**Note** Reading this post may result in bleeding retinas! Proceed at your own risk. Hopefully though, you will enjoy the stories and photos that follow. I may split these out into several posts, but for now, this is our entire week!
We recently spent an absolutely fantastic week on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. We did have a few days of bad weather, but luckily they were generally isolated to the morning or afternoon. So, we were able to make it outside for at least a little bit each day. We spend almost every day playing in the sand and water, for at least a little bit...as this was Tyler's favorite part of the trip!
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We recently spent an absolutely fantastic week on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. We did have a few days of bad weather, but luckily they were generally isolated to the morning or afternoon. So, we were able to make it outside for at least a little bit each day. We spend almost every day playing in the sand and water, for at least a little bit...as this was Tyler's favorite part of the trip!
We split the 9 hour drive into two days on the way down, so that we would get into town a little earlier on Sunday. Saturday evening, we stayed in Florence, SC and had a VERY rough night. We know that it is always hard to get the boys to settle down and go to sleep when we all sleep in one hotel room. This is why we had decided that for all future vacations, we would stay in a condo/villa with bedrooms! Saturday night turned out to be even worse than we could have expected, because Lucas did not feel well...AT ALL. He was up until nearly 4 am!! I even made a desperate call to our pediatrician at 2:30 to get her opinion on heading to the emergency room. For our normally happy, carefree little guy...this was not normal behavior and even a little frightening, after the 4th STRAIGHT hour of crying. In order to not keep everyone awake, or wake Tyler, Daddy and I headed out for a drive. In all of my very planned out packing, see...
...I failed to pack any medicine for Lucas. While we were driving, we looked for a 24-hour pharmacy, but found only one...in a less than desirable neighborhood and opted not to stop. Upon returning to the hotel, we decided to try out the travel station across the street, completely not expecting success. However...Victory!! Yeah...an hour and a half driving around looking for a drug store and we only had needed to drive across the street. Oh well...Lucas fell asleep promptly as we started driving, so it did give him an opportunity for a little rest. Of course, he did wake up as soon as we turned off the car. One other thing that made the night very rough, was that Lucas wanted nothing to do with Mommy...yep, that right, it was ALL Daddy! Any time I attempted to take him he would scream...but hand him back to daddy and the screams died to slight whimpers. Daddy ended up sleeping with Lucas on his chest for most of the night. At some point, he was able to lay him in the bed, and this is how we woke up (sorry for the terrible picture, it's from my phone...didn't want a big flash to wake them up)
Luckily, whatever was bothering Lucas Saturday night passed, and the rest of our drive to Hilton Head was pretty uneventful. Lucas slept a lot...
I was SO pleasantly surprised at how well they traveled. With Tyler potty trained now, I was expecting a LOT of stops, but he didn't slow us down at all. I think we only made two potty stops not related to a fuel up (car or human) the entire three days of driving, and if we're being honest, even without Tyler we would have taken those stops. We did put a pull-up on him, just in case it seemed like it was going to be a problem, but he never went in them...even once! Lucas did get a little bored at times, but we had set the car up with his car seat was in the third row, so that someone (ME) could sit right beside him and entertain him, when needed. It really worked out pretty well. It actually wasn't that bad...being relegated to the back, I wasn't obligated to keep up a conversation with anyone, so when Lucas slept, I read...the Twilight Series (LOVE it), and finished the first book on our trip down. I didn't have much of a chance to do a lot of reading while we were at the beach, can't really take your eyes off of a 3-year old and a 1-year old long enough to actually get into a book, while on the beach and I spend more time napping on the way home.
Upon arriving into town, we checked into our unit and then grabbed a quick dinner and our to pick up some groceries. Tyler wasn't too keen on these plans, as he was SO ready to see the beach. After talking about it for days...we knew we HAD to take him to see the ocean that day, so we took a walk down that evening. It didn't matter to him that it was dark or that he had clothes on...he ran straight into the water!! He did get his shorts wet, but no problem...he just took them off and threw them to me, "here Mom".
Upon arriving into town, we checked into our unit and then grabbed a quick dinner and our to pick up some groceries. Tyler wasn't too keen on these plans, as he was SO ready to see the beach. After talking about it for days...we knew we HAD to take him to see the ocean that day, so we took a walk down that evening. It didn't matter to him that it was dark or that he had clothes on...he ran straight into the water!! He did get his shorts wet, but no problem...he just took them off and threw them to me, "here Mom".
Here are some of my favorite beach photos.
Our villa was located behind a small pond, which we learned the first day, was the home of the resident alligator...whom we named "Al".
Tuesday evening, we ventured out to Sea Pines for dinner and to see children's musician, Gregg Russell. He is a local favorite and a lot of fun for the kiddos. Tyler really enjoyed it and even went up to sit on the "kids only" stage by himself.
Les and I in front of the Harbourtown Lighthouse. We still did not make it up inside...maybe one of these years we will!
Lucas got a hold of the cup of ranch dressing and must have thought it was milk!
On Wednesday, we took a dolphin cruise to Daufuskie Island. The cruise was nice and relaxing and Tyler really enjoyed being on a big boat. Lucas wasn't too thrilled with it, because he was confined to our laps the entire time. We saw many dolphins, but I was not quick enough to capture the. Maybe we did on video.
On the island, we had lunch and explored a little. We found an old school bus that Tyler just loved to pretend he was driving.
Daddy and Tyler sat on an old dock and watched the water...
and I found some Adirondack chairs that made the perfect location for an impromptu photo shoot. Too bad my boys didn't have the same feelings!
I wanted very much for them to sit with me for one picture, but they just weren't having it...especially Lucas. He was downright MAD!
Thursday, Friday and Saturday were filled with rain and thunderstorms, so we fit in as much beach and pool fun as possible. Friday we headed back to Sea Pines to have our family beach portraits taken...boy was that fun. Actually, it was fun, but it is SO hard to get these boys to sit still to take pictures. Tyler wasn't SO bad, but Lucas has finally decided that he enjoys walking and so now getting him to sit still...Ha!! Hopefully we will find a few that we like! I am all about the candid photos, so maybe they will be okay.
A cute photo of Lucas. I had to take one in this outfit (that Aunt Kerry bought for Tyler), because I have one of Tyler wearing this same outfit in Hilton Head two summers ago.
Saturday night, we were finally able to fit in a round of miniature golf. I REALLY wanted to take Tyler...Daddy wasn't quite so sure, as Tyler really knocks the you know what out of the ball with his little play set, at home. But, we bit the bullet and it was SO much fun. He really did well The water hazards caught his attention though, and for some reason he thought that the object of the game was to hit the ball in the water hazard, rather than avoiding it!
This was his reaction to us telling him NOT to hit it into the water. I really think it was just an excuse to be able to put his hands in the water to retrieve his ball.
Showing us his first putt putt golf ball...he actually kept a hold of this same ball the entire time.
It was such a great week, and we had SO much fun. Here we are donning our t-shirts from The Salty Dog, just before getting into the car to start our 9 hour drive home.
We did make the drive home all in one day. The 9 hour trip took us nearly 12 hours, but that is largely due to a stop for lunch and dinner and a stop at some outlets. It was actually a good way to break up the trip, and kept everyone from getting too stir crazy in the car. I don't think Tyler slept more than maybe an hour during the entire drive, but he did watch several movies, and even wore his headphones, so that not everyone in the car had to listen to The Incredibles.
