Lindy

My more than willing beach model this year was Lindy. She loved to get her picture taken, not that any of them really complain! But we had fun the evening we walked to the end of the island and did just her pictures. Amazing she will be 10 in 2 days!
I told the kids someone is going to have to get married down here and have their wedding on the beach. Lindy pipes up "I've got that!". Years and years away but I like that she's on the same page as me! What fun that will be!

Juicy Fruit

 Juicy Fruit is the name of this swimsuit that Erin picked out. How appropriate a name for her! It was definitely a plus to be able to see her while she was wave jumping, diving, etc. The girl made my heart stop numerous times since she has no fear and has no problem taking her sweet time coming back up to surface! She had such a great time even though she thinks she's 13 and she's not!

Dolphins at Lunch

Their lunch time and ours too! This is the view from the deck while enjoying a beach break. Its really hard to take a picture of a dolphin jumping out the water since you never know when they are going to come up. These were the best I got which is better than nothing!

Carolina Girl

Erin has a whole song and dance routine that she made up titled "Carolina Girl". Its something else when she dons her bikini and my sunglasses and gets up on her "stage".  She is quite the entertainer!

 

Evenings

Evenings are one of our favorite times at the beach. As soon as we finish dinner the kids are downstairs waiting for us while we finish cleaning up so we can walk down to the end of the island. Our location is great because we can get to the very end of the island where it is just dune and vegetation with an awesome view of Morris Island and the lighthouse. No houses since ours is the last one at that end of the beach and it is nice to have some privacy.
We all look forward to the walks and many treasures can be found. This year we found a starfish which is something new. There are plenty of jelly fish, crabs, sand dollars, and other fish that have washed up. We never know what we will find!

Waiting under the house watching the tide come in.

 The moon was full and gorgeous all week!

 We found 3 Loggerhead Nesting sites, endangered and very protected on the beach.

Freshly showered before dinner and our walk, collapsing into bed is a piece of cake!

Kyle really loves his room. He has one side of the upstairs to himself overlooking the ocean with his own bathroom. Not too much to complain about!

Pint Sized Piggly Wiggly

Why can't they have these adorable little carts at home?? What fun for the pint sized shoppers! Erin had a ball!

Erosion

We came back to Folly this year to severe beach erosion. We were told some of it was from Hurricane Irene but it looks like a great deal of it was already going on before that. It has really effected the area by our house. When high tide comes in you literally cannot walk down the beach and in front of the house since the tide is all the way up on the rocks below the house. Its neat to see the entire deck surrounded by water but it makes the evening walks challenging to get down to the beach. We have a round about way and it makes it more of an evening adventure. Its also pretty cool to swim right under the house.

It does need to get fixed or the "Edge of America" is not going to have its current edge and we would hate to see our house get washed away!

 There has been at least 4-5 feet of a drop in the beach since we were here last year. We used to walk over the wood barriers and now they are taller than the girls.

There have been 5 steps added to the stairs that go to our beach entrance by our house and tons of rocks put in to help slow down the erosion.

Surf & Sand

 In 48 hours I think we spent almost 20 hours on the beach! Morning, Afternoon, Evening! We are beach lovers!

Night Swim

 We made record time! Only 11 hours of driving and that included stops! For once we had no accident/traffic jam or any rainy down pours to drive through. By leaving at the crack of dawn (really before dawn) we were here before dinner and had time to unpack, eat, and have a night swim. Water is so warm its like a bathtub, temps are mid 80's, sunny, and beautiful.
Normally I think Bill would get tired of hearing me say repeatedly, "I just love it here so much", except he's saying it too. There is nothing that compares for us. No matter what beach we have been to we love coming back to Folly each year more than anywhere else.

Pug Love

Paige and Oliver

 We are crazy about our new family members! It amazes me the instant attachment we all have had with them. Thankfully both Quincy and Oliver are very happy to get any kind of attention. The girls especially are always babying them and helping them to "dance". But they love being with people and don't complain a bit!

 Ollie