VACATION 2010

Summer vacation is one of those things we just love. This year the weather was extra hot but we still managed to get out every single day and enjoy the sun and water.

Here are some pictures that just bring a smile to my face.

This watering whole slowly filled up as the tides came in. The little ones had a blast with this one.

We jumped off the side of the pool so many times my poor arms hurt from all the catching and lifting to do it again.
Botany Bay is this beautiful run of beach that is preserved by the State of South Carolina. It is covered with lots of beautiful shells that are protected by the state. You can't take any from the beach. I think it is OK because it makes the beach so beautiful.

This child climbed every fallen try along our beach front walk.

My youngest wanted nothing more than to see Dolphins in the Ocean. Every trip to the beach the question was raised. So a trip on a boat tour was a must and yes we got to see Dolphins. See this smile, it was because he saw them.
Luke got to go fishing in the ocean with his grandpa and daddy this year.
I really don't want to say much. I think the photo's tell a great story of our vacation and all the fun we had.

WATER FUN

While on vacation it is the water that we seem to love and enjoy so much. My husband and I both would love to relax in on the sand in the sun with a good book but we have come to the reality that this is not going to be an option for many years, unless we take a vacation with out the boys.

My boys truly love the water. Last summer by the end of summer Luke was just getting a little comfortable with putting his head in the water. He went to Latchkey all summer and once a week he got to go swimming. It literally took all summer for him to get comfortable in the water.

This summer our vacation was the second time he was in a pool. This child blew us away. First with going under water, second taking a little instruction from us and he was swimming around the pool by day 2. AMAZING!!!!

Here is a little video clip of him enjoying the pool.



Now it is time for swimming lessons. No more waiting around....

The bad part about his new found love for swimming is he doesn't want to go to the sitters with his little brother for the summer. He wants to go to latchkey so he can go to the pool all summer. I don't blame him but it will cost me more money. I told him he had to give the sitter a try for 3 weeks and then if he doesn't like it I will consider switching him back. Now all I am hearing is "has it been three weeks yet", throw in a little 7 year old attitude with that and you get the idea.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Now my little guy was all about the ocean. Forget the pool, lets go to the ocean. You couldn't call it the beach either, it was the ocean and had dolphins and whales.

Anyway here is a little clip of him enjoying the waves with his daddy.




He would crack us up when he would say in Spanish "salto" as the waves would come. This word means jump, thank you Dora the Explorer for teaching my two year old a little Spanish. The funny part is I always have to ask my seven year old what that meant. I don't think he say's "salto" here on this video.

Trip to the Lake

When I was a child we took the same vacation every summer. We went to my aunt and uncles cabin they have in Michigan. I can remember doing this for years and years. It was a fun week each year but it also got old doing the same vacation over and over again.

In 2006 my parents asked all of us (my family, & my brothers families) to go each summer to the cabin for a weekend. I thought how fun to take my kids where I had spent many a summers playing with my cousins as a kid.

The play ground is still their and the swings are probably the same swings we played on as kids, just 30 years older.

The roped off area for swimming and the small sand beach is still in place also. Seems much smaller to me today. I would also swear these floating things are the same ones we played on as kids. I seriously doubt they are 30 years old but we played on the exact same things.

The only thing missing is their use to be a small general store down by the water that we always bought nickle candy at. It was the candy store to us and we loved it. OK as a mom I am probably glad this is gone but it was way cool when I was a kid.

Here Thomas sits on the steps in front of the cabin. My mom has a photo of me and my cousins sitting in this same spot with our life vests on when we were probably 6 or 7 years old. I also took a photo a couple summers ago with the kids in their life vests sitting on these steps (it is MIA). Their is also a picture of my uncle as a young boy standing in front of the cabin. He is now in his 60's. If these walls could talk....

Here my boys sit on these really nice stairs that use to be these old stone steps leading down to the water. The old steps are under these...

I dug out this pic from last summer.

Poor Thomas hated the life vest so much he cried himself to sleep.

I don't know how I got a smile because all I heard was off mama, off.
Still does not like the vest.

Grandpa caught a fish and dropped it on the boat floor. It flopped around and Thomas freaked out. I got a pic of Thomas with a look of fear but then he climbed me like a cat so I didn't get a pic of the fish.

Now Luke loves the fish and going fishing.

He can't wait to get out on the boat each year.

This was a pic of Luke fishing in 2006. At 3 years old he loved this!

Luke also went tubing on the lake. His dad did it with him this year. The water was freezing so I wasn't getting in. Each year I want to go tubing but with my husband and brother at the controls of the boat, no way. They will dump me into the lake for sure. No pic because once again, I forgot my camera. My SIL took pics and said she would send them to me.

We have gone the past 4 years on this family weekend get away. Luke is now at an age where he asks as soon as summer hits when are we going to Michigan. He knows we will go....I am just glad he likes going.

Do you have a vacation destination that your family likes to visit often?

Boating & Dinner

On this years summer vacation we went to a local couples house (someone my father-in-law) knows. They invited us out to dinner one night. We left the kids at the house with nanny my in-laws brought to help with the kids.

The couple lived along one of the water canals that leads to the ocean and they have a boat. We all got into the boat and head up the channel and off to dinner. Talk about a fantastic way to go have dinner. I would have never in a million years dreamed I would be boating, docking and fine dinning all at once. This is something I think rich people do, not me.

My biggest regret, I forgot to take the camera. All through the channel we saw dolphin after dolphin. They would be right in front of the boat, right beside the boat, etc... I have never been this close to them before in their natural setting. I loved it!

We boated for about an hour and then docked at a docking area that had several restaurants. We ate dinner and then it was back into the boat. Now here is the part I didn't like... Off in the distance was a lovely thunderstorm. The sky was beautiful and all lit up with pretty colors and lighting everywhere. We drove really fast but we were also headed straight into the storm. I kept saying a prayer over and over again because it was a bit scary being on the water and surrounded by lighting. We docked just in time because as soon as we got into their house it started pouring down rain. It was an amazing light show with all the lightning, I was very glad we made it back before the rain hit.

Have you ever done something like this?

A FEW VACATION HIGHLIGHTS

This year’s vacation was a family vacation with my in-laws. my in-laws have custody of my sister-in-laws kids. They are doing the right thing by these kids even though it is very hard for them to be raising young kids while in their mid-50’s.

So on our trip we had my mother-in-law, father-in-law, Eric, myself and my in-laws also brought a lovely 22 year old gal “M” to help with the kids.

“A” who is my 4 year old niece.

“C” who is my two year old niece. I have a great story to share about the swim shirt she is wearing but I am going to make that a separate post. Let me just say she was our drama mama..

“L who is my 23 month old nephew. He is the one on the left. He is 6 months older than Thomas but so much smaller. Thomas is actually "C" size (she is little also).

And of course you have my two (Thomas 19 months old & Luke 6 years old).

If you can imagine the insanity of 5 kids.

We stayed in the beautiful 4 bedroom house that was two blocks from the ocean. I really think that house was happy to see us go because I would swear the kids had a pack that one of them must be screaming or crying at all times.

All of the houses were built up a story so this is different to us. I would also swear the placed swayed or moved. I noticed it a lot at night while sleeping.

While at the house one of our favorite things to do was to hang out on this huge porch. It had lots of rocking chairs and a hammock to just relax in.

The hammock was one of the kid’s favorite things to fight over. Everyone wanted a turn.

Isn't he adorable!

Now when we were not relaxing at the house we were at the beach. We love to go to the beach!

This was not the beach near where we stayed. This was Botany Bay and it is beautiful and full of thousands of sea shells.

Just like last year I have a picture of Thomas sleeping on the beach under an umbrella.

So cute but his chubby legs are not nearly as chubby as they were last year.

Thomas did not like the water the first day but on day two Luke had a boggy board and Thomas saw this and that was it, he wanted it and if it meant getting in the water to play on that thing, so be it. I would put it just at the edge of the water and he would sit on it and the waves would come in and push him up the sandy beach. He would laugh and it was a good old time.

Eric and his dad went fishing in the ocean and caught a shark. It was a little shark but they still caught a shark and the kids thought it was so cool and every one ate some but me. I hate sea food and I wasn’t about to eat that shark. (No one took a picture, what is wrong with us)

I could go on forever with so much more but this is getting long so I will take a break and share more another day.

Back to the real world

After 13 growling hours in the car yesterday we are finally home. It was supposed to be a drive we split between two days but my father-in-law decided he was driving all the way home so we did also.

So where did we go? We went to South Carolina's Edisto Island. If you have never been it is a very cool place. It is a small inter-coastal island. It one of hte last non-commercialized beach areas of South Carolina. Not a lot of stuff to do but hang out and go to the beach. That is how we like it. We could spend all our time at the beach.

Luke playing in the sand on the beach.

Thomas playing in the water at the beach.

We did break away from the beach on day and drove to Charlston. It was a little more than an hour away and we did spend a day in Charlston walking the streets of the city.

I have lots of pictures to share and many stories to tell. But right now I have had about 4 hours of sleep from the late arrival home last night and Thomas's early wake up call.

This is a picture of the look out from the house we stayed in.

We had several lap tops on vacation and even a wireless card but where we were at we could not pick up a signal for nothing. Even our cell phones did not work. So I have a lot of blogs to read and catch up on.

VACATIONS FROM THE PAST

We are about to take another wonderful family vacation. I will fill you in on the details of our trip when we return.

As a tribute to the past I thought I would go back in time and share some of our past vacations. So here is my Friday Photo Flashback:

Play along with Friday Photo Flashback.


1995 - Hawaii
This was one of the first vacations that Eric and I ever went on together.

1997 - Mackinac (Mackinaw) Island
If you have never been here it is a really fun place to go.

This is a picture of Eric and I on the fairy over to the island. Oh to be in my early 20's again!

1998 - Cruise in the Caribbean
This was also our Wedding in St. Thomas and honey moon.

2005 - Naples Florida

Luke was two and this trip was the first time he had ever flown on an airplane. It was exciting. The photo was of a boat cruise we took and he hated it! He was one grumpy kid this whole cruise, the good part was it was just us and one other couple on the boat. We have a video recording of this somewhere.

2006 - Mackinaw Island (again) This really is one of our favorite vacation spots. It is such a fun family type place.

Here is a photo of Luke after we took an island tour by horse. On this island their are no cars allowed. You either travel by walking, riding a bike or by horse. What I love about this photo is to this day you can ask Luke about this trip and he will tell you that the horses in this photo are named Molly and Sam.
2008 - Destin Florida


This was last summers vacation and Thomas's first vacation with us. Every afternoon he took a nap under the big umbrella on the beach. It was so cute to see. Don't you just love those chunky legs.

For Aloha Friday, my question this week is:
Where is your favorite vacation destination?
Obviously you can tell we really like the water and going to the beach.

Play along at An Island Life for Aloha Friday. If you’d like to participate, just post your own question on your blog and leave your link at An Island Life.