#mymklife

In August I went on a beach retreat with my NSD to her condo in PCB.  I got to listen to amazing women talk all weekend and I was blessed with courage from them.  The view was awesome, the food was FAB, and the company was amazing.  I really enjoyed it!

NC 1

In honor of Buddy and LeLe coming to visit us this weekend, I thought I would FINALLY get around to writing about our journey to North Carolina back in June.

Oops.  

In June we spent a ridiculous amount of time in the car and drove to see my sister and brother in law.  We loaded up everything but the kitchen sink and traveled to the tiny town of New Bern NC for a few days.  On the way up there we stopped at CFA in some random spot in SC or NC and had dinner.  Our first stop was Charlotte and a visit with some dear friends who we used to babysit when they were MY kids' ages!  

My girls.

Morgan--who was barely a year old when we first met her.

So sad and so happy she's all grown up!

Our dear friend Brandon had QUITE a time with Spencer.  She is so friendly and he was happy to help entertain while she played!  He made us an awesome breakfast of s'mores french toast, bacon, eggs, coffee, etc.  It was FABULOUS!  Charlotte was our halfway point and we spent the night with the Hess crew before we made the rest of the journey to New Bern.

Clearly Elizabeth enjoyed herself...

Crabby

Daryk discovered this half dead crab on the beach.  He thought he would be bringing it home.  It smelled like a decaying animal and he thought it could just ride in my van on the way home.  Isn't that sweet?

We left that crab in Hilton Head... but it was a great idea.  

Little sun baby.

Big sun baby.

Siblings playing peacefully for a minute...

Love of my life.

Celebrating 5 beach vacations with my family... and we are still married!

Happiness=Hilton Head

Some more pictures from our adventure in Hilton Head.  I am so thankful to my parents for including us in this spontaneous vacation to this charming island.  We spent every day on the beach with limited interruptions.  Swimming in the ocean, followed by lunch on the beach, and then a nap, and finally more beach time.  Minus the giant mosquito bites we got between the house and the beach, it was a lovely time!  I had to leave the island one night to scrape up some Chick fil A for the kids and I.  I also got to sample their frosted lemonade drink and let me tell you that it was simply lovely!  

The pictures below chronicle the time of day that is my favorite at the beach.  I used to call it happy hour because we had adult beverages while we sat in chairs on the sand.  Now we don't sit down, but rather chase small children around.  We play in the tide pools and discover new things while we stroll along the beach splashing and laughing.  Children put a new spin on everything.  

Papa and his crew.

Seriously Special People

These are two of my favorite Elizabeths....

Meet Jordan Elizabeth and Elizabeth James...

We had a beach adventure to Hilton Head this summer and Jordan was able to meet us and spend the night with us before we came back home.  She goes to school in Savannah and that's not too far from HH, so we got a combo beach trip and special visit.  Jordan is very special to our family because she's our favorite  babysitter... possibly because she was our first babysitter.  She has been around as a part of  our lives since before we even had Hayes and she continues to be a part of our family.  Jordan is someone who I can count on to be consistently part of our lives.  She loves my children as though they are her siblings and she cares for them just like we do.  Watching Jordan and my kids brings me SUCH joy because they truly love her and they love playing with her.  

Adventures in Babysitting, errrr teaching.

Every year since I started teaching I've been privileged to accompany my smart kids to Jekyll Island.

We attend GANHS convention in April and it pretty much rocks!

This is Driftwood Beach.

There are trees all over in pieces, still growing out of the sand, over run by the waves.

We They climbed over a lot of them.

I climbed up 3 feet to have this picture made.

While I'm soaking up convention exhaustion, sunshine, and students....

The babies are returning from the lake trip and snoozing in the car.

The POWER NAP!

It always amazes me that they sleep like this and their little necks don't hurt.

I need to invent some sort of neck saver for the little people.

I could make millions, no?

My Buzz and Woody playing with trains.

I haven't seen them since Wednesday April 10.

I think this is the longest I've ever been away from them both and I'm super sad.

I'm so ready to go HOME and see them tomorrow afternoon!

Meanwhile, tonight I'm the DJ at the GANHS dance.

I'll be on the radio next week.

Radio Disney that is...

If I could live...

Hmmmmmmm.....

If I could live anywhere where would I live....

You know those pictures of those island huts over the water in Fiji? I'd pick that.

Road Trip to Charleston

Baby girl did SO good on our road trip.  She slept most of the way to and from Charleston.

And we made RECORD time both ways!

Unfortunately, the last little bit of the trip home was her rough patch.

She doesn't like being in the car seat at all!

We struggled to find things to entertain her for that last hour and a half.

I finally gave her an unopened pack of wipes.

There are 56 wipes in that pack.  She removed EVERY SINGLE ONE of them!

I knew my car smelled yummy, but I had NO idea what she was really doing back there!

Just have to laugh...

She's so big.  Walking around with her towel and her snack.

Playing on Papa's lap between naps and snacks.

I just want y'all to know that we stopped at Dunkin Donuts to get a snack and go potty.

I ordered myself that maple frosted donut so I could eat it.

Hayes ate it.  Well, he ate the icing and the part on top.
I guess he was just saving me the calories?

Playing with the water hose while 'filling up the pool' and watering the plants.

He's pretty much my favorite little boy in the whole world. 

Back to the Beach

We spent a week there and I took entirely TOO many photos to even attempt to upload and edit.  

Basically, I'm too lazy.  So, here's a slide show.  Enjoy my precious little ones!

Hayes' Ocean

 This is the extent of Hayes' ocean exposure. 
The tide pool was where he spent his time until about Thursday.

 Digging in the sand.
Throwing the sand.

 Making a sand castle.
Sorta.
Only to knock it over 3 seconds later.

 Running through the tide pool.
Splashing anything and everything in site.

 Such a cute little hiney.
Almost had some plumbers crack....
Almost.

 More gallivanting through the tide pool and the sea shell collection.

 ~WALLOWING~
This is his absolute favorite activity.
He wallows on everything all the time.

 You like the pasty white kid look?
He has a very small hint of a tan line now.
Very small.

Pool day with Princess

She wasn't a huge fan of the pool. 
But I'm pretty sure it was because being in the pool meant she was in her float and that no one was holding her...

 And she was all like, "Meh.  These mean people love meeeeeee, but they won't hold meeeeeeeeee!" So she proceeded to throw a royal hiss fit. 

 Daryk offered to style her hair, and being that she's MY child, we all know she loved that.

  Until she realized that he was doing this.

 And then she cried. 
A lot.

 Clearly she thought it was just as bad as I did.  

Bless her.

 And then she thought,

 "Hey, I'll just chill in this float and play with this dinosaur car thing and annoy my brother a lot."

 And then she got over it. 

 The end.