We left the 'Hampton this week. The girls now get a 'Fall Break' from preschool -- the whole county school system gets it, actually -- so we took advantage of a preschool/dance/gymnastics free week to scoot off to Hilton Head, SC.
Hilton Head is such a lovely vacation destination. Only about 5 hours by car from the 'Hampton (even less w/o numerous potty breaks required by preschoolers), we've enjoyed all that Hilton Head has to offer a couple of other times in our life as a family. Bike riding, beautiful beach, resort pools, mini golf, fabulous seafood meals . . . it's a great spot for a short OR long getaway.
Of course, Big and Little couldn't care less about the bike riding and beach going -- those girls had more fun pushing the buttons on our hotel elevator than just about anything else we did on our trip. Seriously, I think the next time we need a vacation, we could just get a room at our local Comfort Inn -- as long as it has a dozen or so floors -- and let them ride the darn elevator up and down and up again. Every time we left the room at our resort, there was a battle between the girls about who would push the call button and who would subsequently get to push the button for our desired floor. EVERY. TIME. It was a hoot.
Like the box a toddler's Christmas present came in, the elevator was one of the most enjoyable parts of our Hilton Head vacation for Big and Little -- though we thought there'd be much more entertaining and/or exciting things to be enjoyed.
Kidding aside -- we did a lot of great stuff while we were away. The point of this vacation was to get away just the four of us -- Mom, Dad, Big, Little. We've been on a few trips already this year -- but those were different. This was just US -- no grandparents, not on a mission to visit anyone, just a few days for US. It's fun to do that . . . necessary, I think. The rules feel different on this kind of trip, the plan is always changeable based on whatever your kids want to do, and you don't have to go out to dinner hours earlier than everyone else because your party is so large. It's very, very nice to get away with just the four people I love most and spend most of my time with.
(Don't get me wrong, grandparents and others we've visited. We love you, too.)
We arrived Wednesday, and immediately Big and Little were jonesing for the beach. It was early evening, which is my FAVORITE time to be on the beach, so we happily dropped our gear, put on our suits, and hit the sand.
Ah, yes . . . the sand. That is the only negative about the beach, in my opinion. Being sandy, carrying sand in every crevice of your body, finding sand in places sand should not be once you return home to your far-from-the-beach suburban neighborhood. And to have 2 young kids PLUS sand . . . it's enough to make a Type A person like me totally loose my cool. But -- I told myself before we left not to get annoyed with the sandiness of the beach. Or the sandiness of my kids. Especially when it came to my (still new) vehicle we drove on the trip. And I did a great job of keeping my promise to myself. As I type, the car sits in the garage, fully vacuumed and cleaned out . .. and this was done within an hour or so of our return home. Yes, I felt the urge to clean it almost immediately after we returned . . . but I swear I didn't bitch about the sand ONCE while we were away.
Anyway, back to our beach fun.
The light in the evening on the beach is truly magical . . . so I shot a million pictures while the girls had their first taste of the Atlantic. (I guess technically Big has hit the Atlantic twice before, but it was a true first for Little.)
I love my kids on the beach. They are fearless. They love the water, the sand, the waves. They make vacation so very much fun because they have such blast. Just watching them and playing that first night was enough for me. I told Jim then -- "That's it. THIS was what I've been craving in a beach vacation. Thank you -- I can go home now." Of course, we didn't go home. We eventually got cleaned up, ate pizza in our jammies back in our room, and soaked up some time together.
Thursday we did pretty much the same thing -- we jumped right out to the beach after breakfast, and we hit the pool when we got tired of the salty water. Big attempted a bike ride on her Princess bike we'd brought from home -- and she did pretty good. As well as any 4 year old, I'd imagine. We ate a great dinner together at the Salty Dog Cafe . . . and Big picked out matching pink T Shirts for Little, herself, and me to take home as our souvenirs.
Friday we met up with some buddies of ours -- a family we have known as long as they've been a family. Even longer, actually. They were staying close by on a vacation of their own, so we thought we'd get together and share some fun. We biked, the kids (our two girls and their two boys) all climbed the Harbor Town Lighthouse, and we ended up spending the whole afternoon lounging in the pool at their awesome rented beach home. We finished the day with margaritas -- I mean PORTRAITS. Portraits on the beach. Portraits . . . splashing in the waves . . . and throwing starfish back from the shore. It was a great, great day.
Saturday is was just us four again, and we let the girls decide what they'd want to do. At first the plan was for a round of mini golf and some local island shopping . . .but then the girls decided after breakfast that they would rather swim in the pool and go build a turtle in the sand on the beach. So that's exactly what we did.
Our last dinner in Hilton Head was at our favorite spot, Hudson's. We like to arrive early and enjoy the sunset and the acoustic guitar out behind the restaurant -- a tradition that I think they do every day and one we have not yet missed on any of our visits to the island. We knew we couldn't miss Hudson's -- so we saved it for our last night in town.
This visit to Hudsons -- with both girls along for the first time -- was different from the rest. In the past, we've had a drink on the back deck, eaten our dinner, and enjoyed our quiet, peaceful night together. This time, we felt far from alone at our dinner. We could not move through the restaurant without people stopping us to admire our girls and comment on how adorable and well behaved they were (are). I'm not saying this to brag -- though I am a proud mom and would take advantage of a bragging point -- I'm saying this because it was a major part of our dinner experience.
As we walked around the outside of the restaurant, one family banged on a glass window from inside to grab my attention and mouth "She is so cute!" as they pointed at Little.
Our table neighbors came over to us at the end of the meal to express how grown up and polite Big is (after seeing her lead us in prayer before our meal).
The manager told us we had some 'major cuties' at the table as he refilled our water glasses, and the host outside the restaurant told us we won the 'Most Beautiful Family' award for the night as we left the restaurant at the end of our meal.
I kid you not -- it was one family after another, expressing their admiration for our two and four year old daughters. I started to feel like we must be some kind of spectacle to get such attention. Was this the first time people had ever seen two sisters dressed in matching dresses?
I'll say no -- that it really was the kindness of strangers bestowed upon us because we are a good looking young family. Because my kids are polite and say, 'thank you' when complimented and behave plesantly when out to dinner. Whatever it was, I left the restaurant feeling like the most lucky mother in the world to be a part of such a wonderful, awe inspiring family.
Really, that's how I felt as we left Hilton Head this morning. Feeling so lucky, so blessed to have such a great family. I know that I complain a lot about it all . . . the young kids, the traveling husband, etc. I do my fair share of griping right here on this blog, that is for certain. But after a few days like these I just had, it's easy forget how hard it can be at times. It's easy to see how lucky I am to have what I have and WHO I have to share it all with.
Thank goodness for family vacation. Jim and I spent the ride home discussing where we will go the next chance we have to take our girls away again, just us four.
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