Mayo Family Beach Trip

At the end of July the whole Mayo gang packed up and traveled to Cape San Blas, Florida.  This is the same place I have gone to on my family vacations since I was a kid, so it was fun to be back and go with the other side of my family.  And we actually had a very special reason to go - we were celebrating a milestone birthday for Guyla!

Everyone drove except for Beckett and I.  Let me tell you, I was sooooo nervous about flying by myself with him.  To top it off the day before we left we went to the doctor for a double ear infection.  It seemed like I was being set up for every parent's worst nightmare  - having that kid on the plane.   It seriously gave me cold sweats in the middle of the night.

But Beckett was a trooper!  We survived the plane ride and the long car ride out to the Cape.  We barely got out of the car before scrambling to get Beckett on the beach and playing.

He was a little unsure at first.  The sand got a lot of finger pokes before he would even sit down.  And it took a full day before he felt ok about his hands getting dirty - which is funny since he loves to dig in the dirt and had no problem being a sandy mess in California.

He also practiced his walking, which was pretty adorable.

As you would expect, we had a fantastic time.  We did a lot of laying around, watching for dolphins, playing in the surf, and talking on the deck.

One day the girls all went into town (Apalachicola) to do a little shopping, lunching, and sight seeing.

And you know me, I HAD to get some family pictures of everyone on the beach.  Fun for me, maybe notsomuch for them.  But I still contend that at the end of the day everyone appreciates a nice picture to represent a wonderful trip.  Here are my favorites:

Love, love, love.  And yes, I requested that we were matchy matchy for the wardrobe.  

All was going great until the accident.  Poor Guy missed a stair step and ended up dislocating his toe.  I'm going to spare you the nasty picture of his toe at a right angle.  Despite a trip to the Apalachicola ER (which is a post in and of itself) and some hard core drugs, he was in a ton of pain and spent the majority of the trip on the sofa.  Poor Guy!

Ok, but backing up to the Apalachicola Emergency Room.  It may have been the size of my house.  And the welcoming sign was a 2 foot x 2 foot plastic sign stuck into the ground.  And to top it off we got a hand written receipt (like from an Office Max Receipt Book) when I paid our copay.  Yeah - "you know you are in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere when...."

But it was truly a wonderful trip.  When do we get to go back?  Here are a few more of my favorite Beckett photos....