Hilton Head

To get rid of my mom guilt for leaving the children for five days, Greg planned a short beach trip--neither one of us really like the beach all that much.  We've also found that shorter trips closer to home are just more enjoyable.   I got home from California on Sunday, cleaned and packed Monday, and we left for the beach on Tuesday late morning.

The kids put go to the temple on our bucket list so we stopped by for a picnic, pictures and baby nursing on our way down.

That night, we made a huge mistake.  We had originally planned to eat out for dinner every night so that we could have an actual vacation and not just do the same thing we normally do (make dinner and do dishes) but closer to the beach.  Bad idea.  First off, we thought we might go down to the beach for a bit before dinner so I got everyone, including myself, into bathing suits before we decided we were hungry and that we just wanted to eat.  Greg said just to go in our bathing suits because it's the beach and everyone does that.  Nope.  We were the only jerks in bathing suits.  On the bright side, my cover up still covered more than most people's clothes so I was fine.  Then Henry went crazy and tried to eat some of the left over food on the table next to us, threw a giant tantrum about wanting to soda, and in general was Henry but in a confined space and in public.  And the other two didn't eat anything.  $46 worth of Kraft Mac-N-Cheese in Styrofoam boxes.  (The next night we decided to eat at the cafe by the pool at the resort we were staying at--don't get all excited.  Think 1980 resort.  We stayed at the cheapest place we could find-- The kids ate better that night.  The last night we had pizza rolls in the condo.  The kids ate a ton.)

The next day we started the morning off with a bike ride to a beach shop to get some supplies.  Hilton Head has bike trails around the entire island so we just rode bikes everywhere we went.  Although, Henry is not a fan of the trailer, too confining for him.

 Then we hit up the beach.  And it was pretty unpleasant.  We didn't make it down to the beach until high tide because of our bike ride so there was barely any beach.  We couldn't put up our umbrella, the waves were washing the big kids away, the wind was blowing sand on Zora, it was hot and sunny and unpleasant. But the kids had fun.  Except for Henry.  For the first time in 2 years, I've been more worried about Alice and Rex getting into stuff than Henry.  He got knocked over by a wave when we first got to the beach so he sat as far away from the water as possible with his shovel and dug holes in the sand.

Zora tried to nap in the bike trailer

 After the beach, we hit up the pool for a bit and got dinner.

 Then we headed back to the beach for low tide that night.  Alice and I built a few castles; Henry knocked them over; Alice cried; I buried Henry's feet in the sand; Greg and Rex built a bike jump; Zora slept.

I took some selfies to prove that I was there too--Moms never get in pictures because they are always taking pictures.

We attempted a family selfie

Then a nice guy offered to take a picture for us.

 Day 3, we hit up the beach first during low tide and it was so much more enjoyable.  In fact as I sat half way between sleeping Zora and the other kids trying to keep an eye on everyone, I did feel joy.  Not happiness, but joy.  Joy at having my children and making a mental bookmark that this will be one of the times I revisit when I die and get to do cool stuff like bend the space-time continuum.

This is me, Zora and Alice enjoying some waves--not the best picure

Henry finally got in the water and Alice covered him in sand.

 That night we went on a 6 mile bike ride on the beach and through the Marriott Resort (not where we were staying, but it was huge!) and then to get some frozen yogurt and then almost to our deaths.  Hilton Head is very bike friendly--protected bike trails separate from the road and even a bridge under the main road for bikers, but to get to that bridge we had to back track quite a bit after our ice cream, and it was getting dark and we didn't have lights for our bikes so we decided to take the most direct route back to the condo, which meant crossing the main road at twilight.  Rex and I crossed first, me with the 2 littles in a trailer on the back.  We got across to the median just fine, but the median wasn't quite big enough for my bike and the trailer so I was anxious to get all the way across the road before my babies in the back got clipped.  So I told Rex to start riding across when we just barely had enough time before the next car came and then my foot slipped on the pedal but Rex was already going so I had to go to.  I looked forward and pedaled as fast as I could.  I didn't need to see the car that killed me and 3 kids.  Luckily the car saw us and slowed down.  Then it was Greg and Alice's turn to cross, which also made me nervous because she is still on training wheels, isn't very fast and had just ridden 6 miles.  They made it across with far more grace than Rex and I, but I have not prayed that hard in a long time.  Heavenly Father answers prayers.  Someone else can make this into a conference address.

Friday morning we packed up and drove home.  It was the perfect end to summer.  Not too much sand, but just enough sun to have us ready to start school.