July SC Vacation

On July 3rd we flew to South Carolina to see Ryan's family and to go on vacation them.  I was very glad that Ryan was with me on those flights, although flying with children (mainly Avery at this point) is still hard and unpleasant.  Jaxson was so excited to get to SC, that as soon as we landed he yelled "Hooray! We are in South Carolina!!" Everyone laughed - it was pretty awesome!

On July 4th, we went to the Peach Festival.  This was Ryan's family tradition growing up - it was a lot of fun and the kids enjoyed themselves.  If you can't tell, I was pretty excited to dress up Avery in some Red, White, and Blue attire.  I think this photo turned out pretty great .... the rest of the ones of her, not so much.  She is a stubborn little girl kept running away from me.

Patriotic Prince. 

The parade was good although only 1 person threw out candy - Bummer!

 At least a giant inflatable dog gave Jaxson a hug right?

Jaxson had a lot of fun with Allan - he would be up on Allan's lap playing games with him every chance he could get. 

After the parade, we walked around and bought peach ice cream, sat on tractors, looked at cars, and tried to find the petting zoo with no luck.

I tried to take some photos of my kiddies, but it was basically a disaster.  Glad I got 2 that worked out.  

Sometimes I think of Avery as my little hippo (no offense Avery!).  The reasoning is her teeth.  I don't remember which cartoon, which picture, etc ... but I remember a cute cartoon hippo with 2 front teeth and a large gap in between.  I love Avery's teeth, they just remind me of that cute hippo.

This is what Avery and Jaxson thought about taking a family photo together .... at least Ryan smiled, I know he didn't want to be taking photos with these 2 crazies!

Most people don't know this, but Ryan is a pretty dang good artist.  He is great at looking at a photo, and re-creating it.  Jaxson is still into Mario/Nintendo right now, so Ryan drew him some characters -- Jax loved it. 

Ahhhh the day the coffee table attacked Jaxson's chin.  We were at Ryan's Papa's house and somehow Jaxson either jumped off the couch and hit the table, or he was running up some empty boxes leaned against the coffee table and hit it.  The 2 tall Harbor men (not to be named lol) were both within a few feet, but did not see what happened.  Jaxson was super brave and got 4 stitches and a teddy bear souvenir.  He also told the doctor her had a girlfriend named Macy (one of his friends from SA).  Funny Boy.

Admire it all.  The cut and his incredibly-long-and-beautiful-wish-I-had-them eyelashes.

That weekend we drove up to Myrtle Beach (Murrell's inlet).  Ryan's family would go up their every summer for vacation.  Avery was pretty tired on the way up and I love how she is holding her blanky.

We went to an Alligator Adventure place and had fun looking at all the alligators.  I definitely like the small ones better than the large ones!

Pure excitement

I had Ryan hold a fan up to me to get the wind-blown-model-look ... LOL just kidding, but I will take a little wind in my hair any day.

Avery is saying "whoooo" because there is an owl in the cage. 

Jaxson and Avery had a lot of fun hanging out Uncle Jordan, Aunt Christine, Uncle Allan, and Aunt Erika.

This fake alligator ripped a hole in Ryan's shorts ... worth the picture I think.

They feed the alligators while we were there, and they were jumping out of the water to get the food. Scary!

Albino Alligator

Goose biting Ryan's hand.

We were were staying in a rental house almost right on the beach (basically as close as you can get without being on the beach).  So we went there almost every day.  Jaxson and Avery both loved it.

Muscle Man Jaxson - I was actually quite surprised he stayed in there long enough for me to get a few photos.

This trip was the first time we (Jaxson, Avery, and I) got to meet baby Noah.  He is such a cutie pie! I love how relaxed he is here - just chilling!   While at the beach,Avery learned the word "baby" and would point to Noah while saying it.  It was so fun seeing Erika be a mommy - she is doing an awesome job!  

We went bowling one night ... fun and crazy.  I think next time we won't take Avery.  There were 9 of us who played 2 games each and Ryan came out the over victor with Christine in a close 2nd.

Another day at the beach.  Another crab ryan caught.

Jaxson loved boogie boarding.  Ryan would take him out in the waves and lift the board super high on each wave.

We went to an awesome Pirate show one day.  I would recommend it to anyone - we love it.  We had front row tickets and Jaxson was memorized the whole time. The served us dinner and put on a great show - would love to go back.

After the show

The view from our rental.

We went crabbing one day.  We had raw chicken necks on a triangular metal ring attached to some string and some wood.  The crabs that were caught ranged from couple of inches to 8" or so.

Uncle Duane caught this one, but gladly let us pretend we caught it while taking photos.

Spot the crab!  we caught him and stuck him in the shallow pool to entertain Jaxson.

Ryan got him to pinch his finger (harder than Ryan was expecting)

Waking up in the morning. No we didn't really sleep like this, but I like cuddling with my kids.

Mini Golf.

We went to my favorite place to eat in SC .... California Dreaming.  Now, I don't normally order salads at restaurants, but the house salad here is Amazing!  The house dressing is a hot bacon and honey mustard .... add that to salad, tomatoes, ham, bacon, turkey, cheese, almonds .... yum! We are waiting for our food in this photo, and Jaxson and Guh Goh were playing a game.  "Guess where the red crayon is?"  Jaxson didn't realize his hands weren't big enough to cover the crayons like Guh Goh's were - so cute!

We also had a pool at the house - we had some fun splashing around in there.

Papa and Emily made Jaxson a cool lego fort.

Jaxson has been telling us for a while he wanted to go on a helicopter ride.  We made it happen, and look at that smile.  I love this photo!

Driving home from the beach all tuckered out.

We had such a fun vacation, and it was sad to say goodbye to everyone.  It is nice, however, to be back in Texas with no immediate plans of flying anywhere.

Avery all dressed up in my favorite pink-and-grey combo.

Our good Friends the Turner's moved away last Monday ... sniff sniff.  We had them over for dinner the day before they left.  It was a good visit and we wish them all the best in North Carolina!

Jaxson and Jackson

Avery wanted to get in the photo and say cheese too.

Heading out to go to the gym one morening, Jaxson asked if we could take a picture.  Sure!

Jaxson got invited to a birthday party last week and loved it.  He told me "I couldn't stop throwing water balloons at people's feet."  Haha, I am sure they loved that .... I think it was supposed to be a tossing game.  My friend Natalie snapped this awesome photo of Jaxson showing some pure kiddo joy.