Kiawah

We arrived in Kiawah for our family vacation around dinner time.  Plenty of time to unload the car and hit the beach to watch the sunset!

 I am in awe of the wild life in Kiawah.  Our first trip to see the ocean and there were deer everywhere along the board walk.  They are so sweet and gentle and not afraid of humans.  Ellie counted 9 deer in this area!

 After a fun night on the beach we put the twinkies to bed and I made us our favorite dinner!

And Grapefruit margaritas (the foam on the top is from frothing an egg white- game changer in margaritas trust me!)

 The next morning we woke up early and hit the beach!

 Watermelon snack time!

 Ellie was loving rolling around in the sand.  She would look at us and ask "Ellie lay down?" as in do I have permission to get dirty?

 Another favorite meal is chicken salad with cool ranch doritos.

 Peek a boo!  Lots of that with the beach chairs this weekend.

 Ryan would make sand castles and they would stomp on them and put sticks in them haha.

 This age and the beach is so fun and easy!  They would run down to see the water and run back up.

Quick baths, a nap and we headed to pick up dinner.

And another meal on the beach!  There is a place in Kiawah that has gluten free bread and you can make any lunch or breakfast sandwich on their menu with it....my heaven!  They also have great coffee!

 Lots of hugs and chasing over the weekend too!

 Wish I knew what they were talking about....

 These two rarely get sweets, but it was vacation so we got ice cream two nights and had cookies on the beach one day.

I loved listening to the ocean, drinking wine, eating cheese and playing games after the kids would go down.  Our tv wouldn't work for long- wind messing up satellite I guess.  The first day it annoyed me and then I kinda loved it because we played and drank and hung out instead.

Morning number two started out rocky.  Ellie woke up and screaming and couldn't stand up.  We got her up and let Graham keep sleeping.  We decided to let it be for a while and see what happened.  We made acai bowls and watched a cartoon and by the time Graham woke up she still couldn't put any pressure on her right foot without crying.

I hung out with this guy while Ryan took Ellie to the Dr.

 Ryan took her to the emergency clinic down the street.  They couldn't find anything wrong but didn't have a x-ray machine on Saturdays and strongly encouraged us to take her to Charleston to the emergency room to have x-rays.  I couldn't believe this was happening, but it was pouring down rain and she was in so much pain so we went!  Sweet Graham kept giving her kisses and stickers.

 Several hours and 3 x-rays later.....

They kept us there for what felt like forever.  No idea what was wrong, but no broken bones was all we wanted to hear.  She took a four hour nap and woke up wobbling and within 30 min was running on the beach...little stinker!  Still have no idea what happened!

There is an Italian place in Kiawah that has gluten free pasta and an eggplant ptarmigan that is amazing!  The kids love their pizza too!

 Rare that I get to have one on one time with Ellie!  Love this girl and her love of accessories!

 G and E are so blessed to have this guy as their dad!

 We woke up and were out on the beach by 8:05 am on Sunday!

 I brought new baseball gloves to play with!

 Someone walking by asked if he could take our picture and of course I said yes!

 I went up to get water at one point and this view just made me so happy!  The whole beach to ourselves and those four chairs lined up with my favorite people playing in the background....perfection!

 Cookie "Cheers"!

 I think Graham associates being at the beach with eating all day!  He was in heaven!

About 10 minutes after leaving Kiawah we looked back and he had a bite of his sandwich in his mouth and was passed out!

We went straight to swim lessons since it was their last class in this level and they passed!

By the time we got home, unloaded the car and made dinner we were exhausted!  I am already trying to figure out a weekend for us to go back.  We see each other all the time, but making quality family time together and making memories is so important.  This beach with these four is my absolutely happy place!