Last minute escape to Hilton Head Island

Last week we decided on Wednesday evening to head to Hilton Head early Thursday morning. So after some quick reservations, laundry, and packing, we drove the short 4 1/2 hour drive down there. We, of course, had to stop at Cracker Barrel for breakfast. Nothing like lots of fat and starch when you're on a road trip. :) It really was a great 3 day trip. The beach and hotel were B-U-S-Y, but it was still very enjoyable. Katie enjoyed herself the most, although Sam fair loved the beach and pool too. He wasn't fond of the waves as they broke, but as long as he was at the shore line or actually in the water past where they broke, he was fine. Sam can actually doggy paddle if you hold him under his stomach. It is quite a thing to behold, watching this little 14 month old paddle around the pool. Kate, as you will notice, will not go in the water without her floatie and floatie vest. But she does quite well swimming around the pool by herself. Even being so brave as to swim around the deep end by herself. Yay Katie!!!We took the kids swimming at night after dinner, spent all day on the beach and by the pool, watched movies before bed, and had a couple of snacks out of the mini bar. Sometimes that $4 pack of M&Ms just hits the spot. Oh and on the way back, we stopped at this gas station we've stopped at before where they let you feed their animals. They have a bull, a cow, a couple of ostriches, a llama, goats, geese, and a donkey. :) So anyway, here are some pics from the trip, and a couple of videos.

The beach: a beautiful, restful place called Amelia Island

I'd been when I was a kid with my parents, but had not been back as an adult. We stayed at the Amelia Island Plantation, which was just great. It was pretty and quiet and relaxing. Everything a vacation should be. Mostly we hung out by the beach and the pool, but we did spend one day at Fort Clinch exploring. That is a very neat place to check out if you ever have the occasion to be on Amelia Island. Oh and the big event during our stay was the juvenile humpback whale that died out at sea and ended up being washed up on shore in front of our condo. Then a team from the University of Florida proceeded to do a necropsy right there on the beach. They took it all the way down to it's vertebrae. Not a site for the weak of stomach, I'm telling ya. Anyway, here are all the pics from that part of the trip. Oh and my favorite picture from the whole trip is Katie playing in the water, seemingly completely oblivious to the dead whale on the beach. She kind of was really. It was just kind of like, "oh, a whale, anyway....." LOL.

So....they are done....finally....

I only just finished going through all the vacation pictures today. The last bunch are mostly landscapes. The particular one I am showcasing here was taken by my hubby.:) He can rock it when he wants to. Of course, I did the editing, but the original was pretty good. So they are all on Flickr now. Well the ones I want you guys to see at least. ;) LOL Here's the link to the beach pics. Or just scroll down and check out the slideshow from the other day. It should include all of them now.

Becuase there are so many.......

I am posting the slideshow. There are so so many pictures. I'm going to keep adding more everyday, but for today I am done going through them. I need to go spend some time with my kids. :) Enjoy!

Wow...it's been awhile.

But I've been on vacation ya'll! I have taken way too many pictures, and it's going to take me forever to get through them all. I'll be officially back tomorrow. For now I still have one more night here. It's beautiful today. Tuesday through Thursday were a little crazy courtesy of Hurricane Ike. And tomorrow should be fun trying to drive back with the gas panic. But it's all been well worth it! We've been on the beach everyday, even when it was C-R-A-Z-Y. We swam in the pool, went to Panama City to go to Gulf World and Captain Anderson's, and we explored Apalachicola. I haven't even posted a fraction of the pictures, so I'll come back and post a slide show when I do get through them all.

Because I can, because they're cute... Oh and Happy Easter!!

LOL. I just had to post these beach pics of Katie from last week. I finally pulled the pictures off of the S3. There weren't all that many, but there were some cute ones. I love the one below. Can't you see the teenager in her already? The last one looks to me like she has spotted trouble out in the water and she's about to take off to rescue someone. LOL Katie is just too cute. I could post pictures of her 10 times a day. But I won't, I promise. That might be a little much. I am just warning you guys though. Today is Easter and we are doing an Easter Egg hunt today. So beware there will be another post today with pictures, for anyone whose interested.

Our trip to St George's Island

So we are back from the beach and we had a blast. We did a lot while we were there. Hung out on the beach, took long walks on the beach, hung out in the cabana on the beach, played volleyball on the beach, rode a surry bike around the island, played at the playground on the beach, had a bonfire on the beach, ate smores, and of course got in the cold water very briefly. If you want to see more pictures you can click here to see the album. I'll be adding pictures to it probably for awhile, as it's going to take me a few days to get through the hundreds of pictures we took. :) So enjoy and keep checking back.

The Beach

The beach is great and the beach is wonderful. Katie is having a blast and so are mommy and daddy too. :)