Shiver me timbers!!

We're home from the week at the beach - most of our bags are unpacked, all but one load of laundry is done, and Brad went to the grocery store!!  Coming back home from vacation can be such a let-down... but we are off to a good start :)

We had such a great time - in fact, it was one of the most relaxing trips we've ever taken (well, since we've had Bennett, anyway!!)  I think that his age makes such a difference - at 5 he is able to entertain himself more, is interested in doing more, can stay up past 7 (most nights...) and can be civilized through most of a sit-down dinner.  One of the best things about this trip was that we got to spend time with our good friends, who have 2 children that Bennett LOVES to play with (and their mom is really fun too :)

Some of the highlights I don't want to forget:

• Early morning spying trips - I even got to go on one of these adventures!!
• Our new beach umbrella and chairs rocked!! Why didn't we buy those sooner?
• Bennett yelling 'She RUINED our life!!' in response to a bully at the pool :)
• The kids making up new versions of 'Trick-or-treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't...' Their favorite: 'I don't care - I'll make you smell my underwear...' 
• Shopping. Shopping. Shopping. New Coach bag with matching wristlet :) 
• Great food - ACME, Graffiti's, grilling hamburgers, Mike's gourmet lasagna, lots of desserts... No dieting.
• The kids asking if the Snack Shop was open every 5 minutes - how can they be so hungry?
• Good wine. Lots of good wine.
• Sitting on the beach watching the kids play.
• I got to sleep until 7:30 one day. Heaven.
• Showing Heather how great 'So You Think You Can Dance', 'Project Runway', and Shear Genius' are.
• Creating the Top 10 'Do's' and Top 10 'Don'ts' of beach attire. I'm pretty sure that I would make the 'Don't' list, but I didn't ask...
• And I wish I could forget this - I went out with a bang this morning by falling UP the stairs while we were packing and doing a great deal of damage to my knee.  Nice. It did get me out of some luggage-hauling, though... always look on the bright side, right?

So now it is back to life as normal. Re-entry into everyday life from vacation is sometimes hard, but I think we are going to do just fine.  My goal is to keep these next 2 1/2 weeks low-key so that we can have an easy adjustment to school.  Tomorrow we are excited to find out who Bennett's teacher is going to be, as well as if there are any of his friends in his class.  I hope we can go and visit with Papa a little bit at the hospital. Bennett has a birthday party in the afternoon, and then he needs to get back to Tae Kwon Do.  

Does that sound low-key? Maybe we'll start that on Tuesday.