Vacation!

So we had a great week down in Charleston!!!!  I really enjoyed myself, and it was great having family around, it felt many times that I had a little vacation away from the boys as well - as they were all very helpful in entertaining & playing with them!  I was very good, and managed to work out everyday that we were there.  It usually was a run, and then T25!  I'd do 2.5-3 miles, did a beach run a couple of mornings...But felt very good keeping up with that!

We left Saturday morning, bright and early as our normal traveling goes!  Had no troubles with the drive down, it took us 8.5 hours, the boys did great in the car!  We were able to get our keys earlier than the 4:00 check-in time, and made our way to the house!  We let the boys go out to the beach...Jim loved the water!  He was jumping in the waves, having a ball!  Ben on the other hand was not a big fan!  He did not want to be put down.  Mark's parents got in shortly after us...and then my parents & sisters got in around 8 something.  We ended up finding a pizza place, and got take-out for dinner.  Everyone got settled, and called it a night.  The boys ended up having a sleep over with their Aunts all week - sleeping in bunk beds.  The first night didn't go so well for Ben, but after that they all slept fine!!

Sunday ended up being a beach day.  It was the best day weather wise, sunny and in the 70's!  It was great.  Ben warmed up a little more to the beach - still wasn't a fan of the water, but he did have a good time playing in the sand.  Jim had a great time both in the water as well as making (and destroying) sand castles.  I think everyone enjoyed the day!  We ended up going grocery shopping that afternoon.  We did a good job making a menu for the week, and then getting what we needed.  I think it worked out pretty well.  I baked a cake for Jim, and we all sang Happy Birthday to him (including Jim singing to himself, which was super adorable!!!)

Monday was a rainy day.  We decided it'd be a good day to go into Charleston.  We really couldn't do much since it was raining so hard.  Ended up finding a parking garage to park in, then walked through the Marketplace, where we were able to stay a little drier!  And made our way to the Southend Brewery & Smokehouse for some yummy lunch & beer!!  There was a little Gun Powder Mueseum that the boys and a couple others did, while the others walked through the Marketplace again.  (Ashley wanted some hot sauce / seasoning...mom was looking for pecans...)  That afternoon we just hung out, I got some reading in, think there was a game of Risk played!  And some more game playing later that evening.

Tuesday ended up being another beach day.  It was a little cooler than Sunday, I ended up wearing a long sleeve shirt while I was out there, but it was still nice enough to play in the sand, and Jim had no problems heading back into the water!  But another day where fun was had by all!

We made our way back into Charleston on Wednesday.  We did lunch at Hyman's, which was really yummy!  I decided to try out the shrimp & grits, since that seemed to be a popular dish at a lot of restaurants.  Ate a lot of yummy food!  Then we made our way to a carriage ride.  That was fun to do, and a good way to see some of the city.  We all said we wish they told us a little more about the history, our was more of an architectural tour.  But it was still fun nonetheless!

Thursday morning when we got back from our run, we did a little Easter Egg hunt in the house for the boys.  They had a lot of fun doing that, and was fun to watch them searching for the eggs.  Mark's parents took off that morning, and we did another beach day.  It wasn't the best weather though, super windy!  So we were constantly getting pelted with sand.  Ben had a great time out there!  We dug some big holes, and he was playing with his trucks in there having a blast.  We ended up going up to the patio though to play, because of the wind.  The girls got some sun, the boys had fun playing trucks!

We ended up cutting our vacation a day short, and drove home on Friday.  Ashley & I went out for our run, and when we got back home, I guess everyone as worried about the flash flood warnings that were posted for that evening.  Charleston was supposed to get 4" of rain, and warnings were posted for high tide that was coming in late that evening, and potential flooding.  Mark was worried about our truck getting hit since the water always came up to the dunes in front of our house, and had been washing those away during the week.  So we packed everything up, cleaned up the house, and were on our way.  I was a little bummed that we didn't get to spend one more day in Charleston, walking around and checking things out.  But it was better to be safe then to run into problems!

All in all it was a great vacation!  I had a lot of fun, and really was able to find myself relaxing!