Hilton Head 2011

(before I start getting threatening letters and hate mail....here are pictures from the first week of our trip!)

Hilton Head was A.MA.zing this year! For the first time in eleven years my whole immediate family (plus John!) stayed under one roof. There was twelve of us in the house (only took eleven years to get everyone to agree to go in on a house together! Better a decade late than never!)

It was me, Isaak and the girls, Joel, Abby and Victoria, Jordan and Becca, Mom and David (whoo hoo! David came this year!) and John.

It was wonderful.

And by wonderful...I mean not perfect, totally chaotic, loud (really loud), annoying at times, silly, fun, spunky, and absolutely glorious. 

I would do it again in a heartbeat.

I'm still laughing at all the ridiculous conversations. My family is special. Very very special. God cut us from a totally different mold I think. It takes a brave soul to be around us. We can be a bit, er, intimidating. And not just my immediate family. But the whole lot of us. Because in all fairness, I consider my extended family to be my immediate family because we are ridiculously close. To everyone. This year was a small gathering for us with just 38 of us in attendance. Usually we sit at around 50 of us. And I grew up with all of them. Aunt, uncles, and a herd of cousins. And every single one of em is loud as all get out. I'm talking LOUD. Everyone is always talking at the same time. No body waits their turn to speak. You will be interrupted before you can finish saying your first word. So in order to be heard you have to talk louder than the person next to you. And everyone has really short attention spans (which may be in part from the alcohol) so if you can finally fit in a first word the subject will be changed once you finish your sentence. (unless we're talking about poo or periods, then those go on all night...I don't know why....but my family has some weird love affair with bodily functions.) Conversations are always interesting.

There is never a shortage of crazy memories....so that being said, let the good times roll.....

We set off for our trip bright and early on my 30th birthday. It was the perfect way to ring in that day. Normal. No fuss. Quietly kissed my 20's goodbye and said hello to another day as a thirty year old.

We stopped in Nashville for the night and dined at Logan's where I was not so quietly sang to as a newly 21 year old. Ha! That ship has long sailed!

Girls all cozy in the hotel before we woke them to finish our trip.....

This time I thought I'd try play-do in the car. I didn't know if I'd be getting fined for throwing it out the window half way through the trip....but it turned out to be great! I brought cardboard "tables" for them to put it on, and it actually stayed on the cardboard. And more importantly it entertained them, for.a.long.time. This is a must have for all future trips.

Somewhere down south...cotton fields in the background....we're getting closer...my heart sure does love it down here. And I never realize how much I miss it until I'm back.

 We pulled into Hilton Head after dark so the first thing we did the next morning was break in the bikes for a quickie ride to the beach. The girls screamed in delight the whole ride......"WHA HOO! Faster Daddy FASTER!!" with their arms flailing in the air like they were riding a roller coaster. And of course Isaak is a push over with those girls so he rode that bike as fast as his legs could peddle them. All the other sidewalking patrons got quite a kick out of it. You could hear them comin' a mile away! The island was officially notified of our presence!

Ahhhh......my happy place.

We'd go out most mornings during low tide so the girls could play in the tide pools. Marvelly isn't a fan of swimming in the ocean, so the tide pools, or "kid water" as she called it was just perfect for her.

(Marvelly did get brave for a little while and run into the ocean. But then she was done and happily returned to her "kid water".)

 Sydaleigh on the other hand loves the ocean. Loves the waves. Loves the bigness of it all.

 

we chased seagulls....

hunted for hermit crabs....

(During the earlier hours in the tide pools we'd find tons and tons and tons of little hermit crabs.We spent many a hours looking for them in the water and filling our pails up with them and we'd put them back before we left the beach. And this year my Uncle Chris and Aunt Jane finally taught me how to spot a sand dollar from under the sand. Just follow the trail..... :~) )

We.love.it.here. One of my favorite places on earth.

there was plenty of time spent with Mimi and Grandpa Dave!

Isaak's Uncle Cesar even drove down for the afternoon and had dinner with us. So good to see him!

there was lots of eating and sitting and talking and harrassing.....and getting reacquainted with favorite cousins...

there was hot tubbing.....

(Oye. The hot tub. I tell ya it's a darn miracle someone didn't drown. The guys had some weird obsession with this thing, climbing in there almost every night, drinking, talking politics or other equally amusing topics. And then when the hot tub got too hot they'd jump into the freezing pool and then back into the hot tub. Like I said, it's a miracle someone didn't drown! Crazy boys.)

there was lots of sword fights with Aunt Becca and Aunt Abby!

We took ourselves a boat ride for the first time with everyone to do some dolphin watching.

We didn't see a lick nearly the whole trip but right at the end before we headed back we spotted so many pods of them! The girls perched themselves in the very front of the boat and would scream "DOLPHIN!"every time one would pop up.

Sitting with Uncle Jordan and Aunt Becca!

 Marvelly walking with Uncle Joel.

there was Fuddruckers....

Our H.H. experience is never complete without dining there.

Marvi found a new favorite friend in cousin John. She loved playing with him! And Syd helping me roll up some homemade croissants. (another yummy pinterest recipe!)

Another generation of girl cousins bonding in the back yard and over ponies. (Little Elsie was so cute!)

Some of the rest of us.....

there was horse shoe in the back yard

Me and my favorite sister-in-laws! And my mom posing in her very stylish black ankle socks! Love.it!

there were piggy back rides with Uncle Jordan.

 Oh yes. And we went and saw the Muppets. And it was awesome. And we have absolutely no shame. We took pictures with the cardboard cutouts.

 psshh, Miss Piggy's got nothin' on us! Oh yeah!

 Sydaleigh and Victoria thoughtfully made me a sand birthday cake (because I had yet to have one yet) decorated with bottle caps, soap, sea shells, and berries. It was scrumptious.

 

We hit up a free horse farm where we petted a deer. And loved on a very large horse.

 the girls had a pirate themed sleep over.

love this picture of Syd and Victoria setting up house underneath a small palm tree in the back yard. I couldn't find them anywhere and when I went out searching I discovered them here!

there was discovering new thrift stores, and finding lovely frocks such as these.  :~)

I love thrift stores. Seriously, where else can you find clothes like this anymore?! Where I ask?!

 there was lots of laughing, and the occasional nap.

 there was lots of ticking from the girls Great Uncle Ray and plenty of squeezes from Gaber Babers.

 there were lots of nights spent talking till the early hours of the morning. This was our last night on the island. It was around 2am. We were on like our second hour of the most hilarious discussion of periods, poo and pregnancy.

Before we headed to bed we tried getting a decent group picture......

Jordan-"are we gonna do this?!"

 Me-"come on lets do this!" Mom-"I'm ready, got my smile on!"

 Becca-"Alright I'm doing it!"

 Becca-"whoa, I almost fell."

 Abby's coming! But shoot, Joel fell asleep standing up. Jordan might be about to vomit. Mom always has her eyes closed. Next......

 dang, 0/6 on this one....

 getting closer...

and now Mom looks like she's gotta pee...

who's taking these pictures anyway?! Oh right, Isaak.

 "okay this is not gonna work. Lets just go to bed you bunch of misfits!"

 We tried. :~)

Great trip. From beginning to end.