Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

I love the idea of a blog. The actual upkeep and continuous writing...not so much.   That being said, I'm back (and hope to get back in the swing of things)!

A little over a month ago, I packed up my car after work on Friday, picked up a friend, and headed down to Edisto Beach for a girls weekend! It was an absolute blast and just what I needed!  

After a great 3+ hour car ride full of laughs and good times, we made it to the beach around 10:45 pm Friday night.  We unloaded the car and then plopped down at the table with the rest of the group for even more laughs. Five other women plus myself sat around the table til about 1:00 am before we headed to bed.

Thanks to my internal clock that doesn't understand the concept of sleeping in, I woke up around 6:30 am on Saturday. I laid in bed until 7, and then headed out to the deck to do my morning devotions. It was absolutely beautiful! I got to see the sun come up over the water and got to see a pod of dolphins swimming by! You just can't be that on a sunny Saturday morning.  

As a few other started waking up, we began working on a puzzle. By the time 4 of us started working on it, we realized it was missing pieces and had pieces from another puzzle. It made it quite a challenge!

By about 11, everyone was up and ready to start the day. Two of the ladies ran (literally) down to the market to get some seafood for dinner, while the rest of us stayed back to do some yoga. After our morning "workouts" we gathered around the kitchen for lunch.  We finally headed down to the beach around 2. It was amazing-- not very crowded, a slight breeze, and not too hot! You could not have asked for a better setting!  At 3:30, half of us scrambled back up to the beach house to watch the Georgia- Carolina game.  Clemson was playing a noon game against SC State that wasn't televised, so I got updates on my phone while we were at the beach- can't beat that! After the game, everyone returned to the beach house to shower and clean up. While prepping for dinner, some one busted out the Wii and Just Dance!  It was hysterical- and another workout!  We danced and danced. Apparently there are a few videos floating around that keep getting threatened to be posted to YouTube! Ha!  After a delicious meal, we ended up watching videos on YouTube and then dancing to Just Dance some more! Saturday was a long jam-packed day that was absolutely fantastic!

Sunday morning came early for me, so I wondered to the deck for my quiet time. There is nothing more peaceful that the sound of the ocean and the Word in front of you. 

After reveling in my time with the Lord, I went inside to finish our puzzle! In the end we were only missing a few pieces, so it wasn't as bad as we first thought.

After that, we called one of the local adventure companies and ordered paddle boards for the day. It was awesome- we called and they brought the boards, lifejackets, and paddles, and then picked them up when we were done with them that day. I have paddle boarded before, but never on the ocean. It was... there are no words for it. The sun was rising up over the water, the water had a nice, steady wave to it- just peaceful. Moving along through the water was just refreshing. 

Now that I've painted a pretty picture, let me tell you how it really was before we got to the beautiful moments. One of the ladies and I took the boards out first. Well, where we tried to enter the water had a huge drop off about 3 feet in. I know this because while we were walking the boards out, all of a sudden my 5'1" self went completely underwater! The board and paddle went flying. Once I recovered from the ground disappearing under my feet and watering gushing in my mouth and up my nose, I climbed onto the board.  I use the word "climbed" loosely as words cannot be truly used to describe how I was able to get on that board. Once we both got on the boards, we sat up on our knees to paddle the rest of the way out. Being the adventurous one that I am, I was the first to stand. It was a little shaky getting up, but once I was there I was good, or so I thought.  The great thing about the sun shining on the water was that we could see ALL the jellyfish in the water. And there were A LOT of them-small, medium, and large ones! Naturally, since we could see that the water was full of jellyfish, the one thing we didn't want to do was fall into the water. So of course I fell in three times. The current was pretty strong that morning, so the first time I fell in was while I was turning around to see how far away we had gotten from the house and whether or not we needed to turn around. I turned so far back, that I lost my balance. I turned around quickly to try and regain my balance and went right into the water. Luckily I was able to escape the jellyfish. Getting back on the board, I stayed on my knees for a bit to make sure I was balanced. When I tried standing up again, guess what happened? Back to the water I went. I quickly got back on the board and stood up right away.  For awhile, it was smooth sailing. And then, all of a sudden I was back in the water. I still don't know how that happened. After the third fall, I guess I finally figured out how to stand and had a wonderful time.

When we came back in, we were about 20 yards to the right of where we entered and lo and behold- NO DROP OFF!  That made things so much better! Of course, the next group of ladies that went out made sure to go to the spot with no drop off.  While they spent time on the boards, the rest of us enjoyed our last few hours on the beach. After about an hour or two, we all headed back up to the house to clean up ourselves and the house.

All in all, I could not have asked for a more relaxing and wonderful weekend with a bunch of awesome women! The stories and friendships from that weekend were absolutely amazing. I can't wait for next year!