Granddad's 95th birthday

We were back in Folly Beach for a long weekend in mid-October to celebrate birthdays and spend time with family. Granddad turned 95 on Oct. 12 and Tara shares the same birthday with him! Abby rented a house with enough room for all of us to stay and the rest of the Peerys came down as well and stayed at various hotels.

Welcome to Folly Beach!

Thomas, the boys and I drove down to the beach after work/school on Wednesday. Thomas and I took turns taking PTO days from work; I took Thursday, he took Friday so we could work from the beach while the other kept an eye on the kids. Due to having the extra days, it actually felt like a little vacation, instead of a short weekend with just one day on the beach.

There were, however, some storms that came through. The first night we were there there was a crazy storm that was shaking the house. The wind was whipping and it was loud! It even knocked over a lamp in our bedroom. That was a little intense! The next morning, we were looking around outside and the wind was still blowing around pretty hard. The sand was blowing across the beach and the palms were constantly moving. We did end up going for a walk, but it didn't last too long until the kids started getting upset that the blowing sand was stinging their legs.

Video in the morning after the storm

Here's a video of our walk. The wind was blowing so hard that the foam from the waves was flying through the sky! I'd never seen that before.

Ready for fresh sea air!

Hiding from the wind in Dada's shoulder

So windy!

Cousins!

With our crew
(matching black shirts = not planned!)

Stokes

RyRy

William

Ava and William goofing around

I attempted to get all the kids in a picture.

Ava
She looked just like a mermaid up on those
rocks with her long hair and beautiful eyes!

Thursday evening we went to Bowen's Island for dinner. It was great, as always. We had some gorgeous marsh views!

That day just happened to be the 13 year
anniversary since my Mom passed away.
It had been on my mind all day and I was
just a little sad all day. When we were at
Bowen's I just happened to see this:
Robbie + Katie.
Of all the graffiti all over the place, the fact that
my eyes went directly to this spot was crazy.
I felt like it was a sign. <3

So much delicious food!!!!

Sunset

Madison

Leece

The whole gang

Abby with his grands

Take 2
(or actually more like take 32)

Peery 5

Walking out to the dock

Halverstadts

Selfie with Ryan

Abby and Diana

After that initial storm moved past, we had a fantastic time. We lucked up with some really beautiful weather on Friday and Saturday and got some good time on the beach. As always, the kids all had a blast running around and playing together.

William, Taylor and Anna

Ryan was relaxing under the umbrella

Stokes wanted me to "cover him up!"
It was a little chilly after getting out of the water

Friday was Granddad and Tara's actual birthday. Granddad had NO IDEA that his whole family was at the beach to celebrate him. He knew Mag and Fifi were there, but that's it. Fifi got t-shirts made for the whole crew and distributed them ahead of time so that we could all match. Granddad was so surprised when he came over to the beach house and saw everyone there! It was such a sweet and special moment. I think he may have gotten a little case of the "eye sweats", as Thomas would say. We got to gently surprise him, not jumping out at him or anything, I mean, the man is 95 years old; and it was great fun! We had low country boil with the whole family there and got to sing and have birthday cake. Tara even had her very own cake, too! It was so fun!

Granddad and his great-grands

Granddad holding Ryan

GranO, Thomas and Ryan

Official family picture for Granddad's 95th birthday

Kids playing on the beach!

Granddad and GranO

Time to eat!

Low country boil

Ryan with Aunt Suzy

"Happy birthday to youuuuu"
Time for singing and cake!

The kids did an AMAZING performance of "Baby Shark"
including the motions and everything. It was great entertainment!

Ryan with Aunt Ashley

Reading some of Granddad's birthday cards

Hilarious!

Saturday I was able to coordinate with Andy to go pick up my niece Kaitlyn so that she could spend the day with us.

Sunrise on Folly

Playing in the sand

William and Diana

Stokes was fishing with Uncle Matt

Katilyn and Taylor, riding the waves
(they probably both wanted a break from all the younger kids!)

Play time

Ashley and Ryan

Fifi and Ryan

Have you noticed that Ryan gets a lot of attention?!?!?! He gets held and loved on by everyone! He doesn't mind a bit! :)

Monarch

It was so crazy because the beach was FULL of butterflies. They were all over the place. I don't typically go to the beach in October, so I'm not sure if that is typical, or if we just happened to catch them during a migration, or what! It was magical to see them all over the place!

The weekend came to a close and it was sad to leave after such a fun time with family. Hopefully we can make get togethers like this more of a tradition.