**Warning** picture overload!
Last week the kids and I spent the week in Hilton Head, South Carolina with some wonderful friends. My friends family owns a condo on the island and she graciously asked us and another friend to join her for the week (sans husbands).
There were 3 moms and 8 kids (all 7 and under), so most of the time it was crazy town, but we had so much fun! The kids are a great age for the beach (well except Kolter, but more on that later) and they loved everything about it (sand, waves, water, birds, etc).
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| I know this is super blurry, but I had to document the crazy…everyone in an elevator |
We started the trip on Sunday evening and drove late into the night. We stopped at 1 am in North Carolina. This was quite comical because all 11 of us stayed in the same room…the kids were beyond exhausted…I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. One baby would fall asleep and then another would cry and wake them up…this round robin continued until 3 am when it finally calmed down. Thankfully, my kids did really well and all of them fell right to sleep. I just felt bad for the other mom's who were trying to console 1 kid while trying to let everyone else sleep.
In the end we survived and hit the road again on Monday for the 2nd half of the trip. We made it to Hilton Head Monday afternoon and we quickly unpacked so we could jump in the pool!
On Tuesday morning we hit the beach. This was Kolter's 1st time at the beach. He enjoyed the sand and getting his feet wet, but he didn't want to travel too far into the water.
Nora also loved the waves. She would grab an adults hand and run for the waves. She loved to jump the waves even if they were large and pummeling her in the face. She too was fearless and would have stayed out there all day if she could.
We typically went to the beach in the mornings. We also enjoyed some pool time each afternoon. This was usually during Kolter's nap time so I enjoyed playing with the big kids. Sawyer took a big step when he jumped off the side and swam back to the edge with no floaties. That is a really big deal for my boy who is scared to swim! Nora also enjoyed jumping off the side. They played a lot of Octonauts and Wild Kratts in the water.
This picture sums up Kolter's week. He was really off the whole trip. He was fussy, had diarrhea all week, had terrible diaper rash, didn't take well to having other babies in "his space," and developed a pretty bad case of hives (of which we do not know the origin). Plus mommy's attention was pulled in lots of different directions. Thankfully, he slept really well, but when he was awake he was not himself :( Poor guy! I am happy to report after a few days at home and some benadryl he is back to his normal happy self!
Several evenings after dinner we would head back to the beach for high tide. It was a wonderful time to enjoy the big waves and watch the sun go down. The kids would expend their last bit of energy then we would run home for showers and fall into bed.
One evening we were all going stir crazy in the condo so we went out for ice cream. That was a hit!
One morning instead of the beach we decided to visit the light house and a park
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| all the kids near the lighthouse |
It was gorgeous weather all week until the last day. It rained all day so we decided to pack it up early and hit the road. Again we drove half way…this time we got 2 rooms ;) Then we made the final leg of our journey on Saturday and the kids were so excited to see Daddy and tell him all about the beach. It was a wonderful trip full of great memories for the kids! It was a great reminder of how fun beach vacations can be…hopefully we can go as a family next year!
