Final SC pics-I swear!

So trav had heard about an old church that had been burnt down not once-but twice-wayyy out in Monck's Corner. We took a road trip out to check it out-quite off the beaten path. (that's the kind of stuff we love to explore)

It was neat but the best part for me was it was not far from Goose Creek-where I'd lived when I was younger-so we got to drive by and stalk my old neighborhood again...just one of these days I hope I'll get the nerve to stop at our old house and beg to see it-lol!

That evening we ended up at Home Team out on Sullivan's Island again-the BBQ is awesome.

yumz.

Gabe had been working hard to master 2 things: to whistle and to cross his eyes. he figured both out on the trip :)

:)

Goofy candids

Sawyer-building a "hermit crab house"

I'm assuming this is the smallest horseshoe crab ever??

I thought this was cute but just realised he looks like he's peeing or something

;)

and....AND!!! I got to spend almost all day with my friend Michelle again! Last year we saw each other for about an hour...This time we met up at the outlet mall then she and her daughter stole me and Chloe away to go to lunch, visit her mom and tour her new home under construction. We followed up with meeting my guys at the beach and hanging out for awhile..

Her daughter, Kaitlyn is 3 days younger than Chloe-they really clicked :)

We ended the evening at Shem Creek for dinner at Red's.

Greattt grouper sandwiches!

Those goofy girls taking pics of themselves.

{cooking up a slumber party plan?}

Yep-slumber party was had!

Here we are the next day at the Charles Pinkney home.

Just a place to wander around (for free) we didn't want to spend a bunch of $ since it looked like rain was coming in from the tropical storm in Fla...

but of coarse it hit the NEXT day)

Then I got a little emotional thinking about when growing up-Michelle was the primary person I usually spent the night with and had her at my home as well...and how odd it was that these 2 met only hours before, clicked and here they were having their own sleep over like we used to...*sniff*

I think it's neat.

Especially concidering I'd never thought I'd see any of my old friends again. I mean come on, I moved when I was 10, here I am at 39 and we're picking up like no time has passed-no awkwardness or anything-just simply amazing.

Gabe found all sorts of neat things of coarse.

Conchs

Thousands of them. Just hatched and crawling to the water.

Amazing- never seen anything like it!

This was our last evening. What a neat way to end our vacation.

SC-continued

Crack me up! I love the spices and sauces in this one booth in the downtown market...the names are hilarious :)

My brother, Clif and his son, Mason came down from Charlotte for a couple days. It was great seeing them-even if for a short time. here he was playing around with a huge horseshoe crab we found...I wanted to show the kids the underneath side so he was the lucky one to have to lift it ;)

Me n Trav. Not sure why he's putting bunny ears on my shoulder?

Ran thru the Unitarian Church cemetary again. Literally. There were cidada killers dive-bombing us everywhere-ick!

The boys found an above-ground tomb that was broken and you could see inside. Somehow a full-on story about this is where the zombies come out evolved...

My cutie-well, one of them...

Dinner at Gilligan's w/ Clif and Mason. The kid cracks me up with his faces...

And those crazy turtles again out back again...we went there to see the turtles really-sure wasn't for the food...lesson learned.

Just like the name-lol.

{slightly north of broad}

I think the only photo of me and Clif together...lol.

love reflections-kinda hard to see this one...

lol

So this has me wondering about the person who set this little guy up on a downtown bench.

Did he just want to give a few people a good chuckle?

Was he watching from a window nearby?

The boys wanted to take him with us...but I made him stay put to make a few others smile.

My favorite boutique-so many fun handmade goodies!

Spinning :)

Found an awesome water-front park underneath the Ravenel Bridge crossing over from Charleston.

So much fun-and you never knew you were under a huge bridge either-crazy!

South Carolina-The next couple of days

I used to wonder (and worry) is my love of the place and the yearning for Charleston just part of my angst of having to move away? All throughout school in Illinois I idealized SC and thought of it as my "home". I hated it here and wanted to go back. If we couldn't move back then I would retire there I have always said.(funny to think of myself as a 10 yr old talking about where I choose to retire-lol)

Luckily it seems as Travis is on board with that so far...

But now that we've had 2 years in a row to go visit, see my old house and places we'd gone when I was young I realise that yes, I think I did idealize it somewhat-who wouldn't? But I believe I've fallen in love with it all over again for completely different reasons as an adult... I am so glad that it seems that my family has fallen for it too :)

A kid was catching a ton of bait fish and keeping them in a bucket along the tidal pool and all the kids around were playing with them...Sawyer included.

Outside of the Unitarian Church, downtown Charleston.

Outside of some theater-it was black granite-weird how it showed up like a mirror...

How most of our photos come out when all 3 of them are involved.

We went to Cypress Gardens one day-the kids were so excited to explore a real swamp! I remember as a kid when they filmed The Swamp thing there and how cool we thought that was. lol

Do you see that teeny little chick? It's hard to tell but that baby quail was hatched a week prior and was only the size of a quarter pr a smidge larger. I've never seen anything like it!

Gabe found a friend, as always...

The kids were good--til we headed for the small rowboats to row through the swamp. gabe put on the brakes, freaked out and hid. But after some coaxing he got in and now if you ask him his favorite part of vacation he'll tell you it was going on the boat in the swamp and sseeing an alligator 10 ft away from us.

So pretty.....

A boat worker told me the only person bit by a gator out there actually stepped on it while walking on a path---what I want to know it-how on earth do you NOT see an alligator laying across a path???

Wondering when I'll learn.....Damn every fire ant in the world! You'd have to look closely at the welts coming up all over my foot...In fact, here we are weeks later and I'm still scratching like crazy at the scars :(

I remember being maybe in 1st or 2nd grade going blackberry picking with my neighbor and her dad in the woods. I was picking away at a bush when out of nowhere I was thrown to the ground and my pants being whipped off and being slapped all over...I had no idea what was happening and trust me it scared the helllll out of me. I can still close my eyes and flash right back there. Turned out I was on a huge fireant mound and they were covering me and I wasn't moving so I hadn't been bitten yet-by the time it was said and done I was covered in TONS of bites up to my waist. I look at my foot and shake my head and think NOTHING could ever be as bad as that time...*shiver*

Us-taken by Trav.

...and all of us-taken on a cobblestone street downtown. would have been great if I'd taken into consideration the truck and the stop sign....

Oh well-can't have everything. At least everyone is looking in the same direction-right? lol

Vaca-the first couple of days

Who doesn't do this in hotels?

The BEST shrimp dinner ever. The veggies were to die for :)

My video didn't take but I'm so glad I tooka still shot of this. Our first evening after dinner we walked over to Folly Beach and there were these guys playing bongos and stuff under the pier. sawyer was facinated and kept drawing closer...one brought over a bongo for him to play and he cautiously bopped it a couple times while keeping his eyes on the guys. By the time the song was over he was keeping beat, getting into it and tried to even help them load-to which they joked maybe he could be their roadie. He jammed out to the music all the way back to the hotel still feelin it-it was adorable :)

End of Folly by the Morris lighthouse. Glad we got to stop here since we didn't make it to the boneyard beach at Bulls Island.

Taco Boy had the best Mahi tacos on Folly-yummo!

Just daydreaming about owning a cute little vacation house...

Pitt Street pier entrance

The kids were freaking out about these guys jumping at the end of Pitt Street. Was fun entertainment-especially once the Coast Guard starting whooping their siren at them and saying through the speaker "not a very smart move, boys!" and watching them scurry...lol

Vacation

Vacation. I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since we've been home from South Carolina! We had such a great time last year that the kids begged to go back to the same place.

Here's a little peek at the Pitt Street pier sunset for now...I'll add to this as time allows.

Sigh* I'm ready to go back.

11 things

Happy 11th Birthday to my sweet baby girl...... 11 things I love about her:

1-I love how she can go from girly-girl playing in old prom dresses with the neighbor girls then turns right around and will be the only girl playing "capture the flag" with all the neighborhood boys.

2-I love that when she plays defense in soccer she is the only one to boot the ball all the way to the other end of the field and we always hear people gasp.

3-I love that she is proud of her muscles.

4-I love how she is w/ the boys when she gets in "teacher mode" instead of sister mode. She goes from being bossy to ultra-gentle.

5-I love that she isn't into the drama that other girls in her class are starting to get into.

6-I love that she's a good friend.

7-I love that she's texting a 9 year old neighbor boy who is in the process of moving and they're talking about toilets, watermelons and tomatos. They crack me up.

9-I love that she is excited about doing secret services for each other this summer.

10-I secretely love that we have identical eye color ;)

11- I love her honestly and compassion.

Where has the time gone?

Wow.

Well, Guess it's been almost a year since I've posted on here!...This one is for YOU Tara! Thanks for guilting me about my blog neglect ;) Sometimes we all need a little nudge...

It's hit me now how much I miss flipping thru old blog posts and seeing the kids grow-remembering different jewelry pieces I've made and said good-bye to, seeing the progress made on the house with remodeling...so I will try to get back on here more. I promise.

I've never been one who likes change. Then blogger went and changed on me. Hmph.

I've also always been one to think less of myself very easily. Reading other blogs started making me feel crappy so easily that when I quit writing- I stopped reading many of the blogs I had in my reader because they just made me feel like crap. Everyone appears to have the peachy perfect life-they take the best photographs, dog not peeing on the floor, they never yell at their kids because they're perfectly behaved, successful in their art...

So when I go to write I think who wants to hear me complain about the kids arguing non-stop, me whining about no "me time", too many birthday parties to shop for w/ no $, which art fair I didn't get into and how it throws me into the self-loathing tizzy that I hate about myself...blahblahblah...

But I can't only post the great stuff-it wouldn't be real-right? Because I don't want my posts to ever make someone feel that way.

But-it's real life. My blog-my life. What you see is whatcha get ;)

So with that being said I'm going to attempt this newish blogger layout and attach some real-life photos from the past year.