Fun with the Finger's: July 2013

We had a wonderful vacation in Hilton Head! The beach is truly my happy place and I love every minute of being there. We left on Saturday and quickly settled in. The girls were anxious to hit the pool and the beach so while Mama, Paula, and I did the grocery shopping, they got their suits on and headed on down. We went down once we were back. Cohen is more of a pool girl and Kate probably likes it a little more as well but she also likes the beach. Each day we would start our time out at the beach and then make our way to the pool. We had great weather too, only a few showers in the afternoons mostly. Much different than what we have been having at home! Here are some of the pictures I snapped on our first night. Most of my pictures from the whole trip were from my phone. It is fastly becoming my camera of choice when we are out :)

Kate loves to just chill in the pool. Kicking her feet up!

So precious!!

Cohen took a good hit from this wave! I think it was after this that she was ready to head back to the pool

Sunday was my birthday, and what better place to celebrate than at the beach! We started our morning off at Skillets for the best breakfast! It had been a little rainy early that morning but we were still able to ride our bikes to eat. Kate loved being back on the bikes. She remembered from our earlier trip this spring and was ready to get on the "cicle" with her "hemet". After breakfast, or brunch actually, we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach and at the pool.

It came a quick shower for a few minutes on the beach and here is Cohen taking cover

Kate was covering her legs

Me & the Hubs

One of the best things was getting to see my friend Erin on my birthday! Erin was one of my closest friends from Charlotte. I lived with her and her sister Alyssa and they were my NC family! Even better...Erin and I share a birthday! I found out Saturday that she would be coming down and we made plans to meet up. We met that afternoon at the Frosty Frog and celebrated! It was so much fun! I had been up to Charlotte about a month ago to see her and Alyssa and we celebrated our bday's early by going to the NKOTB concert! We had a blast! But getting to celebrate again on our actual day was even better. I miss these girls so much and wish I got to see them more often but we always pick right up where we left off and have a blast!

I mean we had to make the bday complete with a picture with the frog!

Love this girl!

That night we stayed in and ate. There is no better meal than one from my mama! I am very blessed! If I have to get older I can't think of a better way to do it :)

My loves!

Monday we spent at the pool and beach. We also fit in a long bike ride. We love to ride our bikes around the island. We found some new trails to ride on and of course had some fun doing it. Kate stayed back to take a nap with Paula. Here was our funny bike picture from the day's ride and a few more beach pics.

I love the little legs sticking out behind Kelly...Cohen loves the alley cat bike!

Kate loved for Kelly to cover her feet only to have each wave uncover them

Kate wanted to lay down in the water and pretend she was a cat.

My Favorite picture!

That night we headed out to eat to one of our new favorite restaurants on the island...The Lowcountry Backyard. We found this little place back in the spring and knew we wanted to go back. It is small though, which in the summer means a long wait! Luckily they will allow you to leave and text you when your table is ready. We went early though so at least we still ate at a decent time. They help your wait by having a small putting hole and corn hole right in the backyard. It was so good...worth the wait!

here is a picture of the backyard where you eat. It is too cute!

Kate loved the corn hole game. Of course every throw she would find the bean bag & put it in the hole :)

Hot mess!

This is usually what happens when you try to take her picture...she's not looking at you for anything!

You know Cohen & Kelly will make a silly picture!

The Girls minus Kate

The girls and Brock looked forward to swimming every night when we got back. Kelly would take them all to the pool and since no one would be down there usually they really enjoyed having the pool to themselves. We were real impressed with Cohen's swimming skills. She has done great all summer but really took off even more at the beach. She would use her arms more and swam without her life jacket most all of the time. She is just growing up in so many ways...I can't get over it!

Tuesday was our normal beach/pool day. That night we decided to head for some pizza back at the Frosty Frog. Cohen was dying to see the frog again and wanted Kate to see him since she wasn't with us when we went Sunday. Kate loved the frog at a distance and even up close as long as I was holding her. If I tried to set her down she would grab on so tight. She gave the frog high fives over and over though.

Wednesday is when things started to go downhill for Kelly at least. He had noticed his ear bothering him a little on Tuesday night, which wasn't abnormal for him lately. I have told him over and over to go to the doctor about his ear. Wednesday he decided to go to CVS to the minute clinic and they gave him antibiotics for an ear infection. I had went out that morning to the pool, but that afternoon me, Mama, and Paula went out for a shopping day. We needed a little sun break and Kelly had offered to keep the kids and watch a movie. When we got back he was feeling worse and didn't want to go out with us to Harbor Town that night. I knew that wasn't a good sign. We went on and had a fun time at Harbor Town and eating at The Crazy Crab. We missed Hubs though and I was really hoping some rest was going to help.

At Harbor Town I attempted to get a picture of the girls. Kate would not cooperate and I know the man sitting beside them watching us had to get a kick out of us trying our best to make her look and smile. I'm used to working with kids to get a smile but I tell ya...this one is hard! I finally gave up!

My own little crazy crab!

Thursday was one of the best beach days for us. We were out there with low tide but had a small tidal pool that Kate LOVED! It was ideal for beach play. Cohen however wanted nothing to do with the beach and said she wanted to stay in until we went to the pool. Kelly was feeling worse and was staying in himself so she stayed with him. Kate played forever on the beach and had a lot of fun. One minute she would be playing with her baby and the next she would want her truck. She loves trucks! She is so fun to watch and her personality is so cute. I had fun snapping pictures of her. I hate Cohen didn't come out and play but she was content being in so I didn't push the point. Once we made our way to the pool she was quick to come down. Cohen got very good at jumping in and swimming to either the ladder or the steps. She would do it over and over. She found that she loved swimming underwater and could go a long way holding her breath too. It was amazing watching her get so good at swimming. At least she still wanted to swim to me and jump to me!

Playing with her truck

Taking a turn playing with her baby

She loved wearing Mama's hat

She loved playing with Bebe

Kelly decided to try to go for a bike ride that evening. Brock really wanted to see an alligator again like last year so we knew a good spot to try. I had to take this picture and you may not be able to see, but it's Kelly and Cohen and notice that in the bike basket is Cohen's American girl doll that she loves to take with her, especially on bike rides because she has a bike helmet for her doll. Thanks Auntie Tina for the helmet!:) We were lucky too because sure enough we spotted the gator!

We had decided to go eat breakfast again on Friday because we love Skillets so much. When we got up, Kelly was still feeling awful so I called our family doctor here to see what they would say and they confirmed what I had already told him...he needed to go to urgent care to be seen again since he was doing worse. I had to take Kate last year so I knew exactly where to go. I dropped Kelly off and took the girls to join everyone for breakfast. I knew he would have at least an hour's wait. Sure enough he was finishing up just as I got back to get him. He had to get 2 shots and more meds but sure enough they helped out tremendously. He was feeling a lot better after the shots and was able to come out and enjoy our last day at the beach. I was so glad because entertaining both girls alone can be a challenge, plus a sick hubby is NO FUN! That night we had take out from the Sea Shack which was great, other than the wait of course. We ate and then for some reason...I don't know when I'll learn my lesson...we decided to attempt a family picture on the beach. I love beach pictures but I don't know what possessed me to think it would work. Not only do I have a 2 year old who doesn't look at the camera when you want her to but even if by some miracle we got both girls to smile, the wind is blowing 90 miles an hour to make the hair look fabulous! I mean it isn't a good combination at all and I was smoking to think it was. Kate started throwing sand and sat still for about 30 seconds, smiling all of 0. It was a hopeless situation to say the least and it will be a snapshot for the blog but nothing else. I think last year we had a pretty cute picture at least but this year...not so much.