Charleston

Oh my goodness.  We just got back from such a fun trip to see our friends in Charleston, South Carolina.  It's just so strange that we became dear friends in New Hampshire/Vermont and now we're hanging out in the South.  Melissa and Rob Holmes moved to Charleston the same time we moved to GA.  Rob is an orthopedic resident there.  They have two sweet little girls, Maya (4) and Mallory (almost 2).  Kate and Maya had so much fun together and Melissa and I were so happy to see each other.  It is just heart wrenching to be apart from these dear, dear friends.  

Chad had to work so I just packed up the kids and drove the 5 hours to Charleston.  The drive there actually took way longer than that because of construction.  Thank heavens for the DVD player in the car.  Lydia traveled so well and Carter was my little helper sitting by her and feeding her a bottle when needed.

We left Monday around 10 and didn't get there until about 4:30. So we just hung out and had dinner and put the kids to bed.

On Tuesday we got everyone in the car and headed to Sullivan's Island beach.  It was so hot and muggy but there was a nice breeze at the beach and it was quite pleasant.  I stopped at WalMart on the way and bought a beach umbrella to protect Lydia from the sun.  I learned the hard way however that beach umbrellas don't block UV rays.  I am so sunburned and so is poor little Lydia.  Luckily it is only her little face but it is breaking my heart.  I feel SO bad.  It has blistered and the skin is coming off.  I am just praying that it will heal well.  My heart hurts for her.  My legs are fried and my feet are very swollen from the sunburn but I would rather have it even worse if it would mean I could take it from Lydia.  I am dying.

Anyway, so we came home and let the kids eat a popsicle while we cleaned up.  We fed them an early dinner and then put them to bed at like 6 because everyone was so tired.

After the kids were in bed, Melissa and I went to downtown Charleston to see all the beautiful old houses and courtyard gardens in the old part of town.  As it got dark it totally reminded me of Disneyland in the Pirates of the Caribbean part.  The houses look like that and the trees have hanging Spanish moss and they have gas lanterns flickering.  It was so fun.  It's also right on the water so we watched the beautiful sunset.  These pictures really just don't do it justice.

On Wednesday morning we decided to take the kids to a park where there was a splash pad to let them play.  Once we got there though, we found that the splash pad was closed. So we just went over the the playground.  It was kind of disaster though because it was hot, everyone besides the boys was already sunburned, everyone was kind of tired and dehydrated, some buses pulled up with a whole bunch of teenagers who decided it was fun to come play on the playground too which was ridiculous, Eli got attacked and bitten by a bunch of fire ants, then a few minutes later he fell and his leg was bleeding everywhere, then Eli had to pee and I just decided to go with the white trash theme and have him pee in the dirt behind a bench.  Awesome.  So then I said to Melissa, "I think we need to leave."  And she agreed, so we did.  I was just so worried about Lydia in the heat with her poor little face.  I can't even post a picture of it because it is so sad.  So we went home, had lunch and then put the babies down for a nap.  Both of them slept for like 3 1/2 hours.  I was so glad.  We just let the older ones watch movies and I kept giving them drinks of water to try and tank them up.  We wanted to go back to the beach but again, I was worried about Lydia.  Luckily, Melissa has a great little babysitter and we were able to get her to come watch Lydia so we loaded up all the other kids and headed back to the beach.  

It was a little later in the day this time so it wasn't quite as sunny.  The water is really warm, like almost too warm.  There was this kind of little river/moat formed on the beach and it was perfect for the kids because it was shallow and there weren't any waves.  There are also lots of little minnows there and Eli had a blast chasing those.  When it got to be dinner time, we packed up and headed home.  We showered and fed the kids and then Melissa and I enjoyed some Mexican food.  Melissa is one of the sweetest women in the world and I am so glad I took this spontaneous trip to see her.  I am so tired right now because we stayed up until like 1 am talking every night but it was worth it.  I really think this is what heaven will be like - meeting up with dear friends and spending time together with those we love.