Whereabouts of the Wickers: Beach 2010

Friday, August 13

Beach 2010

We enjoyed our first family vacation in 3 years in June. We went to Hilton Head, one of our favorite vacation spots. It was wonderful and had been waaayyy TOO LONG since our last vacation, but we obviously had our reasons why it has been so long. We stayed in a nice house about 1/4 mile from the beach, but we had our own private pool. Lisa's brother and sister-in-law stayed with us the first half of the week, and Chris' mom, sister and her family were just down the road the entire week. It was nice having family there to hang out with. Every morning, after eating breakfast, we headed to the ocean for a few hours then would head back to the house to swim in the pool and have lunch before naps. The kids did great. We had a little pop-up tent that worked out great keeping Cameron out of the sun since she is too young for sunscreen. Austin wasn't too crazy about the beach, but got used to it after a couple of days. He enjoyed hanging out in the tidal pools and had absolutely no fear of the waves. Bradley like playing with his cousin, who is a couple of years older than him. They played in the sand and chased the schools of little fish in the tidal pools. A couple of times Chris did some fishing from the shore and caught some small sharks! He fished, on vacation, with his Dad when he was younger. So, he wanted to share that with our kids too. Cameron just chilled out in the shade in her bikini and enjoyed snacking on frequent bottles and naps. Austin usually fell asleep on the walk back to the house, and took a short nap in the shade while we swam.
Our evenings consisted of some wonderful meals, some were home cooked and others were enjoyed at local restaurants. Chris and I agreed to not eat at any chain restaurants while on vacation, and that made for some very enjoyable meals. We took a break mid-week from the sun and went to a local children's play museum, The Sandbox. http://www.thesandbox.org/ It was nice to do something different for the day, and the big kids enjoyed it. Some of our favorite seafood meals were enjoyed at the Sea Shack, Captain Woody's, and Marley's. Chris and I love seafood, and all 3 were wonderful. We also cooked at the house a couple times and enjoyed Ribs one night, and Chris' family made grilled chicken salads another night. What can I say??? We like to eat! We also went to the Tanger Outlet and enjoyed eating at our favorite little restaurant there, CornerStone Grill. Then, we got some great deals at the Gap Outlet for the kids. (it's pretty overwhelming to cloth 3 kids! :-) ) One evening we went to Coligny Plaza, which we were very close to our beach house, and had ice cream and another night we got cupcakes. I was a little disappointed because they weren't anything like Cupcake in town! http://www.freshcupcake.com/ *the link to Cupcake in Columbia and Charleston*
We enjoyed tons of family time, played games, and just enjoyed being together. It was absolutely awesome, and we can't wait until our next vacation. (which will be in October, a long weekend in the mountains to pick apples- which the cool weather and vacation can't come quick enough!!!! :-))