Typical Day in Bluffton

Back to trying to catch up... Instead of continuing to count the days in Bluffton I am going to show you what a typical day was like since we had several of these. In the morning the kids would get up with Mom and play on the porch either coloring or reading books or having a tea party while the rest of us slept a little longer. Then we got up and had breakfast and packed a picnic lunch and got ready for a day in the boat. We would normally get out between 10 and 11. The kids loved going with Poppa on the golfcart to get ice from a friend's ice machine.

Then we would head to the dock and get on the boat. We would ride on the boat and occasionally Matt or I would wake board or slolem. Then at lunch we would head to our favorite picnic spot.

This was Maddie's favorite spot to ride on the boat - right in the front. I used to do the same thing when I was her age, so it is fun as a Mom to watch her enjoy it, too.

Davis of course enjoyed "driving" the boat. Matt shaved his head for vacation :)

Kallie discovered Animal Crackers in Bluffton and for her riding on the boat equalled eating Animal Crackers.
While we were stopped for a swim break we would let her crawl around in the boat.

This is our favorite picnic spot - in the shade under this bridge. We would anchor under and eat here. It was kind of tricky a couple of times because the tide would go out while we were eating and the guys had to be careful not to get us stuck on oyster beds when we drove out. Quite the adventure a couple of times.

Looking cool in his hat, Daddy's shades and his life jacket.

Kallie also enjoyed eating lots of watermelon on our vacation - we all did actually.

I didn't get any pictures, but Maddie and Davis enjoyed taking turns distributing our lunch.
After lunch we would head to the sandbar if it was out to play in the sand and water.

Kallie had no problems getting dirty.

If the sandbar was not out we would just get out and swim around in the river near the boat.

A couple of weird experiences happened while we were swimming this trip. One time Maddie was near the ladder and screamed saying there was a crab hanging onto the ladder. She was very smart and swimmed away and either Poppa or Daddy hit the crab and it went back down to the bottom. This was very unusual because rarely do you see crabs swimming on the top of the water especially in the deep water. Another time we were swimming and Matt started saying "Owww" and then told us to get back in the boat because something had stung him. It was a jellyfish. When he got out you could see the markings of its tentacles on Matt's arm. This had never happened before in the 31 years I have been going down to Bluffton.

We would go in for a late nap and then either go back out in the boat or just relax because of an afternoon thunderstorm.

Most days ended like this....

And because we spent most of our day in the river we would have late dinners and then the kids would go to bed. The adults would play dominos. My new favorite!

Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Kallie!

Taking a break from catching up on the blog to wish Kallie a happy 1st birthday. Here are some pictures of her from a year ago today....

And then from today - She started the morning off with a blueberry muffin and her very own cup of whole milk at breakfast. Matt had to blow the candle out really quick because she wanted to touch it.

Some things about Kallie at a year. We go for her well visit on Monday, so I will update height and weight then, but when we went for a doctor visit a couple of weeks ago she weighed 15lb 3oz (or somewhere close). She is very petite for her age and often people will ask how old she is and say they thought she was more like 8 months old. She is crawling all over the place and if she has a dress on or it is concrete she will crawl on both hands and both feet. She is definitely pulling up and cruising everything. She has let go and stood by herself a couple of times but not for very long. She has mastered stairs - goes up them great and turns around and comes down. She still only has 2 teeth, but that does not stop her from eating all table foods. She loves green beans, yogurt, crackers, hot dogs, and on and on... She is not saying any words really but will make all kinds of noises and pointing. She does say "mmmm" when she is hungry or thirsty. She is very interested in babies and baby dolls and will hug her baby dolls and give them a bottle and get a blanket for them. She loves climbing and today at the play area she climbed up a little slide and then turned around and slid down backwards on her tummy. She loves people and is usually smiling. She loves her sister and brother and sister and they love her. She does like to be right in the middle of what they are doing and they don't really like this, but she doesn't seem to let it bother her :) Happy birthday, sweet girl! We love you very much!

Day 5 - The Sandbar

Dad (Poppa) got to Bluffton Friday night and we were out in the boat on Saturday. We headed to the sandbar - my favorite place ever! It is a bar of sand (for lack of better words) that comes out at low tide and is covered up at high tide. The kids love to play in the water and in the sand.

Enjoying our picnic lunch

Even though it doesn't look like it - Kallie really did like the sand and the water.

This is the life!

Day 3 & 4 Bluffton Vacation

On our 3rd day of vacation we loaded up the golfcart since we had gotten the key from our cousin and were heading to the front beach to go swimming. We pulled out of the driveway and heard and felt a horrible bumping. We had a flat tire, so we had to park the golfcart. We got out the wagon and loaded it up and headed to the front beach and went swimming. I did not get any pictures of this.
On our 4th day I headed over to a friend's pool for a play date with her and her kids. I met her in Bluffton at the Gap Outlet where we worked together the summer after our freshman year. We kept in touch - I remember sitting in the hall outside my dorm room talking to her on the phone and we would get together when I was visiting over spring break and the next couple of summers. I was even in her wedding 10 years ago this past June! But then we lost touch and when I tried to look her up I didn't realize I only knew her husband's middle name. Anyway, I found her on facebook this past year, so we had been planning on getting together. Her daughter is 5 and her son is almost 4, so the kids had fun together. We had a 3 hour play date at her pool. These are the only pictures I got - none of us together. We plan on doing this again next year when I am in Bluffton, so maybe then I will be better about getting a picture of the two of us.

Day 2 - Beach, Beach

On our first full day of vacation we took the kids over to Hilton Head to the beach. Maddie called it the beach, beach because there is also a front beach in Bluffton that has sand, but it is the May River - no waves. We decided it would be best to go over before the guys got to Bluffton with the boat. We had a great time. We played in the sand, collected a few shells, ate a picnic lunch, and played in the waves.

Someone had a dug a hole in the sand and it was filled with water, so it was kind of like the kids had their own little wading pool which was nice since it took Davis a little bit to warm up to the idea of going into the waves. Kallie enjoyed it as well.

Kallie also liked sitting at the edge of the water and having the water come up over her legs. She would kind of laugh and crawl around in it.

As you can tell Davis was fine once he warmed up...

Bluffton Vacation - Day 1

Mom came to Hickory on the 19th of July and spent the night and then we left on the 20th with a FULL van for Bluffton. We have gone here every year for vacation since I was 6 months old. As some of you may know, this is where Davis was born 3 years ago. I was fortunate enough to spend 11 days this year. When we got to Bluffton we unloaded the van and then headed to Chickfila for family night - free kid's meal with adult meal purchase. They had a lady painting the kids' arms and a table where you could make an ice cream sundae. I didn't get any pictures of the sundaes but here are the paintings.

Davis was so excited about his green football!

Maddie was very patient while she had the angel painted on her arm.

Picking Blueberries & Around the House

Some friends have some blueberry bushes in their back yard and when we lived in Granite Falls before they told us we needed to come pick some and when we moved back their offer stood, so we headed over there. It was one of those days where nothing was going as planned, so we did not get over there until noon and it was HOT!! We picked one bucket full and the kids were getting hungry and hot, so we decided we would go back another evening to pick more to freeze. We are thankful they are so generous. Maddie really enjoyed picking them and did a great job sticking with it both times that we went. Davis, I am learning, is not into gardening. We had gone to another friend's garden to pick green beans and corn and cucumbers and he kept wanting to go inside. Here he wanted to do anything but pick blueberries. That is okay, though. We will definitely be doing this again next summer. Thanks, Sharon and Charlie!

Kallie, you will be helping next year!

Speaking of helping. Here is a picture of Davis helping Daddy measure to hang pictures around the house.

So fun watching boys help their Daddy with tools.

In an earlier post I talked about Kallie pointing to what she wants and kind of grunting. Maddie and Davis did not do this. Here she is showing us something she wants :)

Matt was outside with the kids and heard something behind him. When he turned around this is what he saw...

Sweet silly Kallie