Fun with the Finger's: Harbor Island

I'm going to be doing some catch up on the blog this week. We have been in full summer mode and loving it! Schedules are out the door and we are just soaking up the sun with all of our friends and family. I love how relaxing summer is. We started our summer off with a vacation. What better way to get things started right?! This year Larry found a house on Harbor Island which is a place none of us had ever been to, but we were excited to see what all it had to offer. Harbor Island is very close to Beaufort, S.C. We had a great week and made a lot of fun memories! This place was perfect for Kate because we saw real quick that it had a lot of nature to see. The first day we were on the beach I found a big conch shell and saw a little hermit crab was still in it. As I kept looking I kept seeing them. I used to find these big pretty shells when I was little at Amelia Island, but it had been so long since I found a whole one. Seeing them with hermit crabs in them was neat and of course my animal loving Kate was in crab heaven. The girls all started finding them and putting them in their buckets. Each day became a crab hunting adventure and they all had some of the prettiest shells. We would let them all go though before going back to our house. I know Kate would have loved to have kept them all! She did keep a few over night at our house but we made her take them back to the beach so they wouldn't die. The water at the beach was very calm because we were almost on a sound. There were no big waves which was nice for Bryce. He was a little unsure about the ocean at first but it didn't take him long to get fully warmed up to it and he loved going out to play in it. I would sit in my beach chair to try to read a page of my book and he would just come right to me and say, "how about you take me in the water?" Well how could I say no to that cute face! I loved playing with him! We had fun at the pool too but towards the end of the week the pool was closed so the kids had to play at the beach. Since we built our own pool this year that was fine with me. I love the beach!
One quick story...we spent Memorial Day at the beach but Kelly decided to take Cohen and Savannah on a little field trip that day too. He and Larry took them to a parade in Beaufort and then to Parris Island so they could see our marines going through their basic training. They also visited the museum there as well. I think both of the girls got an eye opening experience because these drills are not fun and games. Kelly said they both were pretty much speechless and it scared them a little bit. Now we can use that to make them behave! We definitely wanted them to get a new appreciation for our military and how hard they work and what they sacrifice for our freedom.
So here is our beach trip in pictures throughout the week.

Cohen & Savannah loved doing their flips on the beach. I may or may not have did a trick or two for them myself.

The afternoon we got there was rainy & a little chilly which is why the girls have on their clothes

the girls were having some fun with the Speak Out game!

The minute we stepped out onto the beach for the first time Kate had put a crab in her net. She was always catching something!

Our first hermit crab

"flying on the beach"

They warned us when we arrived about alligators in the water. Sure enough, we saw this alligator and its babies sunning on the bank. If you look across the water to the bank you will see it. The babies are to the left of the gator!

We went to Beaufort one afternoon to walk around and eat dinner. The girls loved playing and the food was yummy. We had actually came to Beaufort when Cohen was 2. She loves hearing stories of when she was little.

Kate was happy to share her sucker

Bryce loved having his own little kiddie pool that was just his size!

Kate caught a lizard on our porch one afternoon. The funniest thing happened after I took this picture. She was holding it just like this and suddenly the lizard dropped but she still had the tail in her hand! I think they threw her off big time. She was like "it just lost its tail!" This girl is a mess!

Bryce has recently chipped his tooth. You can almost see it in this picture because one is a little shorter than the other.

The crazy part of this beach was the beach erosion and how so many houses are sitting right at the water now but they are condemned. This one was crazy! The bed is hanging out of the side of the house! I can't imagine if this was my house!

We took a sunset walk one night and it was just beautiful. We figured out it was mating season for the horseshoe crabs. They were everywhere!! The pictures don't quite do it justice. Every little hump you see are 2 crabs mating!

B loved wearing Pop's headphones

Memorial Day means festive swimsuits!

seeing Pop inside

On this day we saw a shark washed up on the beach. Cohen and Savannah were amazed! Both girls wanted to hold it!

baby horseshoe crab

our collection that day! the shells were so pretty!

a beautiful sunset that the picture can't even capture. The sun was so big!

this big crab was really holding onto the little one. I don't know if they eat each other or what!

The kids really loved this ring toss game that was on the porch. In fact Pop bought one for his porch at home they loved it so much. One day Kate ran the hook 6 times in a row! She holds the record I think!