What I did on my summer vacation!!

We had a fantastic time on our family vacation this year! We went back to Isle of Palm, right outside of Charleston, SC. We got a great little condo right on the beach and had the extra bonus of traveling the same week as Grandma and her group so we had built in reinforcements AND had two REAL dates while we were on vacation! It was a fantastic trip! Jack did great on the car rides (there and back) and took to the "new house" with no problems and kept right on schedule! The only meltdown we had was one afternoon about midway through the trip we asked him after naptime if he wanted to go back out to the pool or beach and he just lost it - he just needed some time to PLAY indoors so that is what we did.

Here is our first afternoon at the beach - Jack LOVED jumping over the waves and throwing shells into the water. (That day, the rest of the trip he wanted to stick close to the tide pools and not get too close to the actual waves unless he was on Daddy's shoulders!)

Here we are at the Low Country Children's Museum! Jack had SO much fun there this year! There was a water room where he spent a long long time going under the triangle of the bridge (like we had just done on our way into Charleston). There was also a room with a big boat in it and he had a blast running all around the boat and discovering there was a potty on the boat too! The grocery store room was a hit again and this year he even checked out and helped some other children bag their groceries! We did some crafts in the craft room (which we didn't attempt last year), but the biggest hit of all was the Castle Room that had all these tunnels and different rooms on two levels that he loved exploring!

They were doing a lot of beach reconstruction while we were there this year so there was a lot of excitement to see on the beach! Big huge pipes that were bringing in sand from the HUGE tanker boats that were just off shore in the ocean. There were diggers and big trucks "making tracks in the sand." And here Jack is running around on the tracks that his "friends" made just for him!

Jack LOVED the tide pool - this is where we spend most of our time at the beach - it was just perfect for him! He could walk all the way across it without ever getting more than chest deep and he loved searching for wildlife with Daddy and swimming in the pool! He would get all sandy on the beach and then RUN to the tide pool screaming "time for a beach bath." It was so cute!

Here Jack is discovering his friend the Hermit Crab. Mr. Hermit Crab came back to our house for an afternoon in Jack's orange beach bucket. He had so much fun looking at him and letting him crawl around on his hand! We saw so many cool things at the beach this year! We saw Hermit Crabs, Sand Dollars, tiny crabs, a "sleepy" horse shoe crab, TONS of "sleepy" jelly fish, a conch, some live sting rays caught in one of the tide pools, but the coolest of all was a pack (or pod?) of Dolphins that were feeding right off the coast! It was so cool watching them swim around and jump in and out of the water!

And of course it wasn't ALL beach on our vacation! We had a lot of fun at the pool too! Jack rediscovered the joy of jumping in over and over again! He also discovered independence this year, via water wings, the star float or his noodle!! He loved being able to just float along "all by myself" without either one of us touching him!

So, those are the highlights of our trip! There are a TON of new pictures on the photosite so be sure to check it out! Not a lot else going on - since getting back we've just been trying to get back to a normal routine and get back into the swing of things! We've got one more little trip planned for the 4th, but I'll give more details on that after we get back!