Heading to the beach in a tropical storm...

The day after Ellie's birthday, we packed up and headed to the beach with the Baileys!  Hooray!!!  We'd planned it for months and rented a house in Seagrove, Florida for an entire week.

 Unfortunately, Tropical Storm Debby started stirring in the Gulf as we headed south.  Lovely!

(the visor in my car was broken, and we didn't have a chance pre-trip to fix it, so we 'repaired' it with Ellie's funky duct tape!)

Our beach house!!  It was the perfect size for all 8 of us, an adorable wrap-around screen porch, three bedrooms, two baths, big open living/dining/kitchen area,  and the best part -- a private pool!  The cute cousins were sooo glad to see each other.  They get along fabulously and have such a giggly time together. 
(Abby age 3.5, Mollie age 6.5, Ellie age 8, and Morgan age 9).

As soon as we unpacked the cars, we went straight to the beach!!  Abby loved the sand in her toes. 

Signs of Tropical Storm Debby were everywhere.  Yuck.  The skies were dark and cloudy.  The waves were huge (by Gulf standards!) and the water was almost up to the dunes.  The only people attempting to get in the water were surfer dudes.

Seagrove is about 20 miles to the left of where it says "PAM". 

Seriously not a good sign when you turn on the Weather Channel to discover Jim Cantore is 75 miles west of us in Pensacola. 

Lifeguards were out on the beach patrolling to make sure we didn't get in the water.  And the double red flags were flying -- that means "DANGER, Water closed to public use."

The dads (a.k.a. expert meteorologists!) surveying the weather situation.  They briefly discussed boogie boarding, but then they realized they are: 1) not 21 anymore, and 2) didn't want to embarass themselves in front of their four little girls,  ha ha, so we headed back to our beach house to glue ourselves to the Weather Channel.

Abby's concerned face.

It rained our entire first full-day at the beach. . .   We had to come up with some ways to entertain four energetic girls (and four antsy adults!), while Debby decided where she was headed, so we had CAMP HOLLY.    We did mani-pedis, baked several batches of cookies, had exercise class (ha ha!), dance party on the porch, and played Fancy Nancy card games.  That evening, we braved the drizzling rain for a big meal out.  Would you just LOOK at Ellie's salad?  Oh my!!