A different kind of adventure . . .

We have enjoyed all kinds of adventures this summer, but this past week, our family embarked on a completely different kind of adventure - Bailey started middle school! She has been so excited all summer to start a new school, but a little nervous about not having classes with her friends. I am thrilled to report that all her classes are honors classes and she is with several of her friends! Including one very special little boy who shall remain nameless! I was able to go with her to 6th grade orientation on Monday and meet her teachers and saw her classrooms. Since I went to this same middle school some . . . um . . . 20+ years ago (OK, so it's a few more years ago than 20!!), I was familiar with the building, but it still seemed so foreign to me! She had a successful week and completed two projects that she had a great time doing. I pray that she maintains her enthusiasm all year long!

 

 

 

The Adventure Concludes

We are home now from Hilton Head, but there are still LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of pictures to post! I took more than 500!! I promise I won't post that many - just 100 or so of my faves! Morgan loved the beach so much - she even put her little face right in the water. She pranced around the beach and giggled hysterically when I ran away from her. It was a crazy, fun, exhausting, and delicious trip, but I'm so glad we were able to take it together.

I LOVE how the sunlight dances off the water!

Face in the water!

And . . . it's pretty gross!

BEAUTIFUL Bailey at the fountains.

The night Chris and I went for a walk on the beach . . . and it
stormed, like crazy!! :(

Step back, girls! He's all mine!!

That's better!

Bailey's favorite painting at the Coastal
Discovery Museum, which was a lot of fun!

Harbourtown and the beach

Harbourtown is home to Hilton Head's famous lighthouse, which is why I absolutely HAD to buy a lighthouse smocked bubble for Miss Morgan to wear on the night we went to Topside Waterfront Grille for dinner. Our dinner was a comedy of errors that nearly left me in tears and made me think I would NEVER get a family picture in front of the lighthouse. Luckily, things eventually turned around - here's our pic!

And here's a close-up of Morgan's bubble because, as you know, her attire is what's most important!

But these are the pictures that took my breath away! My sweet and precious 11.5 year old Bailey on the beach. Isn't she stunning? So proud of our 6th grader!

 

 

And a few more pictures from the beach. Morgan still loves running around in the sand as fast as she can and Bailey can't get enough of the Boogie Board!

 

More Island Adventure

It is raining today on scenic Hilton Head Island, but we have truly been blessed with good weather since we arrived on Sunday afternoon. Yesterday, we went on a dolphin cruise and with an 80% chance of rain, I was anxiously awaiting an early call from Commander Zodiac that our cruise had been cancelled. Luckily, the rain held off till today and we had a great time on the water. Our "boat" was little more than a raft with a motor, but it proved to be a fantastic vessel from which to see those beautiful, gentle dolphins! We  traveled about .75 mile from shore into Calibogue Sound where two shrimp boats were "parked!" The dolphins and the birds LOVE the shrimp boats because of all the fish they catch in their nets that they then throw back into the sound. We saw at least a dozen dolphins from our raft and they are so beautiful! Our driver said that there can be thousands of birds hovering above the shrimp boats, but luckily, there weren't that many yesterday. I wasn't especially interested in reliving an Alfred Hitchcock moment on the water! After our one-hour tour, we browsed the quaint shops for a bit and then went to a sweet little petting zoo at Lawton Stables. Such precious little animals, including a deer that we were able to pet. Morgan tried to feed her fingers to a pony, who bared his teeth to her delight! She also chased a chicken and was practically nose-to-nose with a goat! Good times! We had lunch in Harbourtown at The Crazy Crab (Chris's pick) where Bailey learned to eat fish & chips. After naptime, Chris took the kids to the beach, while I read in the condo. Pure bliss! We had dinner at One Hot Mama's (another Chris pick!), which is run by Orchid Paulmeier, a Food Network Star contestant/winner/something like that. Fun atmosphere and Morgan was good the entire time! More of our adventures tomorrow!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Lemmons' Island Adventure

So today is Day 2 of our first beach trip in 5 years and our very first one with Miss Morgan, age 22 months. Yesterday was travel day and we left at 6 a.m., which was the time we'd planned to leave, amazingly enough. This was Morgan's first road trip, primarily because she has not proven to be a very good traveler, but I was pleasantly surprised. I drove, Bailey sat up front (her favorite spot), while Chris & Morgan sat in the back. Chris is endlessly patient and entertained the little thing the whole way, except for the 1.5 hours they both slept. And she was surprisingly happy the rest of the time, except for a brief screech-fest. We made two stops of about half an hour each which gave us all time to walk around. Even with those stops, we still made it to Hilton Head in 7 hours. A travel miracle!! Once we settled into our precious and wonderful home-away-from-home, we threw on the swimsuits and headed straight for the beach! Bailey has been so very excited about going to the beach for months, so there was no way we were going to skip it the first day just because we'd been on the ROAD all day!! So, here's the beginning of The Lemmons' Island Adventure Trip . . .