This is by far one of my favorite weekends every year. In 2006 we started taking a trip to the mountains in December.  But a couple of years ago, we realized that December was just too hectic but that January was pretty open!  But since weather up in the mountains can go one way or the other, we decided a yearly trip to the beach would be safer!

I know I’ve said it before, but these girls have meant the world to me these last 15 years since we met in a freshman bible study in the basement of Lever Hall at Clemson.  We’ve been in each other’s weddings, we’ve been around for the births of babies, and one of these days (which will be WAY in the future), we’ll be at these kids’ weddings.

This year was so much fun and while one of us wasn’t able to be there and another one was in and out for a wedding, we already have a dinner and movie night planned and a girls weekend later this summer.  Some of us live close together, but even then it gets hard to get together.  So if we put something on the calendar, then it has to happen, right??

 The guys are always such good sports to come. While we’re chatting, they’re usually playing a game of cards or watching football.

Leslie’s baby boy is due in April so we threw her a diaper shower… complete with Allison’s delicious cupcakes!

This was our first year in this particular house and I’m SO excited we get to go back to the same spot next year!  It’s gorgeous!

The signs on the left only put me off for a little bit ;-)

We decided to rent bikes for Saturday and Sunday. The first day we just wandered aimlessly around for a few hours and had SO much fun!
We were only a tad sore for our ride the next day…

Girl picture at the top of the look-out tower.

I asked the guys to get together and this is what they did… ha!

We seem to take a lot of pictures on stairs… at least these were circular and the photo is a little less awkward than ones from previous years!

I mean… how beautiful is this island??

Yes, that’s my husband on the right.  And yes, he made that face on purpose.  And yes, he cracks me up!

The sunset that night was amazing…

We usually grill out our second night of the weekend, but these particular houses don’t allow grilling.  So Allison and Kristen made a HUGE lasagna for dinner…
And it seems we managed to not have any left overs!

The house we were in was actually 2 condos so after dinner, the girls headed to the other condo to watch Pitch Perfect, eat popcorn, and indulge in candy (which is in all of those tall white cups!).

Allison always makes amazing waffles or pancakes for breakfast one of the mornings we are there.  SOOO thankful for her culinary skills!

Bike ride, take 2.  I think our smiles were a mix of real smiles and grimaces for the soreness we were all experiencing!

Leslie – who we dubbed Mary Poppins because of how cute she was in her hat and sun glasses – led us both days. We would have been SO lost if not for her!

Arne’t Jason and Kristen just adorable?

I think we stood gazing out at this spot for at least 5 minutes…

I’m not a big golfer at all, but this course was gorgeous!

If only I had a bride and groom to go in that image on the left…!

It took us about an hour to get out tot the course and when we found out they had a restaurant at the club house, we decided it was time for a snack!

Y’all, it’s worth a drive/bike ride/walk around the island just to gape drool over admire some of these houses!

When we (finally) got home, we all cleaned up and after I got back with Josh and Natalie for their mini-session (coming tomorrow!) all of us headed to the beach for a mini shoot.

Even though I’m the professional photographer, these crazy girls always want to do things like jump or link arms and walk.  Clearly Jill was the most excited about this!

But then, they let me pose them for this… and I kinda love it.

Brooke always gets her yearly profile picture from this trip… I just hope she doesn’t kill me for posting this first one!

These are our two travelers… they had a family wedding in NYC so Jill came down Friday, the two of them met in NYC on Saturday and then they flew back to Charleston together Sunday morning!  I’m just glad they were able to be there… no matter how short the time!

It’s so fun to think back to our “laptop clique” days at Clemson.  Two engineers turned teacher and photographer.  But I wouldn’t trade any of it!

lol – I know the guys look like they’re in pain, but I like to think they were just hungry ;-)

We generally do a gift exchange every year (this trip used to be in December so it made more sense then!) and we decided to make it just for the girls this year.
And I think because of that we just laughed WAY more than we usually did!

Love you girls (and we missed you, Megan!!)!

Oh!  Last one…  we actually had to photoshop this one since not all of us were there at the same time… but can you REALLY tell??