The Adventures of Chase, Owen & HATTIE!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

A Carriage Ride

On Tuesday we went into Charleston in the morning for a carriage ride. Tuesday was hot and humid! It had rained already, but the humidity was still high. We stopped first at my parents' friend's house and then walked to the carriage stable. They live right in the heart of Charleston in a 200 year old house which is right on the street and has a small tropical garden in the back. The house was charming. It was a warm day, as usual and the walk caused us to sweat a bit. When we got to the Big Red Barn we were ready for a ride. We boarded our buggy and headed out with our guide Bob. He was very knowledgeable and gave a great tour. The boys had fun for the first 15 minutes and after that they were a little antsy. It was pretty warm and boring for 4 year olds. We learned a lot about the history of Charleston, the churches (over 200), and the beautiful houses and mansions we saw. Many of the houses are over 200 years old and go for an average of 2.5 million dollars. Several of them claimed to have ghosts.We are gathered in front of our carriage getting ready to ride.

Chase and Owen loved the big horse and his soft nose.

Owen and Daddy on the ride

Mommy and Chase

Dad, Chase and Susie

Looking out at the passing buildings

Kate, Mom, Owen and Jeff

huge old mansion south of water street near the ocean

Old oat trees that can live to be 400 years old, with moss hanging on it.

The city

One of the cobble stone streets of Charleston

After our ride we went to lunch at a BBQ place and Jeff proclaimed southern BBQ to be much more hot then sauce in Mpls! We came home for a well needed nap after that.

Mom and I hit the beach at low tide and right when we walked out there was a star fish sitting right on the beach! It was just what we wanted to find. We walked the beach, finding cool shells and walked out on the sand bars. On our way back I found another star fish floating around in the water. We brought them back for everyone to see and all were amazed.

We ordered some pizza and went back to the beach about 7:00 for a late swim. The air and wind were cool and the water was so warm-about 85 degrees. The boys had a blast running up and down the beach and plummeting in the tide pools. Owen and I went out into the big waves and jumped them and he giggled and giggled. Lane was out boogie boarding and Jeff was around too. It was so much fun.

We stayed up late again, watching the Olympics and playing Phase 10.

Monday, August 20, 2012

Monday at the Beach

Monday we decided to hit the beach. All throughout the week we had spots of rain most of the days we were there. It didn't damper our spirits, though-just gave us time to rest from all our playing. It also cooled things off a bit. I wouldn't say it was hotter than MN this summer, but it was pretty humid-also something we are used to in MN. The beach was just a hop, skip and a jump from our house. We found the "short cut" and snuck through a back yard and crossed the street and run up the sand dunes and we were there. The boys loved to run the path and when they got to the beach it was like they were in another world. They didn't need any toys-they just loved to run, dig, find shells, splash in the water, and explore. It was magical. So many times Jeff and I would follow them, hand in hand, and just smile at each other. It was precious to experience with my family and we felt so content.

Looking up the beach

Looking down the beach

Looking back at where we came from

OWEN!

CHASE!

Owen runs to meet Jeff

Many times this is how I found Jeff and the boys-just relaxing in the waves-love it!

Chase joins them

Then they decided to have some fun in the tide pools. The water was 85 degrees all week and in the tide pools it was even warmer! They were great little swimming pools for us to play in and know the boys wouldn't get swept out to sea.

Jeff piles the sand up on the legs of Owen and Chase

Owen is burried.

All dirty!

The sand was so fine that it just dripped from your hands when it was wet. Here Chase is experimenting with the sand and sees the drops it makes.

Owen all covered up!

Chase is cleaned off

Mommy and Owen

Chase is added in.

When we got home Mom and Dad had come home from the fish store. Look what they brought! We had 12 crabs and shrimp for dinner that night and it was an experience!

The boys had a lot of fun watching the crabs snap and move around.

Jeff pulls one out of the sink. It was snapping like crazy and scared him a few times.

Chase braves the crab and holds it!

Grandma helps too

Jeff and Anderson

We enjoyed our delightful dinner of crab, shrimp, fresh veggies and fruit. The crab was hard to open and provided only a little meat, but the process of eating it was fun!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

A Great Vacation-Folly Beach, S.C.

How do you celebrate 40 years of marriage? You experience Charleston-Folly Beach, to be exact, with your family, of course! My parents celebrated 40 years of marriage this July. My sister's family, my parents and our family came to Folly Beach, which is on the ocean outside of Charleston, for a weeks vacation on August 4-11th. We had a wonderful day of flying on Saturday and met my sister in Chicago for the final leg of the trip. The boys did a great job overall but only slept the last 5 minutes of the descent into Chicago. We arrived in Charleston around 6:00 and headed straight to Folly Beach. We pulled up to our house on the beach and the exploration began. The boys call it our "new house" and love it! It's a great house-3 levels. We have the basement and Chase picked out his room where he and Owen sleep together. The main floor has a great kitchen, sitting room, dining room and spacious sun room, along with 2 bedrooms. My parents have the spacious and sunny upstairs room.

We were up and at 'em early Sunday morning. The boys played with Jeff while we went to the grocery store to buy food for the week. We went to the beach after that and had the best time ever! The boys were amazed at the ocean waves and the vast amounts of sand. They had a blast finding shell after shell after shell. We ran up and down the beach and saw a Man of War jelly fish-which looked like a piece of plastic so Owen touched it. Thank goodness he didn't touch the tentacles! It attracted a lot of attention on the beach. Eventually a local saw us looking and came over and told us what it was. That was right before someone almost threw it back in the ocean. After we found out what it was it was buried nicely in the sand.

Nana and Papa came to the beach and Nana, Jeff, Chase and Owen and I went out deep and jumped the waves. I held Chase and he and I got a lot of water to the face from those big waves! He liked to have the back of his head to the waves so I bore the brunt of the water. We had so much fun laughing, getting knocked down and enjoying the water. Jeff buried the boys and Owen had fun discovering how very fine sand can drip. Chase liked it when Daddy threw sand at him-hitting him right in the face one time. Oops.

Early in the morning cuddles with Daddy

Chase and Owen washing their feet off on the deck before coming in the house.

We went home to play and Jeff and I got to explore Folly while the boys napped. We walked around looking at the local stores-which were all the same tourist type stuff. We walked the huge Folly Beach Pier, which is the second largest on the Atlantic. It was a pretty amazing structure. It is 24 feet wide, extends more than 1,045 feet into the ocean and is 23 feet above sea level. It was raining lightly at the time so there were not that many people out there. There were a lot of fishermen though.

That night we went for a very nice dinner at Blu and enjoyed the ocean's best fish-grouper, swordfish, scallops, etc. We had great service and sat right by the ocean. After dinner we went to the pier again and the boys got to run out some energy. They loved watching the waves and surfers. Of course we all watched the Olympics that night-a special treat.