Hilton Head 2012

 

Summer has come to an end.  It's been a good one for certain.  I have loved every day spent with my girls.  Except three.  Those three days were so long and tedious for me I have actually kept count of them and they have all been in the last couple of weeks.  I'm sure if school didn't start tomorrow the tally would get higher, but I'll still be all weepy and sad to see Casey go off to second grade tomorrow morning and these past days of complaining and fighting and whining will be all but forgotten.  But the first day of school will be another post.  Today's is catching up on our vacation!

Friday the 10th was the day we left.  It was officially the 10th but barely.  Tom and I woke up at 2:00 a.m. and packed the last minute things and got the girls up at 2:50.  And off we went.  But first we had to stop at the ATM.  No, I'm not kidding.  I didn't dare say anything to Tom at the time, but seriously???  After the 3:00 a.m. withdrawal, we were on our way.  We arrived in Hilton Head around 3:30 p.m. and I have to note for posterity's sake that the girls only slept between 30 and 45 minutes each the entire 12 hour drive.  That's right, my lovelies managed be perfectly wonderful and awake the entire day (and most of the night) in the car.  I could not have imagined a better drive in my mind.  And if you've heard me tell you stories about Emily in the car before, you know what a miraculous thing this was. 

 

We had not stayed at this particular condo (actually it's called a villa) before and when we arrived we were immediately disappointed.  Like REALLY disappointed.  It was dirty and smelly and generally seemed unclean.  It was yuck.  We waffled back and forth for a while as to whether we should just suck it up and be happy that we were anywhere on vacation, but after a few hours of going to the grocery and unpacking all the groceries and unloading the car completely, we decided it was going to be unacceptable.  Actually Tom decided; I left it up to him.  I'll insert here that it was also Tom's birthday that day and he was not as forgiving as I was of the condition of the place.  I think he was feeling like he had arrived at a certain age where he is just sick of settling for something less than what we pay for and he had management show us a new place.  The girls were in bed at 8:00 in the grimy place and he proceeded to move every piece of everything we had brought and bought all by himself into a different (cleaner) villa.  At 10:00 p.m.  After being up since 2:00 a.m.  On his birthday.  In the rain.  We finally crashed around midnight and when our precious, overtired sweethearts woke up at 6:30 a.m., we hauled them into the car and brought them to the new place for breakfast and that was the last we ever saw of the vile villa.

The rest of the trip went something like this:  Our dearest darlings woke up every morning by 6:30 a.m., we had breakfast then went to the beach, came back to take naps, went to the pool and then out to dinner or to hear Gregg Russell sing in Harbour Town.  Two mornings Tom played golf so the girls and I got pastries and coffee for breakfast and we either went to the beach or the playground ourselves.  We went on an excellent family bike ride one morning and the weather was so awesome, I swear I didn't even break a sweat in South Carolina in August!!  That's the brief summary, here are some highlights:

Emily and Casey shared a room on vacation.  And the thing about Emily is no matter how many times you tell her she cannot talk at bedtime, she just doesn't have the impulse control not to.  At home Casey is my early bird.  Most mornings she's up and at 'em by 6:30 and Emily doesn't rise until some where between 7:30 and 8:30.  So when Emily would normally be rolling over and going back to another sleep cycle at home, she knew Casey was nearby and could not resist the temptation to say good morning to her.  If Casey gets up Tom and I can still sleep and she can entertain herself.  When Emily is up, we all are up.  At 6 something on vacation.  Thus the naps.

Casey's pride and joy of the trip was finding a starfish in the water!  We would go to the beach in the mornings and look endlessly for seashells and usually not find anything bigger than my thumbnail.  So when she saw the starfish and it was still alive, you'd of thought she'd struck gold.  Of course she had to put it back, but it was a cool find for sure!

 

 Because I'm the overprotective mom that I am, I could not bring myself to read the book I brought along the the beach every day.  We're just not at that stage yet.  When I saw other people reclined in a chair on the beach with a book, I would catch myself occasionally wishing I could do the same, but I know that day will come soon enough.  So I told my mental self to shut up and enjoy my girls making sand castles with moats and mud (sand) pies and trying to catch waves on a boogie board.  Both mine and Tom's eyes were required to keep an eye on Emily - there was just too much space and water to wander into and too many people to get lost in for my eyes to be in a book.  But at some point I had to drive home the point to Tom that only under life threatening circumstances was I going to run on the beach in a swimsuit after her.  This had to be made very clear.  Drowning or loss of life had to be actually in progress for me to run, so he needed to in this with me - no snoozing behind those sunglasses, mister.  Baywatch was a show of fiction.  Let's not be misunderstood here.

If you've read any of my previous posts you know Emily has not mastered stairs yet.  There are 114 to the top of the lighthouse in Harbour Town.  Last week wasn't peak vacation season there, but there were still plenty of people there to form a very long, hot line behind Emily trying to navigate the steps, so just Tom and Casey went this year.  I think Emily would love it up there, so we'll be working this year to get her to the top!!


Tom and Casey at the top of the lighthouse

At the playground

 

 

 

 

 

 Hopefully we'll be returning next year for some more great memories!!