The [unofficial] end of summer

I meant to write this post last night, but Pete and I got sucked into a marathon of Hoarders on A&E and before I knew it, it was time for bed. If you haven't seen the show - it will change they way you look at 'stuff'.

Since summer is over, I figured I should finally sit down and blog about our big summer events. The first of which - even though it happened in August - was our week long trip to South Carolina! We rented a house on Sullivan's Island with our dear friends Matt, Jenn, Mike, Adam, and Sarah and just had the *best* time!!

Here's the view from our back deck:
and the house from the front and back:
We got into a routine pretty quickly of ...
breakfast - beach - lunch - beach - shower - dinner
When the tide was low we could walk out to a giant sandbar where there were HUNDREDS of starfish! It was the coolest thing I have ever seen - it was impossible to walk on the sand without stepping on some (but we were careful and didn't hurt any). There were also many, many sand dollars and Matt and I came home with at least 8-10 sand dollars each!
On a few days we altered the routine just a little. One such day was Tuesday, August the 17th - dunh, dunh, dunh - my 30th birthday!! We were all finishing up lunch on the porch and Pete came out carrying a cake and everyone sang Happy Birthday to me!! It's been so long since it's been more than just me and Pete on my birthday and it was really nice - I teared up a little when they were singing. Then there were a few presents for me to open :) Matt and Jen got me some FABU South Carolina flippy floppies, and Pete got me a few things including the Glee music book for Easy Piano (and the promise of lessons!) and the most gorgeous dress from Anthropologie! He had ZERO help on the dress - I was totally stunned - and it even fit perfectly :)

Naturally, we went back to the beach after lunch but did go to an amazing dinner at Magnolia's to conclude what ended up being the best birthday ever and a great start to my next decade!!


The other different day was what Jen and I dubbed "Nerd Day". The great thing about going on vacation with a group is that when your husband wants to go see Patriot's Point (again) and tour Fort Moultrie, he can go do with with his friends and you are free to go shopping with your friends :) We also walked over this in the morning. It was pretty exciting for us!
The rest of the week was just more beach and more eating at great restaurants. For a different perspective on the week head over to Jen's blog to see her favorite things from the week!

I'm just so glad these guys lived together in college and have remained such good friends!! It was so much fun!! Trololololo!!!