View from our condo balcony on Isle of Palms

Will "rested" on the couch with me for a bit after nap time and built lego towers for me. We rented beach equipment and indoor toys for the kids so we didn't have to cart lots of stuff with us.

Will was very proud of his lego building!

We headed back to the beach for a while after nap time before some thunderstorms started.

My mom wanted to do dinner in for her birthday so Erik found a local place to order some fantastic carry out BBQ: Hometeam BBQ on Sullivan's Island. We had pork, chicken, ribs, brisket and lots of yummy sides. Dinner was a big hit with everyone! We celebrated Grandma Karen's birthday by singing and eating Chocolate Cream Pie from Harris Teeter... her favorite!

Erik and I got a little date night out with some friends who live in Mount Pleasant, SC. After putting John to bed (with no problems thanks to a long, busy day!) We had a blast at a Gamecocks Football booster club night at Boone Plantation. 

I can only imagine college was a blast with Erik and his friends... ha!

This picture will never stop being funny... where ya lookin' Kenny?! 

***

Saturday, August 20

We had a late night out, so coffee and breakfast at the condo was in order. Drinking milk on the porch in the morning in your jammies isn't a bad way to start the day!

We went to the beach late morning. Playing in the sand is very serious business. Just ask John.

Will and Beyla each getting a picture with the rainbow!

We followed up pizza with ice cream at Ben & Jerry's next door to the restaurant.

Joe & Karen's 40th wedding anniversary!!

These two. The whole trip was to celebrate them and their 40 blessed years of married life. I hope that we are surrounded by as much love and happiness when we celebrate 40 years as these 2 have every day of their lives. Love you mom & dad! 

We started the day by making brunch for everyone at the other condo. Poached eggs, hollandaise, cinnamon rolls, fruit, mimosas were all on the menu. It was a delicious brunch!

My folks exchanged gifts (which is always fun for us grown kids to watch them do at holidays!). My dad got my mom some beautiful jewelry. And my mom made a book of memories from the past 40+ years! She worked on it for over a year and went through old travel journals, receipts, etc and pulled it together starting from their first date (at the age of 15) all the way up until the present.

Opening their gifts with help from the kids :)

Since our families shared 2 condos there was a lot of back and forth between them. This was one of my favorite parts of that :)

After breakfast and gifts, we swam at the pool for a while and then played at the beach. You'll notice a trend on this vacation of us being either in the pool or at the beach.

Uncle Pat built a huge sand castle for the kids to destroy.

We followed suit with the other beach goers and dug our own little pool on the beach to fill up with water. The kids loved it and then we could keep an eye on them without having to be in the ocean.

Will's carrying another bucket of water to fill it up!

It was really hot while we were there. The boys didn't mind one bit and we spent a lot of time on this beach.

Hanging out with my handsome man :)

Checking out the ocean with my John John

We finished the 40th wedding anniversary celebration with a nice family dinner at Hank's in downtown Charleston. The food was delicious and all of the kids did great!!

John, say "cheese!"

Uncle Tim, say "cheese!"

Their reward for behaving at dinner? HUGE bowls of ice cream!

Family picture of our entire group outside of Hank's

I could not be luckier to have these handsome guys in my life.

We shared a bedroom with Will and set a bed up on the floor for him. John was in his pack n play in the other room and woke Will up the first night so we wanted to ensure a good night's sleep for both after long days on the beach. As you can see, Will didn't mind his new "bed" at all!

***

Monday, August 22

Our 7 year wedding anniversary!

Everyone else was scheduled to pack up and leave this morning but we had plans to spend a couple more days in SC exploring and visiting with friends and family.

We started the day with breakfast at the condo. I just have to say that staying in a condo and being able to cook breakfast and have snacks and lunch at the ready is incredibly convenient, especially when traveling with kids. Our boys are pretty well behaved when we venture out for meals, but keeping them contained over and over on a trip like this could have been difficult. Condos or house rentals make vacationing with our family so much more enjoyable!

We did some shopping with the boys and Will picked out this Gamecocks visor. It suits him very well and he's just like Uncle Pat (who also likes visors). Erik picked up a new hat and some flip flops that he is now holding in reserve for when his current flip flops wear out (he's had them since college!).

We had lunch at the condo and then put the boys down for naps. Here they are after with Will still trying to rest and watch a show, so John thought he'd snuggle/irritate his brother for a couple minutes!

We had dinner plans with Kenny and Aimee and their family but thought we'd catch a little more beach time that afternoon. Here are my attempts at capturing memories of our time on the beach. the boys were much more interested in playing than posing for mommy. So, daddy stepped in to try and wrangle them. 

I also love that we have some pictures of them on this beach because Erik and I were here just a couple of weeks after we got engaged in December 2008. It was not nearly as nice as the weather in August but we have some pretty cool pictures from our time as a newly engaged couple, well before these 2 little hooligans were even a glimmer in our eyes! 

***

Quick walk down memory lane...

He's still as handsome today as he was 8 years ago!

*** 

And back to this trip!

After our beach time, we went back to the room to get ready for dinner out with Kenny & Aimee and their kids. We went to Poe's Tavern on Sullivan's Island for burgers. We had heard great things about Poe's and I can tell you that they were all true. Thanks for the recommendations from others to try this local burger joint. The only change I would have made was making sure to ask for the egg on my burger to not be runny... other than that it was delicious!!

We walked to Sullivan's Island beach after dinner and the kids ran around and looked for hermit crabs in the sand at sunset. Our friends took some pictures of Erik and I as well as some family pictures. Truth be told, these are some of my favorite photos of Erik and I and our kids that have ever been taken. Little did we know that Kenny was such a photographer!!

John doing what John does best... running!

Our two little guys exploring :)

Beyla and Will were very excited about their hermit crab friend who came out to meet them for just a brief moment.

Cue up the wedding march! Here's Will with sweet Beyla. Too adorable!

It was a long, fun, relaxing, busy day and I wouldn't have wanted to spend it any other way. We went back to the condo and washed sand off the boys before putting them to bed. After all, tomorrow was another adventure!

***

Tuesday, August 23

After an early breakfast we got in the car to head to Columbia, SC to spend some time at the EdVenture Children's Museum. We met Nana & Papa, Kari and the Collier bunch and Kellyn, Sophie and Broc!

There were so many great exhibits here and the kids had an absolute blast checking everything out.

You may think this looks like John John, but its actually his cousin Broc!

A little play time on the big John Deere tractor for Will & John!

Will, Ella and Sydney were very busy making their own pizza

They also played grocery store, went mini golfing, checked out the pet hospital, played in the "back yard", climbed around "Eddie" and then it was time for some lunch, complete with a carousel in the middle of the cafeteria!

Will and Jack taking a drive

John and Sophie

Ella on her giraffe

Sophie and John again

This time, John rode in the airplane and gave daddy a huge smile every time he went by!

Sydney riding her bike

Silly John again!

Will's turn on the giraffe!

It's a soccer field dance party!

Broc had way too much fun and had to take a snooze after all the excitement.

John was checking out daddy's sunglasses and his new gamecocks strap.

Back to the dance party!

Smile, Will and Sophie! It took at least 4 or 5 attempts to get them both looking at the camera!

Our tricks for the upside down Will are revealed :)

It was starting to get late and we had another get together following this one so we got a picture with all the cousins before having to leave EdVenture. All of the kids sat and smiled very nicely. Except Will, who for some reason thought it would be better to make silly faces the whole time. And John, who couldn't keep his fingers out of his mouth.

These next ones are in front of the "Eddie" exhibit - complete with places to climb and slide around!

We hugged and said goodbye to all of our family and loaded up the kids for a drive around Columbia, SC in the hopes that they'd snooze a little before our next get together. Luckily, they got a little shut eye before we arrived at the home of our dear friends, Joe & Amber and their 3 sweet girls, Maddie, Abigail and Reagan.

I don't have many pictures from this visit because we spent so much time chatting and watching our kids play together. Their girls are so incredibly sweet and played with and helped our boys the entire time we were at their house. They played in the play room upstairs, on the swing set outside, jumped on the trampoline and just generally played together and had such fun.

Erik and I had such a nice time visiting with Joe & Amber, who we hadn't seen in at least a few years! It's so nice being able to pick up right where we left off and chat and hang out as though almost no time had passed. The friends that we have in SC are second to none and after each visit there I wish that we lived closer so that we could enjoy more of our time together with these sweet families!

After a great visit, lots of play time for the kids and a delicious carryout dinner we got back in the car to drive back to Isle of Palms to settle in for the night and start packing before bedtime.

***

Wednesday, August 24

Our final day of vacation :(

We packed up the suitcases, double checked the condo to make sure nothing was left behind and did some last photos on the balcony.

It was time to say goodbye to Isle of Palms and all the great memories we had over the last 6 days.

Luckily, the adventure wasn't quite done, though!

We still had plans to meet up with Aimee and the kids at the South Carolina Aquarium before heading to the airport that afternoon! This was our second visit there... the first was when John was 5 weeks old and the weather was so terrible that it was raining and 40s when we arrived. This time around it was nothing but sunshine and blue skies.

John looks nothing less than excited to be here. Maybe he remembers how cold it was the last time.

Check out the wild animal in the middle of that exhibit! Oh wait. It's just Will :)

Driving the safari truck

There was a special lego exhibit going on at the aquarium so there were random lego displays all over. Here, they built a wood chuck.

The touch pool was our last stop. Now that we've seen Finding Dory, I have a new appreciation for all those poor fish and other animals in the touch pool area!

We said our goodbyes to Aimee and the kids and made our way to the airport.

 We entertain ourselves by watching airplanes and taking "horsey rides" on daddy. Anything to keep the troops happy!



 The flight home went very well, much the same as the flight down. At check in, the customer service agent was nice enough to let us know the plane wasn't full so I could have John in a seat, rather than on my lap, at no extra charge. We took full advantage and let him have the window.

Here is he enjoying a magazine article about Christopher Walken. I could not be more proud of him.





 I'm still not sure how I got so lucky to sit with both boys while Erik sat alone across from us...

The boys did great on the flight with snacks, toys and movies to keep them occupied. We landed in Chicago and had a 2 hour drive back after a very long and busy day. We stopped for food on our way and the boys enjoyed sleeping in their own beds once we got home, as did we.

Overall it was a fun, busy, warm vacation filled with lots of great memories with extended family, friends and our little family of 4. We miss you, South Carolina, and can't wait to see you again soon!