Our South Carolina Vacation

So James and I were talking on the couch a few weeks ago, with me telling him that we need to plan to get away - away from the winter, from the darkness to somewhere warm... this first trimester was hitting so hard... so James says that he'll call a friend who has access to time shares down south... so I said sure - like maybe for March or April - it's not like we would be leaving Friday(it was Tuesday night)...A couple hours later, James called me and said we had five minutes to decide if we wanted a place for a week in South Carolina.... haha - so sure!! His friend booked us, and I started searching for summery clothes in the storage bins, and packing away. :) 

We left Friday after work, and traveled through the night - getting to Hilton Head, South Carolina, in the late morning. The kids did great sleeping in the car, and James was amazing driving. I took over for a short while, but he did the bulk of the drive. We did some grocery shopping when we got there - as we had a bit to wait for our place to be open, checked out the beach and the kids saw the ocean for the first time!

Then it was time to see the condo - that was bigger than our main floor in our home. 

Two king size beds - perfect for jumping!

Happy to be out of the car seat.

Our room - each bedroom had a bathroom connected which was super nice.

The kids headed right to the pool - it was heated, but still it was a bit cool that week. The kids didn't mind too much - and went swimming every day.

The only time I went in. :)

The view from our part of the condo.

Being that it's South Carolina, and the island, they have alligators and turtles in the lagoons, just free. So on this resort, there is at least one 900 lb. alligator that was just outside our balcony. (four floors down. :) That's the line in the water that you can just see.

Amy - telling us all about the alligator sign.

She was saying to us later "alligators don't bite, they lick me..." oh my...

The first shot worked...

But when it turned into five kids - they all lost heart, except Katy.

Warming up while playing with sea animals from Auntie Anne-Marie

Little shoes of a sleeping child

He liked to "dunk" it. 

Who got to push the elevator button - was the big question any time we walked out of our door. 

The resort offered a snack of cookies or hot cocoa everyday at 1 p.m. - we made it for one day while we played ping pong in their little games room. 

The exhausted little girl. 

Playing "Spot It" while Leanne cleaned the floor, and Amy slept. 

On evening we drove around - trying to find a playground that was not under construction (after their Hurricane Matthew that caused a lot of damage in Oct.) and we drove into a gorgeous and expensive area... amazing houses. 

Pretending to sleep. 

Love these pictures of Amy and Daddy 

This one was out. 

On the Tuesday while we were there - we went to another part of the island - to a small little animal farm that is on stable grounds - the kids enjoyed it. 

Leanne got a kick out of the horses. 

Love this one. :) 

She just loved watching and practicing walking. 

Off the runway - here comes Laura. 

From there we went to a marina area - where they had a nice playground - and we had a little lunch together. 

Loving the slide and Daddy. 

Haven't seen a teeter-totter for so long - Katy and Erik loved it. 

After a bathroom break we found this stature of no certain person, and walked to the marina. Being that we were out of tourist season, there were no kids around - mostly seniors...so we were something interesting for them all to observe. We got so many comments about the children - how many they were, how good they were - how they seemed to like each other (yes...most days :) and how beautiful they were. :) I definitely felt like we were not the norm, and was inwardly thankful that they looked decent. :) 

Look carefully - it's all of our family in the window... :) 

So tired after playing - love it when they fall asleep like this. 

It was Valentines - and though it was just a simple spaghetti supper, we had little hearts for them with a note on it, and Grandma and Grandpa Fehr had sent each of them a card that I had picked up as we left for them - pretty special. 

Getting some boy info - skateboarding or remote control cars. :) 

The next day we went back to the same marina on the island, as we had booked a Dolphin Cruise - we got some tickets off Groupon, and the kids were so excited to go looking for dolphins!

The captain was so great about letting everyone hang around him - safe from the crazy wind. 

A seprate island where the mucky muck's live. :) 

Hooray - we saw the dolphins! 

So it was just us, and this other couple that were on their honeymoon. :) She took a picture of us - Leanne's on James' back - :) and then I did a mini shoot of them for fun - below is one of the ones I did - nice couple. 

 The ship we went on. 

 Then it was back to the condo where some went swimming - this kid cracks me up. 

 We had supper by the pool - James bbqed some food, which was great. 

 We were on the 4th floor on the right - :) 

 Playing around by daddy. 

 There was this lovely king sized bed that I wanted to use to take some shots of Leanne - so I finally did on a day where I felt okay - and when I knew I was running out of time... :)  

 She's such a little dolly. 

 And this little dolly liked to play while these guys below jumped on the bed. :) 

 What better bed to jump on than this one. :) 

 We took a free shuttle to the beach one evening - and these two got it into their head to hold hands down the boardwalk... it was so cute. 

 I had prayed that we'd find someone on the beach that could take a decent picture of us all - and God answered it twice - this was the first guy. :) 

  

  I was taking some shots of this darling, when the second guy actually asked first..."are these all your children?" And he asked nicely - and then said can I take a picture of you all - :) He seemed like a Christian -kind and considerate...I mean - who asks to take a picture of 7 people? :) 

 Thankful that we got this one too - even if Leanne doesn't want to look. 

He's such a great daddy. 

One of my favorite shots of the trip. :) 

Trying to capture baby #6. :)

We walked back to the condo in the dark - and spotted this vintage car so Erik went to pose by it - he actually isn't trying to look "cool" - the owner - a cook actually just stepped out of the restaurant and Erik saw him and was a bit worried.. :) The guy was great about Erik standing by his car, so that was good. :) 

  Our last day... we spent the morning at the beach - and the kids just played in the sand and James went for a jog while they built castles, and looked for feathers - and running after seagulls to have them drop more feathers from their backs. :) 

 Then I went for a short walk/jog which left me sore for days.... haha - first major exercise I've done in months... but it felt so good! 

Came back to these guys battling it out with the badminton rackets we had brought - Katy joined them and we just watched. 

Burying each other in the sand.

Then we picked up our pieces on the beach - went back and had lunch, I laid down for a bit -not realizing that I was starting to get nice and sick -which turned into pneumonia at home eventually.... But we packed up, had dinner on the way out - nice Golden Corral - and started to drive back. 

James did a great job driving home - I was so tired, only drove for a few minutes - he's such a nice guy. :) 

Then back to home and unpacking. The end of such a lovely vacation! So thankful for this gift God gave us...