Night at the K

The whole crew

Ready to cheer on the Royals!

One of the things Sam asked my mom for, for his birthday were tickets to a Royals game. So this last Friday we headed to the K for buck night, Friday night fireworks and baseball. Despite the heat we all had a good time and enjoyed watching the Royals win! The fireworks show after the game was also a big hit.

Fourth Festivities

Ella and Laura watching the fireworks.

Sam and Bobby with pieces of a bucket that was blown up earlier. Notice part of the bucket is still in the tree.

We were at the Siegels' again this year for their annual Fourth of July bash. This has always been the favorite holiday of my dad and he is usually the most excited in our family leading up to the event. I think this year his excitement was surpassed by Sam. He was ready to go hours before the party began and talking about all of the fireworks he was going to set off. He got a lot of fun things that he could do at the fireworks stand and spent the afternoon lighting bee, after parachute, after firecracker. His big excitement of the day though is when Bobby arrives. Bobby is a friend of the family who makes homemade fireworks that can blow almost anything up and he is Sam's hero. Sam must have followed him around for the first hour begging him to light more of his "bombs." Ella mostly played inside during the afternoon not liking all of the noise. Her favorite things were the purple smoke bombs and the sparklers. I think everyone had a good time celebrating Aiden's birthday, America's birthday and spending time with friends and family.

Just Beachy!

Of course you can not go to Hilton Head Island without a lot of time spent on the beach. I love to just lay on the sand and listen to the waves rolling in to the shore. The kids all had a great time playing in the sand and at Hilton Head they have these great tide pools that they really enjoyed. Sam loved to go out and jump the waves with anyone that would take him and Ella swam on her own (with very close supervision) for the first time this year. The beach was also a place to watch the sunset which Sam did with Grandma, AC, and Emma and to go searching for crabs in the evenings. Sometimes I really wish we didn't live so far away from it.

Hilton Head Activities

Eating ice-cream! Notice Sam's blue teeth.

The first day of the puzzle

Posing between holes

While a lot of time in Hilton Head was spent in the water we also went out for some other fun activities. We went to Sea Pines and climbed the lighthouse. While never a working lighthouse it did give a great view of the area. It also had some neat little shops surrounding it where we were able to buy our postcards and some other souvenirs.

Another favorite activity for the kids was miniature golfing. Near our house was a pirate themed course that was very nice and the kids really enjoyed. They even talked AC into taking them back there a second time. We also went out twice for ice cream and had dinner at The Salty Dog Cafe. A favorite activity for most of the adults was a 2000 piece puzzle that Scott and Becky brought along. We weren't sure for a while if we would finish it before we left but it got completed. No telling how many hours were spent total on it but I think it was a lot of fun although occasionally frustrating for everyone involved.

Hey Y'all

Paula and me before lunch

Laura waiting in line at Lady and Sons

Cathedral of St. John the Baptist

At our house we love to watch Food Network and I love to watch Paula Deen. Why? Because she cooks the food that I would most like to eat. So when Lauren was planning a trip to Savannah, Georgia and to Paula Deen's restaurant I had to go and Becky and Laura wanted to come along too.

Now going to Paula's restaurant is an all morning experience. You have to go wait in line in the morning to get a reservation to come back for lunch. That luckily, left us plenty of time to see the city of Savannah. While Lauren was researching what to do she had found information on the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist as a place to see. I love old churches and suggested we start there. I was so glad we put that on our list because it was absolutely beautiful. The church was rebuilt a little over a hundred years ago after the inside had been destroyed in a fire. It is breathtaking and is staffed by women of the parish who love to tell you its' history and show you its' beauty.

While in Savannah we also got to see the city market which was a neat little area to hang out and a lot of beautiful courtyards all around the historic area of Savannah. Then it was time for our lunch with Paula. While I can't say the lunch was spectacular it was good southern food that filled you up quickly. My favorite was definitely the cheddar biscuits. Might have to look up a recipe for those. It was a nice girls day and a fun break from the beach house.

Pool TIme!

That is my dad jumping into the middle of the pool. It was no doubt preceded by the shout, "Hey You Guys!"

Jono doing his "This Guy" jump.

Ella hanging out in the whirlpool

Sam and Emma posing for an underwater shot

The biggest part of our vacation was spent either in or sitting by the pool! I think Emma and Sam probably logged the most hours but I would say everyone spent a lot of time there. There were games of fireball, hand stand competitions, many cannon balls, and just some reading and relaxing.

Beach House

Sam showing off the room he shared with Emma for a few days.

The kitchen where a lot of yummy meals were made (none by me, YEAH!). I promise I did my fair share of the clean up though.

Ella in our bedroom.

The backyard

The beach house!

I have so many pics and memories from our vacation that I am breaking the posts up into categories. Hope I do not bore you all but it was a trip to remember. I thought I would start with the beach house. You never know exactly what you are going to get when you pick a house on-line but it was even better than I thought. The best part I think was the super short walk to the beach so people could come and go as the pleased. The house was the perfect size, very nice and had nice features like a room to play games, an outdoor kitchen area and the most important a nice pool. The kids ended up loving the little whirlpool and it was a perfect spot for Aiden and Ella to play or to hold Emma and Sam when the big boys were playing fireball.

Going to Carolina (South Carolina That Is)

Aiden loved watching the planes.

The kids and me on the pier in Charleston

Grandma and Ella in Charleston.

We rented a beach house in Hilton Head, South Carolina this last week and went for a family vacation. Almost everyone flew out of Kansas City which is usually an easy, quick experience. This time it was not. After arriving at the airport over an hour ahead of time we were still in line when we heard the announcement that our plane was boarding. I got to experience the running through the airport not sure if you are going to make your flight. It was not an experience that I want to repeat. Then in Nashville we watched from inside as our luggage sat on the runway in the middle of a thunderstorm.

Although the day got off to a stressful start it ended well. The kids all did well on the flights and on our delay in Nashville. We made it to Charleston on time and our house had a dryer to dry some of our wet belongings. We even got to spend a little time in Charleston before heading south to Hilton Head.