Hilton Head 2009 Part II

Here is the long overdue Part II posting of our family beach vacation. At the end of June, we loaded up the van (and I mean "loaded" up the van) and took Caroline & Andrew down to Hilton Head. We did stop over in Statesboro on the way down to see our niece's nursery. It was decked in pink and green and all ready for Reagan (she is due Aug 11th).

These are pictures of everyone who went on the trip: Ben & me, Caroline, Larry (my brother) & Ansley (34 wks prego- doesn't she look great!), Andrew & my parents:

We were somewhat concerned about keeping a four-month old baby out on the beach for too long, but thanks to a friend of mine, we had a great baby canopy which was ideal for the beach. We also had a huge tailgating tent that we put up to mark our spot on the beach (I was amazed by how popular these have become).

Caroline was immediately hesitant about the ocean. She liked playing in the sand and sitting with us on the beach, but taking her near the water was another story. We were just thankful that she was not down at the beach when a shark was spotted.

Pure panic as she nears the water.


If you look at the picture below you can somewhat make out the shark. It is just a little right-center.



Caroline had fun playing in the sand and enjoyed tearing down all of the sandcastles we all tried to help her build :)

To get the picture in the center, I told Caroline to say, "ice-cream" she immediately looked up (she had been ignoring me before) with a BIG smile!

Andrew, on the other hand, did not seem to mind the ocean at all. Dipping his toesies in it was quite fun since he was the only one we could seem to get to go down by the ocean.

Both kids really liked the pool. Caroline stuck to the steps the first two days, but as soon as she met her new friend, Ashley, it was off to the deep end for her! Ashley was from Smyrna. Ben and I enjoyed meeting her parents and hanging out with them by the pool. We called the girls the "pink hat" club. It was too cute to look in the pool and see two pink hats bobbing along.

Caroline also had fun blowing bubbles and eating ice-cream! Although the two kids were the center of most of the trip, it was nice hanging out with my family and relaxing on the beach.

Hilton Head 2009 Part I

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We were fortunate to get to continue our beach trip tradition with my family this year. The destination we chose was Hilton Head. We chose Hilton Head for two primary reasons: 1) shorter drive w/ 2 kids and 2) close to Savannah for my 34 week pregnant sis-in-law (which is where her doctor is located). We couldn't have asked for a better location and ammenities. Our condo was HUGE and convenient to everything. We enjoyed spending time with family, playing in the sun and making memories with Caroline and Andrew. Sorry this post has taken me a week to upload but when you take nearly 1,000 pictures sifting through them is quite a challenge :) This post will be my first of two. The slide show is of our beach portraits (w/ Ben and I serving as the photographers--hee-hee). We tried to get a family photo but w/ a 2 yr old and a self-timer none of them really turned out (both kids crying, Caroline running off, or wind blowing hair everywhere). Yes, it was quite windy when these pictures were taken so let me go ahead and apologize for my crazy hair (of course Caroline's looked quite pretty - she doesn't get that from me). Enjoy the slideshow and check back for post #2 which will include our candid beach and pool pictures from the week.