Sims Family: 2011

We have been wanting to make a trip back up to Lock Haven, PA for a long time now, just for the fun of it. So we decided it was Labor Day weekend or never. They have Labor Day Regatta races down the Susquehanna River and a fair that whole weekend, so it gave us a good excuse to go. We left Saturday morning, had a nice drive, loved driving north through PA along the Susquehanna, and seeing the Amish again. We were staying in Williamsport, so we first stopped there and got checked in to the hotel, then headed to Lock Haven. It was so fun to drive around town again. It was fun to see Alex remembering things. Analeigh didn't remember a thing, but she sure loved it there.

Can you tell how hot it was?

Here they come!

Scott and Abigail

When the kids were on this ride, a huge storm came blowing through. We even heard there were tornado warnings. We took off to find shelter and finally had to huddle inside one of the craft show tents to wait out the worst of it. It blew through pretty fast, but it was a little intense for about 15 minutes.

Amish boys walking down the road on Sunday

On Sunday, Andrew's birthday, we went to church in our old branch. It was so fun to visit. After church we went to the park right by the river for a picnic and cupcakes. It was very muggy and buggy and hot, so we didn't stick around there for too long. We watched a few boats race and then we decided to go back to the hotel and swim and have cupcakes there.

We took his presents from the Sims' with us to the hotel, so he opened those on his birthday. (We left ours at the house.) He got a gift card to Toys R Us (which we used to buy a really fun train...that Abigail keeps trying to swipe from him) and a very handsome sweater and shirt from Grandma Sims, and a car and Goldfish crackers from Aunt Melissa and fam...Andrew says thanks everyone!

Opening presents at the hotel

We stopped by the Little League World Series fields in Williamsport on our way out of town.

We opened presents at home on Thursday because we got home around dinner/bedtime on Monday night, then Tuesday night was Scouts, and Wednesday I had book club at our place...soooo, Thursday it had to be. He didn't mind waiting :-) . We gave him a dump truck and a little red car and two balls (balls are his FAVORITE thing!) He got some cute, cute clothes and fun cars from Grandma and Papa. Thank you Grandma and Papa!

Another post from the past...lots of words, and lots of pictures at the end.

We found a new love. It is Charleston, SC. Scott was able to go to a conference there, so we planned a family trip around it. We knew going in March could mean cooler temperatures and possible spring-like weather, but we lucked out with the most gorgeous weather we could have possibly hoped for. It was in the high 70s and low 80s every day.

The conference was scheduled to run Thursday thru Saturday (3/24-3/26), so we went down on Monday the 21st so that we could enjoy a few days together before Scott's conference started. We embarked on our 8+ hours of drivng journey after the kids got home from school that day, planning to stop about 6 hours into the drive to stay overnight in a hotel that had an indoor pool. We didn't get very far before everyone was complaining of hunger. So we stopped and ate and changed everyone into pajamas (hoping to not stop again...we ended up stopping 2 more times for various reasons, including the nourishment of one infant) and continued on our way. We finally arrived at the Holiday Inn and got everyone tucked in.

The next morning we had breakfast at the hotel and did some swimming in the pool. We got everyone cleaned up and ready to head on our way. So here is what we did each day of our trip:

Day One:

Finished driving the 2 hours or so into Charleston, SC. We stopped about a half hour before we got to our beach house to grocery shop (we had planned so that we would eat breakfast and lunch at the beach house each day and go out for dinner every night) and eat lunch. We were all so excited to get our feet on the sand as soon as we arrived. We played on the beach all afternoon, until we were ready for dinner. We didn't end up having any internet access, so we weren't sure where to go for dinner and ended up going to the grocery store and getting a rotisserie chicken and macaroni and potato salad. Then it was bed time. The kids all decided which beds they would sleep in and they actually had no trouble sleeping. I thought we would have some problems with the sleeping since they were in different beds, and Abigail still sleeps in a crib at home so I wasn't sure she would stay put. But everyone did great.

Day Two (Wed. 3/23):

South Carolina Aquarium was on our agenda this day. We had a great time there. All of us really love aquariums, so we try to go every time we are in an area that has a good one. This wasn't the largest aquarium we have been to, but it was a decent one for sure. The whole thing was based on what you would find in South Carolina (rivers, ocean, marshlands). It was 3 levels. On the top level they had a big outdoor exhibit that was enclosed with mesh where they had birds and otters that were adorable, among other animals and creatures. You could also see the top of the huge saltwater tank from up here. There were divers in feeding the fish when we first saw it. Then we went down to the 2nd level and they had a touch tank with starfish, horseshoe crabs and stingrays. The kids were brave and even fed the stingrays. I have no desire to let a stingray eat out of my hand. Wait, we must have still be on the top level because they had an outdoor portion here also, where they showcased some more stingrays and water turtles of some kind that were really beautiful. The designs on their shells were very interesting. Analeigh completely fell in love with turtles here. We asked one of the workers if Analeigh could touch one of the turtles, so she got it out and put it in a bucket so she could pet(?) it. That was a highlight of the day for Analeigh. Anyway, I lost track of what was on which level, but we saw some fun things...an albino alligator who was actually swimming back and forth in the water, the kids got to pet a baby alligator and a snake (YUCK), sand samples from all over the world, and fish and jellyfish of varying sorts. It was a fun day. We had brought a picnic lunch, so we sat out on a balcony and ate our food in the wind.

After we were done at the aquarium I needed to feed Andrew and there was a great little park across the street so the kids were able to play there for a while. The weather was so beautiful...some of us were dressed a little too warmly for the temperature. Then, after we picked up a rental car for Scott so he could get to and from his conference without leaving us stranded without a car, we came back to walk through downtown Charleston and eat at a restaurant we were told was a must-do in Charleston. It was called Jestine's Kitchen and the walls were covered with newspaper and magazine articles talking about how great their restaurant is. I thought it was ehhhh, so-so. The dessert was really good though. Scott and Alex shared a coconut cream pie slice and Analeigh and I shared a piece of coca-cola cake. Definitely the best part of that dining experience. We stopped by the Charleston Candy Kitchen on our way back to the car because I spotted some caramel apples in their window that I just had to have. We picked up one caramel apple to share then headed on our way back to the beach house.

Day Three (Thurs. 3/24):

This was the first day of Scott's conference and he had to be there by 7am, so he was up and at 'em before any of the rest of us got out of bed. I had planned to play at the beach and in the beach house with the kids this whole day. We were so blessed to have a beautiful beach day to play out in the sand and in the water. I did attempt biking to the Morris Island lighthouse by myself with all 4 kids. That turned out to be a disaster. First, I had trouble getting the bike tires pumped up. When that was all fixed and the big kids were on their bikes ready to roll, I put both Andrew and Abigail in the bike trailer. Andrew wasn't sure he was loving the ride and he kept grabbing and pinching Abigail trying to get ahold of something. Unfortunately what he was able to get ahold of was Abigail's arm and hair. She was screaming and crying. When we made it to what I thought was going to be the trail to the lighthouse there was a sign saying no bikes were allowed. I had Alex and Analeigh run ahead and see about how far it was to the lighthouse. It was farther than I was prepared to go with the 2 little ones, so we decided to try and come back when Scott could come with us. While turning around Alex lost his balance some how and came crashing down from his bike hitting his chest on the handlebar as he went down. Let me tell you...we couldn't get back to the beach house fast enough. We were all done by that point! So we went back and had a lovely, relaxing day on the beach that helped us all forget the fiasco of the morning. Scott stopped and picked up Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner on his way back from the conference. We ate and watched the BYU sweet 16 game and listened to the waves roar. Ahhhhh, perfection.

Day Four (Fri. 3/25):

Scott had to head to his conference early again this morning and it was a little chilly and windy in the morning, so the kids and I played some games inside and did some crafts. We made a quick trip to Piggly Wiggly to pick up some batteries and baby ibuprofen for Andrew (teething). After about noon it was much warmer and nicer outside so we went back out to enjoy the waves. We had a great time looking for cool shells and playing on the beach again. But then I started to notice jellyfish here and there. Pretty soon there were too many of them to safely be in the water, so we just stayed on the sand, which was fine. It was interesting to see them all washing ashore. I think the windy, unsettled weather must have caused them to wash up or something. That is totally a guess, but that was the only conclusion we could come up with because it was the only windy day and it was the only day we had lots of jellies. Scott got back around mid afternoon. He had talked to some people that were staying a few houses down from us who said they found a few starfish on the rocks between our houses He and the kids went out to check out the rocks and see if they could find some starfish. Pretty soon they were yelling that they needed something to put some starfish in, so I grabbed a skillet from the kitchen and took it out to the beach. They had found so many! We put them in the skillet with a little bit of water so we could watch them. Then we needed another pan, so I grabbed another one and the kids had them filled with starfish!! We had at least 15 at one point before we started putting them back. It was amazing. None of us had ever seen starfish in the wild. It was really exciting.

After we were done with the starfish we attempted the lighthouse again. This time Scott rode the bike with the trailer and I walked with Andrew. Abigail would not even consider getting in there with Andrew again, haha. We took some picures out there and then went back and got the van and went in to Folly town area to eat dinner. We ate at Taco Boy where we got fish tacos and nachos that were all delicious! It was a good night.

Day Five (Sat. 3/26):

Scott was at his conference again, but he was done by 11:30, so we went and met him at the car rental return. Our plan was to head back in to downtown Charleston area for the day because there were so many things we still wanted to see and do down there (there still are plenty of things we would love to be able to do if we ever go back there!). First, we went on a harbor boat tour. It was a little boring for the little ones. Alex enjoyed the talk about the Fort Sumter, but other than that it was a little slow going. When we got off we headed straight for the outdoor market and had fun looking at all the knick knacks and art work and other wares for sale. I got a tree pendant that looks like a family tree and even has six little stones in it...one for each of us! Analeigh bought herself a sea turtle shirt and Alex bought a notebook and pen set that says "Charleston" on it. We were all so starved by then and were having a hard time deciding where to eat. As we passed by Bubba Gumps Shrimp Co. they were handing out samples of their "Hush Pups". That sold it for us. They were so good. It was definitely the priciest dinner for us of the week, but it was all soooo very, very yummy. After dinner we drove past Charleston's "Rainbow RowHomes" and the Battery Park area and wished we had enough time to walk through the whole city. As we were getting everyone ready for bed a thunderstorm rolled in and lit up the night sky over the water. Scott and I packed everything up after the kids were all tucked in.

Day Six (Sun. 3/27):

Alas, it was time to say goodbye to the beach and go home. The kids were able to go out and play a little more while we finished all the packing and got the car loaded up. We attempted a few family pictures on the beach...they didn't quite turn out as we hoped. Then we piled in the van for the long drive home.

We had a great trip and we would go back to visit Charleston again in a heartbeat. It was a beautiful city with so much Southern Charm.

The Fun Bus

Ma & Pa

Cutest 7 month old, Andrew, hanging out on the floor at the beach house

Folly Beach (right in front of the beach house)

Our playground for the week

Loving it

Add caption

Our big man, Alex

Sweet Abigail

Cute girl

Learning about the beach

So many interesting and beautiful homes to look at

South Carolina Aquarium

That's one big aquarium tank

Waiting to feed the sting rays

Feeding a horseshoe crab

Ahoy mateys

Abigal found this little rocking chair to take a break in...and eat some goldfish

Turtles!

Interesting shells

She's loving this

Great day at the aquarium

Wonderful spring day

Jestine's Kitchen

Food + cute girls

Andrew is not in that many of the photos, so here is one with the fire station in the background. I know you can't really tell in this photo, but the fire hydrant is painted like a dalmation dog, and there is a statue of a dalmation laying on a dog bed just outside the doors.