy left Sunday morning, but Dedee and I stayed for one more beach day, which was the most beautiful and perfect day I've ever had at the beach.

It was in the mid seventies and a slight breeze was blowing the whole time. We stayed out there for three hours, then we went back to eat lunch and get dressed. That night for dinner we ate at another great restaurant with gorgeous harbor views. We went back to the house to change and pack, then we watched the movie Emma before going to bed. We were up at five and on the road at six the next morning, and she dropped me off at one. 

We had the best time. One of us got a little work done while we were there (not me) and we talked about what will come after the fall semester of this year and our next writing project. We talked about our recent women's retreat and suggestions some of us have heard from the people who went and we spent time praying about it all. I'm so glad we had this time away together and I will hold this time away with these wonderful friends very close in my heart. 

Thanks for reading my blog! Love to all.