This year at the beach was even more special than usual because this year?  This year we were celebrating Clemson becoming NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!!!!  It’s still surreal to be able to say that!  The last time Clemson won the National Championship game for the 1981 season and I had just turned 2 years old.  Which, now that I think about it, is about the same age Catherine is now!  I had just turned 2 when that game was played and she’s about to turn 2 just after this game was played :-)

But I digress.  Except for the fact that I cannot get the song “We are the Champions” out of my head!  It’s just THAT exciting!

Ben and I actually spent Saturday morning/early afternoon in downtown Charleston for our yearly planning meeting so we missed watching the National Championship parade with the group but we were able to take a look back at what 2016 looked like and what we hope 2017 will look like as our little family grows :-)  We also stopped by Christophe’s (as always!) and took some bump pictures where I took some when I was pregnant with Catherine.

But first… brunch.

Left: 26 weeks with Catherine (Nov 2014)
Right: 33 weeks with Isabella (Jan 2017)

The two main things I buy each time I stop in at Christophe’s is a pain au chocolat (because it’s the closest I’ve found in South Carolina to what I can get in Paris!) and macarons.  Because… macarons!  And I love this shot Ben got of them too :-)

Back at the beach house that evening, I know it looks like the guys are being lazy, but I promise we all took turns with helping out and being lazy :-)

It’s become a tradition to go to the Kiawah Island Golf Resort for lunch on Sunday and then take our group photo outside.

I can’t believe I’m posting this, but it cracks me up!  I’d set the self-timer for 20 seconds (which apparently is a really long time!) and it wasn’t going off so I went to check on it and yes, this happened.

So here’s the real group photo.  Everyone was there this year (yay!) including the ones that missed last year because BABIES!

Such wonderful dads :-)

They caught each other taking selfies in their own selfies so we restaged it so I could get a photo too!

Y’all, these kids did so good the entire weekend!  And don’t worry, that look on Logan’s face (the one not smiling) is totally normal… he’s the serious one of the bunch :-)

I think it was at this point I told them it was easier to pose a group of 13 bridesmaids than it was to pose them!

Sadly, it just kept getting worse and Megan and I were forced to practice our middle-school-dance.

But finally, we got our photo.  And I love it!
So thankful for a patient husband who takes all of these each year!
Oh and did I mention that we’re NATIONAL CHAMPIONS?!?! :-)

I have no idea, but they were cracking me up and I could NOT stop laughing!

A group usually rides bikes around the island each year but I missed getting a photo of everyone the day before…
so I’m glad to at least have this one!

We actually rent two houses for all of us (17 adults!), but they are side by side and this is them from the parking lot.  They have been perfect for our group and we love going back to the same place each year.

Besides, who would want to give up this view??

Our last night…

And the “real us”!  Sorry, you guys… but you take photos like these and you run the risk of them getting posted online :-)

And then these wonderfully amazing friends of mine threw me a sweet little shower!  It was the perfect way to end a perfect (albeit too short) weekend with some of my favorite people on the planet.  So hard to believe that Isabella will be there with us next year!

To see previous Clemsongang posts, click HERE.
To see other personal posts, click HERE.