More Island adventures

Look at these girls hunting for little muscles as we like to call them. We had many competitions to see who could find the most, biggest, smallest, and prettiest. Katherine is as competitive as me when it comes to this stuff!
















These were some of the fish that we saw at the fishing tournament that was going on the weekend we were there. The eel is freaky looking up close! It reminds me of what I think Voldmort from Harry Potter looks like.


Who knew that a hot tub could be so fun, especially in the tropics of Dauphin Island! Katherine and Jeff's neighbor was very nice to invite the kids over to use it. I don't think it has ever seen the action that we gave it.

Dauphin Island-day 1

Yeah, we made it to Dauphin Island. We are planning on spending a week here with my youngest sister. It only took us @#$%^^&*@# hours to get there. No, really it was not too bad. We left at 6 am, so we beat the Atlanta traffic and sailed through the rest of the way. The kids were great. When we got to Aunt Katherines we had to walk down to the bay right away which she practically lives on. The boys played in the mud which I later found out after ruining several shirts that it does not come out!!!! We had a ball all week playing here. L.C. caught 4 shrimp in the shallow water. Two of which he just plucked right out of the water. This is the bay where we also went soft shell crabbing at night. The boys (okay and me) were hooked on it. We would go out at night during low tide with these big lights and look for crabs that had shed their shells. There is a short window of opportunity when their entire bodies are soft while they are growing a new one. These are the ones that you pick up. It is so cool (and kind of sad) that they can not pinch you because they are so soft. They say that people pay a lot of money for these. I don't even like crab, but I love the hunt. We got 27 the first night we went out. That turned out to be the best night. One of the nights Katherine and I went out by ourselves. She scooped up one that she was sure was soft. I felt it and said "no it is hard as can be" she said "Are you sure?" Being a dummy, I felt just to be sure, and that sucker drew blood. Thanks for that sister!
This is what we named Hermit Crab Island. All of those shells that you see are hermit crabs. They had a ball gathering them up and letting them go. We went here to watch Captain Jeff's (Kath's boyfriend) boat come in from a fishing trip.

Here is what he brought in. J.J. was enthralled with all the fish and immediately tried to pick one up.

State park week

This week in July we decided to go hiking at a different state park each day. This is just a picture of us at Anna Ruby Falls. We did get everyone looking in this picture!

Blueberries

After we got back from Edisto, the Lingenfelters came and stayed a couple of days with us. Of course it is July, so we had to go pick blueberries. There is a place less than a mile from our house. Don't you just love this face that Pipi is making. Let me tell you, we were very trusting letting her hold this bucket of blueberries. It took the six of us (well that is counting the twins) over an hour to pick this many!!! Everyone was tired and ready to go at this point!

Happy 4th of July!

We we were still at Edisto for the 4th, and were lucky enough to spend it with family. Uncle Trotti, Aunt Sandy, my cousin Audrey, and her daughter live there, so we saw them often during the week. They were so good to us . They cooked and brought over food, groceries, and rented bikes so we could ride around the island.

What would the 4th be without some ice cold watermelon. These kids could eat their weight in watermelon. We have to just stop giving it to them. We cooked out and had everyone over. Then we went to watch fireworks (since they are not allowed on the beach) which turned out to be better than expected considering they were just a someones house.

Family pictures

Every year at the beach I make us take a family picture. This year was no exception. It wasn't until a few days later that I realized L.C. was making a funny face (intentional) in every one of the pictures, and of course it is impossible to get everyone to look and smile. But it is what it is, and I love every crazy minute of it!




Here are the big boys celebrating that we were finally finished taking pictures! After this they ran down the beach with there shirts off. You would think picture taking was some form of torture!

Sunset

Isn't she beautiful!!!

That dimple is just irresistible. And I don't like to brag, but he is just as beautiful!

Tuesday's Edisto adventure

I told you he was an awesome big brother!

Tuesday we took everyone out early on the beach. We walked down to the point which is on the sound and there are a lot of good treasures there to be found. I had my head down looking at shells when I heard Pipi say "Look mom, look mom a shark." I turned around and she had this baby shark with her hands wrapped all the way around its belly. I of course kind of freaked because I knew that she was playing in one of the tidal pools and had no idea where it had came from. I yelled for her to put it down which I think startled her. We quickly found out that it wasn't alive and found 5 more washed up. We also found a sting ray, spider crabs, blue crabs, fish, and some more horse shoe crabs"stuck together".


Can you just imagine keeping up with all these shoes?

No-Bo's morning

Couln't you just eat him up?

















Monday morning was No-Bo's morning. He actually wanted LC to come with us, but I insisted that he have his time so he would be swayed to do what his big brother wanted. I love this kid and taking pictures of him. He is just beautiful!

Our time

Last year at the beach I woke L.C. up early to see the sun rise. He really loved it and asked to do that again this year. Even though my eyes are barely open it is so neat spending time with just my big boy. We spent a couple of hours walking up and down the beach in search of cool ocean wash ups. I loved watching him explore and have this time all to himself. He is such a smart kid and absolutely loves exploring and anything science related. This is just on of the 8 horseshoe crabs that we saw "stuck together". I guess it is mating season for these creatures.

Aren't they too sweet. What a great big brother he is!

Edisto... finally

We made it to Edisto! After many, many, many hours in the car (it should only be a 5-6 hour trip) we arrived at Edisto Island for the week. For some odd reason all of our children have decided to potty train on our beach trips, and this was no exception. Both Pipi and JJ stayed dry the whole trip-yea! This was the reason for many of our stops. I really hate this potty training business, and doing it with two takes forever. We have discovered that it is much easier just to stop on the side of the road and have them go rather than finding a bathroom (usually yucky) and lining the seat with toilet paper. I guess in the long run it pays off when we won't have to buy diapers for two. After a quick supper we headed for a look at the ocean. These little ones were a little unsure at first, but they quickly warmed up to the idea.

I love this video of the little ones. The tide was coming in, so the waves were kind of rough and kept crashing on us. JJ kept saying do it again mommy, do it again. They would both laugh so hard they would fall down . I think part of it was delirium from being in the car all day.

Monkey girl

Here is my monkey! I caught Pipi climbing from her crib into J.J.'s! She started doing it a couple of months ago, so we moved their cribs further apart. As you can see that did not stop her. She is quite the climber and can climb completely out of her crib without making a sound. I guess we need to move to a big bed soon!

We all scream for ice cream!

This picture may not look like much, but it is a big deal to me. My little No-Bo is eating a bowl of ice cream for the first time! Up until just very recently, he has been allergic to all dairy. I'm not just talking a little rash or sneeze. He would blow up like a blow fish if he had any dairy. His check welted up one day after L.C. kissed him while eating Cheetos (who know that was real cheese). He couldn't eat milk chocolate. He had to eat pizza without cheese unless we fixed them at home. We are so excited for him, and like No-Bo said "It's a whole new world." He has been enjoying many new things but still asks if that is his cheese or ours!!!!

Swim lessons

The big boys took swimming lessons this week at the local pool. L.C. did a great job swimming across the pool and working on different strokes. No-Bo was really comfortable going under water, and got to play a lot with his instructor. We lucked out and they were the only two kids signed up for the week, so they each had their own instructor!

Swimming in the lake

Here we are at the Lakemont. As if playing in the creek at the cabin isn't enough. They love to swim in this lake. Don't you just love the goggles. I wish I looked as cut in mine. J.J. is actually doing a belly flop into the water which he did over and over and hit the bottom each time with his belly. No-Bo looks really brave jumping into this foot deep water, and Pipi didn't want to get too wet!

Strawberries

We went to pick strawberries at a local u-pick farm. We were lucky to get in because apparently it is past season and they had closed. A really nice man let us in, and then gave us our strawberries. We ended up with four gallons! The kids loved it and they were really good. J.J. had the best time, and kept taking a bite of the strawberries and then putting them in his basket. Needless to say we had to weed through his bunch!

Cabin work

Here is a picture of my favorite man using a power tool! The main reason for our visit to Pickens was so Jeff could help is Dad work on the cabin. They worked all week putting up new siding and rock for the front. It looks great so far, but I can't wait to see the finished product.
Here is the back of the cabin with only a couple little places that need to be done. Today I took all the kids and meet some friends at the zoo in Greenville. Fortunately they did not keep any of my monkeys. I forgot my camera to take pictures of the day, but it was kind of nice just to walk around and not feel like I had to take pictures.

The bucket

The best part about going to Pickens it getting to play in the waterfall/creek at Papa and Nana's cabin. We tried this several times before we were able to capture the water looking like a solid sheet. The water was freezing, but somehow L.C. was able to keep pouring buckets of water on his head!