Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Our Trip to South Carolina

This summer we spent a delightful week in South Carolina, visiting friends and family and enjoying the beach.


Our house is a block from the beach, and we are quite a parade with wagons, coolers, boogie boards, floats, etc.


The weather was nice for August, hot enough to make a swim in the ocean pleasant, though the water was warm.  Joshua, with his new swimming skills, spent a good bit of time out in the water with the older children, trying to ride the waves into the beach.


One tradition we all look forward to while we are on the island is a walk a few blocks down to the local ice cream "hut" at the pier.





 While we are in the neighborhood, we like to stop in the souvenir shop and visit the friendly parrot, "Bubba".





Susannah was fascinated by the very realistic pet puppies in the store.  Their chests moved up and down like they were really breathing, and she spent most of her time in the shop watching them and petting them.


Heading home....sticky, but satisfied!


One of our pit stops on the way to the beach is an outlet mall.  We bought this new bathing suit for Susannah while we were there.  She seems to like it!


We had many delightful visits with family and old friends.  One day we paid a visit to Cousin Beau's office downtown.  


He showed us around his office and talked to us about what it is like to be an architect.  


After we left the office, we enjoyed a walk through Battery Park.






Cannons that defended Charleston from the British during the Revolutionary War.  We learned a good bit about the city's defense during the war during our tour of Fort Moultrie earlier in the week.   Michael, Luke and Joshua strike a pose!




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Another much anticipated tradition is our meal at The Wreck of the Richard & Charlene.  This year Annie, Uncle John and Aunt Elle joined us, making for a delightful time. 


Caroline, Aunt Elle, and Annie


Catherine and Liza


Joshua!


Annie and Maddie


Susannah loved the fried shrimp and hush puppies.  Splendid!


After the meal, we went out on the dock to look at the creek.  The shrimp trawler in this photo belongs to Captain Tommy, who caught some shrimp for us earlier in the week.  We ate some that night, then froze a bunch to bring back home.


Aunt Elle and Joshua


Luke


The new bridge.

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On the way back home at the end of the week, we paid a stop at a family landmark, The Grey Goose.


Built by Uncle Bill and Aunt Jule early in their 60+ year marriage, this wonderful old house was the scene of many happy childhood memories for many of our clan.


Now Cousin Melody lives here with her husband, Bobby, and their wonderful dogs.  


Melody and Aunt Mary provided a delicious lunch, then we got a tour of the house and yard.



Susannah and Joshua loved the ice cream!




Uncle Bill's boathouse


I spent many hours as a child fishing off this dock......


watching Uncle Bill clean fish at this table.....


then gathering here with the family for a fish fry....



Thanks for a lovely time!  Until next year......


Friday, September 9, 2011

September 4, 2011

The big day is finally here....Michael's 9th birthday!

But first let's look back to Michael at six months old....

An adorable baby!

Now back to 2011...As Michael awoke on his birthday, his brothers and sisters were busily preparing for the celebration.   Some were toilet-papering his door...



.
Susannah wasn't quite sure what was about to happen, but she knew it was gonna be fun!


Michael burst forth victoriously to officially begin his birthday celebration.   Mmmmm.....what's that wonderful smell?


The girls had been busy downstairs preparing Michael's birthday breakfast.  He requested chocolate chip pancakes.



The table was set with our "Pooh" birthday tablecloth (another family tradition) and birthday plates.   We enjoyed a delicious meal and each family member blessed Michael with a special prayer.  Then we moved into the living room for present time (yet another family tradition).



Michael was blessed with many nice gifts, including his very own bag of Twizzlers!

After presents, we got ready for church.  Michael was very excited that his birthday coincided with 1st Sunday Lunch (potluck) at our church.  After 1st Sunday Lunch, Michael had a birthday football game with all the boys.


Here are the teams with their neat jerseys created by the girls the night before.


Daddy led the teams in stretching before the game began.


Blue is ready for action!


Water break!  The sisters on the sidelines made sure the water cups were filled for the teams' breaks.


Red gets ready to roll!



A very cute cheerleader!


Red wins the game!


Blue played awesome!

Now for a sweet treat after all that sweating.......





Cloe watches Susannah enjoying her cake.


Yosi and Mihrette think it's great too!

So does Ana!

Michael's reaction as the coaches dumped the cooler full of ice water on his head.  What a good sport!


I think Michael had a GREAT day......