Hilton Head Day 4

We were really concerned that yesterday was going to be a complete washout.  It was forecasted that it was going to rain all day.  When we woke up, it was a little overcast but after breakfast it started to clear out, so we hurried back to the room and got ready to head to the beach.  

Do to a little sunscreen mishap with Gavin (and his poor eyes),  Mikayla and I headed down to the pool first while Jeremy bathed Gavin and got him calmed down.   Gavin joined us shortly thereafter and played in the kiddie pool with Mikayla for a little bit. 

After we were sure that Gavin was good, we headed down for the beach before the afternoon rain set in.  We had a great day.  It was a little overcast which helped to cut down on the heat.  We didn’t even have to set up our umbrella.  The kids had a lot of fun and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Here are some various pictures of the kids and their day.

Mikayla was not a big fan of the salt water in her eyes, so she could often be seen wearing her goggles in the ocean to protect her baby blues from that stingy salt water.

    Jeremy dug a large hole to collect some sand for a castle he attempted to build (Gavin wrecked it).  Mikayla sat in the hole and we covered the bottom half of her up with sand.  She thought that was pretty funny.  Gavin, then proceeded to sit on Mikayla’s lap and play in the sand right on top of her.  It was pretty cute!

Isn’t that the cutest footprint of a sweet little boy that you have ever seen!

You could tell that there was a forecast of rain for the next couple days.  This was by far the most crowded that we have seen the beach since we have been here. 

It seems like it is more than likely going to rain for the remainder of our trip.  :(  Even with the early rain out, though, we have had a WONDERFUL trip.  We have had so much fun with the kids and have made some wonderful memories. 

Hilton Head Day 3

I have fallen a little behind in keeping everyone updated with our vacation.  The past two nights while attempting to get the kids to fall asleep, I have fallen asleep myself, thus not having anytime to blog about our adventures.

These are pictures from Wednesday.  We got up a little earlier and headed down to the beach.   My kids just love going – they have so much fun playing in the surf and building (er…crashing) things in the sand.     Mikayla and I built a “sandcastle” together, complete with a moat around it.  During the construction of said castle, Gavin treated me to my very own sand back exfoliation.  I even got a foot treatment later in the day, too! :)

This is a picture of Mikayla after she rolled around in the wet sand.  She thought it was very funny.  She is such a silly girl!

  Mikayla loved sitting at the edge of the water and letting the waves come over her. 

Jeremy took Gavin down to the water and let him feel the water come over his legs. 

After that, Gavin was hooked!  He ran back and forth between the edge of the water and us for quite sometime.  He has really enjoyed himself.

It started raining Wednesday evening.  It was so windy that a large branch came down over the  road that leads out of the hotel.  Thankfully, there was another route and we headed out to eat at a great barbecue place called One Hot Mama’s.  It was VERY good!

Hilton Head Day 2

Today was another fun-filled day at the beach.  We got down to the beach around 11am and the kids immediately started playing in the sand.   Gavin thought that Daddy needed an exfoliating treatment on his back.  He kept picking up sand and rubbing it into his back.  He did this much of the time that we were at the beach today. 

Mikayla and Daddy tried to make a sand castle, but a certain little boy thought it was a lot of fun to crash into the sand castles so they just had fun digging around.

Mikayla let us bury her in the sand.  We tried to make a Little Mermaid out of her, but she had a hard time keeping those toes covered by the sand. 

  Thankfully, for us, Mikayla has had what I consider a healthy fear of the ocean.  She likes to get right at the waters edge and let the waves come over her, but she doesn’t try to venture out too far unless someone is with her.  Gavin is pretty much the same way which helped bring my stress level down a little bit.  I was really worried about having to watch two kids down in the water.  I still have to watch them, but I am not so worried that they are going to try to go out too far. 

Towards the end of our visit, Gavin passed out on me.  He stayed like this for about 30 minutes.  I really enjoyed the cuddles with my sweet boy.   It isn’t often that I get to hold him for this long anymore. 

After the beach, we hit the pool for a short period of time and then we went back to the hotel room to shower and get ready for dinner.  We went to the Wreck of Salty Dog, which is part of the Salty Dog Cafe chain located here in Hilton Head.  We attempted to go to the main cafe, but they was a nearly 2 hour wait.  Not a great thing with two hungry kids.  Dinner was great, though, and we were not at all disappointed.  They had a great fish tank with some very unusual looking fish in it. 

After dinner, Mikayla had her picture taken with a figurine of the Salty Dog.  She liked his yellow hat. :)

After dinner, we got some ice cream at the Salty Dog Ice Cream Shop (they have everything!).  It was pretty hot even at 7pm, so the ice cream was melting pretty quickly.  Mikayla is also not a very neat ice cream eater as it is.  It made for some cute photo ops, though.

Anyone that know Gavin will appreciate that he played with the buckles of his stroller the whole time we were eating ice cream.  That boy is obsessed with buckles!  So much so, that we recently had to take the buckles off of his highchair, because he will spend an entire dinner buckling and unbuckling himself.  Thankfully, that is the only thing he has figured out how to unbuckle, so far.

Tomorrow, we are planning to start the day at the beach again.  We are expecting some afternoon thundershowers, so we wanted to make sure we got some time at the beach before that rolled on through.  We did purchase a beach trolley today.  We quickly learned that it is very difficult to carry all of the things needed to keep children safe and happy and the beach and try to carry them as well.  Seeing as how we love to visit the beach, I think it will get a lot of use over the years.  Our trip down should be much simpler tomorrow.

Some cute videos to share

I got some sweet videos of the kids today that I wanted to share with you.

This first one is of Gavin and his ever developing vocabulary.  The boy doesn’t say much that people can understand.  He is trying new words all the time, lately though.  Gavin likes to watch Dora the Explorer with his big sister (which I had the “joy” of listening to for about 2-3 hours on the way to the beach today).  There is a fox on that cartoon called “Swiper” that is always trying to swipe things from Dora.  In the show, Dora will say, “Swiper, no swiping!”  Gavin can often be caught saying “swiping”  It doesn’t exactly sound like that, but it is pretty cute.

This next one is of Mikayla trying to occupy her brother while I am about to jump in the shower.  Gavin has really grown to love the song “Five little monkey swinging in the tree.”  He will just giggle and giggle whenever that alligator snaps up a monkey.  It was so cute to see them acting like this together.  If you notice during one of Mikayla’s small breaks, he raises his hand and says “monkey.”  Yes, it does sound  a lot like “Swiping,” but I am just happy that he is finally trying to say some words.

Hilton Head Day 1

Thanks to some great “wheeling and dealing” on the internet, we are currently on vacation at the Crowne Plaza Resort at Hilton Head Island.

This was our first road trip where we experienced the incessant “Are we there yet?”  Okay, it wasn’t those exact words, but it was pretty much the same.   Mikayla could not wait to see the beach.

We got to the hotel around 4pm and quickly changed into our swimsuits.  Mikayla wanted to go to the pool first, and then we headed to the beach.  The kids had a great time.   The both liked the water, although, Mikayla thought it was too salty. :)  The really liked spending time in the sand.  I think Gavin could spend all day just playing in the sand (I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!).

Here are some cute pictures for your enjoyment.

The hotel room is very nice and I think the beds are going to be very comfy.  Mikayla particularly liked the “sleep mask” that was placed on her bed. We had a busy first day with a lot of driving and fun in the sun.  This is what happens to a one year old who does all of that without a nap.  Sweet boy.

Old Soldier’s Day Race and Parade

Last Saturday, my sister, Emily and I ran in the Old Soldier’s Day 5K.  We decided about 2-3 months ago that we needed something to help motivate us into a regular workout routine.  So I started running about 3 times a week.  At first it was pretty hard, and while it is still challenging, it has gotten easier each week  (Imagine that!).

This is a picture of us, bright and early, before the race.  It started at 7am, so we had to get there around 6:30am.  I guess when you are running  a race in the middle of the summer in the south, you have to start that early to try to avoid the heat and humidity.  It was pretty humid, but the temperature was in the 70s, which made for a fairly comfortable run. 

This is a picture of us, in our race t-shirts.  We finished!  I am so glad that we did this.  We have already decided to do another one in October.

       After the race, Emily and I staked out a spot for the small town parade that follows the race.  I have been going to this parade since I was a little girl.  I have actually been in the parade a couple of times (Brownies and High School Band).  I love that I can carry this tradition on with my family.  We have been going as a family since Mikayla was about 18 months old.   The kids had a great time. 

It was pretty hot during the parade.  Both of my kids were red-faced very shortly after getting there.  It didn’t bother Mikayla too much, because she was so interested in getting candy from the various floats.  Gavin, on the other hand, got very tired at one point.  I thought for sure he was going to fall asleep right there in my arms.  He didn’t fall asleep, but I did enjoy some good cuddles from my little guy. 

I think the best thing that we got from the floats where some Freezer Pops from the Beauty Queens.  Man, did they have the right idea.  Gavin had never had a popsicle, but he thoroughly enjoyed this one. 

The only downside of the day was that Jeremy was not there.  He had to work and we definitely missed having him there.  All in all, though, it was a great day with my sweet kids and the rest of my family.