We had the most wonderful family vacation to kick off the summer... Hilton Head Island, South Carolina!! We went for a whole week, June 2-9, 2012. Why HHI? We have heard only wonderful things about this quaint little beach and decided to see for ourselves. Carson and I have never been to S.C., heard they have great food and wanted Charlie to have a beach vacation too! I planned out the whole trip but Gigi and Papa Jess treated us to a week of beach fun!! I seriously had the hardest time narrowing down the 650+ pictures to these below...
It was an early Saturday morning on June 2nd, but Charlie was pumped about riding on a plane. (he was pretty young the last time he rode a plane)
PLANES!
Charlie's own seat, "Let's go to the beach!"
Our welcoming sign at the house
Ok here is where a few of the pictures get out of order, sorry!! We found this "fishing rod" at the house with a magnetic octopus and Charlie carried it around all week. As you can see from this picture the beaches are HUGE... well at low tide. We had never seen anything like it!! The difference between high tide and low tide is at least 100+ yards. It was crazy. Later in the week, the beaches weren't this clean of debris because it was a little stormy.
Here we are at the water and Charlie would NOT get close to the ocean. He was pretty scared. This just shows how far away from the water he wanted to play... we're thinking to ourselves, "great, we brought him all the way to the beach and he won't touch the water."
The hot thing to do on HHI is ride bikes. They're EVERYWHERE!! Glad I rented this little bad boys because they were so much fun. Carson, Papa and I had a nice hour long ride on the beach on Sunday. As you can see in the next picture, the sand is pretty compacted so it's not difficult to ride on the sand like it would be in Florida or Texas beaches.
These horseshoe crabs were all over the place. Kinda prehistoric looking little suckers. My foot is beside this one just to show you the size of it.
Gigi and Charlie in the pool
Sunday night, Chinese lanterns
Moon reflecting on the water
Loving the beach
Our family
Saying "cheese"
All grown up
One of my favorites
(here is where they're out of order) This was from our walk before dinner on Saturday night, Charlie and Papa Jess checking out the boats. Then we had dinner at The Kingfisher.
Charlie's first time to see the Atlantic Ocean
Charlie's excited hands when he put his feet in the water
Dinner Monday night at Lowcountry Backyard. They had these cute Mason jars with lids!!
Tuesday Carson and Papa had a fun day of fishing...
He asked for blue ice cream!! So we went on a bike ride to The Ice Cream Cone
YUMMY!!!!!!
Then we moved it to a cup
You can't tell but every time we walked back from the beach, rinsed off the sand, Charlie striped down naked and jumped in the pool. I'm not sure why he felt he had to be naked, but it did it every single time.
Family bike ride to dinner one night (Papa taking the picture). This is the house we rented. The address was 2 Cassina Lane if anyone is every looking for a great location and rental in HHI, we loved it!!
No, that's not a shark, it's a DOLPHIN!! They are everywhere in HHI and super close to the beach.
Carson and Charlie's Alamo sandcastle
My handsome hubby
Starfish
Daddy and Charlie catching crabs
Charlie's first time to fly a kite
Bike ride with Daddy & Mommy
Family picture on South Beach before dinner at the famous Salty Dog Cafe. We bought the Salty Dog book too and Charlie loves to read it and talk about going to the beach!!
Charlie's first face painting... well, he didn't want it on his face or hand. He wanted it on this thigh. Nemo of course!
This cracks me up!! Only my child...
We had to go see the birds
Papa Jess, Charlie and Carson
The South Beach lighthouse
Charlie's yummy cupcake from Sweet Carolina Cupcakes
Running on the beach before it rains. As you will see in a video later, he did not want to touch the ocean but would play all day long in the puddles during low tide. I think this was before dinner on Tuesday night at Bonefish Grill.
This was a cool map from our dinner at Skull Creek Boathouse on Wednesday night. (If you click on it, it will enlarge) The maps says how far away HHI is from various locations around the world.... like London is 5000 miles away.
I forgot to edit this picture, but it's still pretty cute of us from that night.
As I stated in May, his trucks work better with his tongue out.
Carson on the skim board
Charlie and Mommy
Naked hiney in the pool with a popsicle
One of my favorite family pictures from HHI
Our "tunnel" path back to the house
Check out the boats at this harbor... these were the small ones. Carson was drooling everywhere!!
Carson and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary a little early on Thursday night (the 7th, instead of the 11th), with a dinner out. Thanks Gigi and Papa Jess for babysitting. Topside was a last minute decision and it was one of our best meals on the island. LOVED it!!
Us before dinner. Happy 7th to my best friend!! I love you more and more everyday.
The beautiful sunset during dinner
Charlie loved the fountains (video below)
Papa Jess and Gigi on a walk with the kite
Charlie practicing his swimming (p.s. the pool was freezing cold!!)
Family picture
I love this picture because it shows how beautiful the island is with the moss hanging off the trees. It was probably the fact that we went early June, but the weather was beyond perfect. We could ride bikes for over an hour and not even break a sweat. It was cool, low humidity, and so southern!! (video of my mom riding the bike below)
My cute parents
Loved the mossy trees... almost reminded me of Caddo Lake back in Marshall but without the humidity. We saw a gator too in one of the marshes.
More crabs
As you can see here, the storms during the week stirred up a few sticks. It was pretty messy but still a beautiful beach. Daddy built Charlie a train sand castle because he's the best Daddy in the world!!
Enjoying our last day
Charlie on the plane ride home
Charlie on the car ride back to the house....
My favorite video from our vacation, Charlie jumping in the puddles on HHI:
Charlie splashing in the fountains:
My mom can still ride a bike:
Charlie digging in the sand on HHI:
I don't have a video of the actual men but this is a clip of them singing a few tables away from us. Our waiter told us their story... it was about seven men in their 60s at the same table. Apparently they all went to college together and had reunions every summer on HHI. Most of them were singers in a group in college and when they came back to HHI they always would sit down for a long dinner at Topside and just randomly start singing their old hits. It was like we had our own personal entertainment during our anniversary dinner:
(Sorry for the windy background)
Charlie is a sack of taters:
Charlie is a sack of taters:
Charlie waves at the helicopter:
Thanks again Gigi and Papa Jess!! We loved Hilton Head and our time with you!!
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