Hilton Head Photos - Vacation Isn't Over Yet!

Got even more Hilton Head photos to share.  Yes, I take a LOT of pictures, and this doesn't even count the many that I took on my phone and uploaded to facebook.  :-)

So, I the grand idea that I would take some "beach" photos of the girls while we were there, so I packed these gorgeous white dresses that still had the tags on them.  (Time was running out to wear a white dress, don't you think?)  I just LOVE these photos.  And as I said in the previous post, I gave a few of them to my neighbor to work her fancy editing magic.  These are the originals that I took though.

And here, I edited this one myself.  Not too bad.

And after HH, my aunt and uncle had just moved to Charleston about 6 months ago.  We had never been to Charleston and since the proximity to HH was too close to pass up, we ventured north for an extra day of vacation.  Since it was 4th of July weekend, my aunt had bought some patriotic cupcakes that the girls definitely enjoyed.

And here's our family "portrait" in the back yard before we left.  Fun one!!!

4 Year Portraits

A few weeks back, we went to a neighbor's house and she snapped some cute summer photos of the girls for their 4-year portraits.  Then, she has some really amazing photo editing software, so she edits them and gives me the CD so I can print or not print whatever I want in whatever size I want.  A great deal. 

I love the idea of more "professional" type photos, esp in an outdoor setting, but those can cost a fortune.  And the indoor studio photos are getting old.  I did outdoor photos at age 2 as well, so every other year, this is a nice change.  Here are some of the photos we got.  And as an added bonus, I sent her a few of my Hiltong Head photos and she edited those too!

More Hilton Head

On to day 3 of the vacation.  Most every day began with us hitting the beach for a while and then the pool second.  Here are the girls getting ready to take on the sand!

Then, on to the pool.  Yep, we're swimming in the deep end!

Several of the days, one parent would head up to the condo and come back with lunch so we could enjoy eating outside by the pool.  Today's lunch obviously included Cheetoes.  Look at all that orange dust on Nicole!  And, most every afternoon, the resort also had an ice cream social just after lunch time.  We bought the girls a sundae and they enjoyed that by the pool as well.  Spoiled...I'd say so!  I could get used to vacations.

Day 4:  Our morning routine of getting ready to head to the beach.  Look at them sporting their airbrushed tatoos from the day before.  (Daddy's great idea!)

Taking a break from the waves to build a sand castle.

Hilton Head 2011

So, the weekend after the big birthday party, we took our annual (only missed one year since they were born) trip to Hilton Head.  I've been going to Hilton Head since I was probably 7-8 years old, so it holds lots of memories for me.  And how cool that I get to share it with my kids now thanks to MeeMaw and PaPa.

Day 1:  We arrived late in the afternoon, dinner time in fact.  We ordered a pizza...quick and easy...and immediately HIT THE BEACH!  

Give me a thumbs up if you LOVE Hilton Head!!!

Playing in the surf...

Then, the evening couldn't be complete without also hitting the pool!  So, we did that too.  Did I mention that both of my girls are EXPERT fish.  I meant swimmers!!!  My kids have always been drawn to the water.  They just love it.  And by the last two weeks of summer or so last year, they could "swim."  We're talking a few feet here and there, but they wouldn't have drowned, which is important.  Then, we went on our Disney cruise in September and Nicole really, really, really reinforced that she could swim.  Kaitlyn could but was more timid and would still say things like, "I can't do it."  Well, not this summer.  They LOVE it and are GREAT at it.  Mike sometimes thinks that we get crazy looks as our kids plunge into the deep end.  It doesn't bother me though.  Age is irrelevant and is just a number.  If you can swim, you can swim.  And by contrast, there are plenty of 10 year olds out there that should be no where near the deep end of the pool.  I'm just sayin'.  Don't judge.  They are more than capable even at the young age of four.

Day 2:  No outdoor shots...probably some on FB instead though.  We decided we needed a few more beach toys, so we took a trip in the early afternoon to Wal-Mart.  As we wandered through the store, the girls fell captive to this jewelry set.  Since their birthday was only 5 days prior, we got them a vacation birthday present.  They loved it.

More to come in future posts from the rest of the trip.  It was a great vacation though!