I'm Back (Reluctantly!)

In case you have missed me, I will let you know that I went South!  12 days ago my brother in law, Mike, had surgery to remove a part of his colon.  Randy and I went to be with my sister during the surgery.  Debbie and Mike live in Joplin, which is about 300 miles south of where I live.  The great news is that the pathology report came back with positive results, so no follow up treatment will be needed.
The day following the surgery, Jessica and Scott met us in Springfield and we headed south to Gulf Shores, Alabama.  After a few road adventures, which I will blog about in the future, we arrived at the beach house we rented with my sister in law and brother in law (from California).  Josh and Amanda, Maddison and Mason flew down too.  All in all there were 10 of us in this house RIGHT ON THE BEACH!  We spent 7 lovely days swimming, playing on the beach, shopping, eating, playing games, napping (I am not afraid to admit that I LOVED my afternoon naps) and having family bonding time. 
My new ambition in life is to be a beach bum (notice the photo above, which was taken at LuLu's Restaurant).  How do I manage this goal?  I have no idea, but I am thinking on it.
I will be blogging about and adding photos of the trip soon, but I wanted to post something so my tiny cluster of readers will know what I have been up to.  All in all we traveled just shy of 2500 miles, spent 4 nights in a hotel, one at my sisters, and 7 days in the beach house. 
On a little side note, when we got home we had a porch full of dead flowers, a yard full of debris from our mad puppy (she shredded my door mat, tore up our fairly new landscaping, and somehow ate our American flag, which must have blow down in a storm).  But other than that, it was great getting home.  I will blog more soon!