The next step on our trip was a long-awaited family vacation at Surfside Beach, SC!! As we looked back over the last several years, we realized that this would be the first time since Dad and Mom were married that the Neely Team had spent a whole week away – just us – for nothing but time together, relaxation, and refreshment! Sure, we have definitely had many, many, many amazing trips and have loved every moment of every one of them, but again, every one has been connected in some way or another with a visit to friends, ministry opportunities, missions trips, business outings, conferences, family camps, etc. Not just a solid, week-long VACATION!! After a extremely wonderful but extremely busy winter and spring, we were all ready for and needing some time to reconnect and just rest!! The Lord provided this in His perfect timing when some friends offered for us their time-share about a mile off of Surfside Beach. How excited we were! We arrived Saturday afternoon after a splendid stay at the Stelzl’s house and attending the NRA show. We were able to spend the next seven days listening to messages on CD, reading the Word and a few other encouraging books, taking mile-after-mile walks along the shore :), swimming, having family discussions, sharing joyful fellowship around the scrumptious meals Mommy prepared at the condo, resting, memorizing Psalm 91, and many other adventures that you’ll just have take part in by the hundreds of pictures we took!! 🙂 We praise the Lord for providing this opportunity for spiritual and physical rejuvenation. The Lord is good!!

Our first night on the beach… 

About to head for a walk along the ocean...... can't wait to get there....... we've reached it at last!!  

The condo was perfect – all we could have asked for: three bedrooms, three bathrooms, Jacuzzi tub, a large kitchen, nice living room, back deck, etc., etc.!!

Lauren, Kathryn, Herman, Victoria, and Titus shared this room. (Of course, Titus's bed - a comfy pack-n-play - isn't pictured here. :) ) Hannah, Jessi, Amanda, Bethany, and Lauren had this room.The Master Suite, complete with Jacuzzi tub!

Before we left, Mommy got us all flipflops – a worthy investment for going to the beach. They were such fun we couldn’t resist a bunch of pictures. 🙂 (Thanks, Daddy, for being the photographer!!)

What a blast!!Look at all the colors...

A different angle... So much fun!!

We saw all sorts of marvelous specimens demonstrating our Creator’s design, creativity, and skill!!

This is not your ordinary jelly fish. We saw countless numbers of these creatures... they are actually called jelly balls and are pretty much harmless. We learned that their main predator is the spade fish. A sand crab... pretty formidable, wouldn't you say??! Mommy took this fantastic shot!What we think are sand pipers

This beautiful shell was actually the home of a repulsive old slug. Uuhhhggg!!A wounded sea gull :(Just beautiful!! We saw these geese running around near our condo.

MallardsThis is actually the real, stinging jelly fish. We only saw two of them!! (Yay!!)Amanda found this adorable hermit crab and kept him for most of our stay. We have been reading a book about a hermit crab and so this little one proudly bore the name of the character in our story: Pagoo.

If we don’t stop here, it will take three days to upload this post loaded with pictures. 🙂 Ha ha!! Check back for more soon…