Holden Beach- Part 2

I promise this will be the last of the vacation posts. There were just so many cute pictures and things that happened in two weeks, I didn't want to leave anything out.

Our attempts at a family picture. They didn't really  turn out too great because some little teething girl wasn't too into it. Notice the fingers in her mouth...all of them were like that.

I had to document the cuteness of her pig tails!

We went to eat ice cream and play putt putt one night after dinner. I just knew Hailey would love the ice cream and probably not care too much about putt putt. I figured she would have fun running around outside but that was about it. I was wrong. She didn't care much about the ice cream (although she ate a great dinner that night, so that may have had something to do with it) and she had a blast at putt putt. Mimi bought her a little plastic golf club and ball and she had fun trying to hit the ball a few times. But she really loved carrying around mine and Ryan's golf balls; so much so that we had to go ask for new ones inside so that she didn't melt down. She also loved running up and down the hill on the first hole.

Hailey with Mimi and Poppi one night before dinner.

Hailey's precious fish outfit.

And this is what happens when you leave the car door open to cool it off before getting in.

I'm thinking this is a glimpse into my future about 15 years from now.

I mentioned that Hailey came to love the water while on vacation...here is proof during her bath time one night. This is now a common sight at bath time. We've gotten her to kick and put her face in the water to blow bubbles.

One last picture. This is Hailey's first "masterpiece". I got/found that I'd never given her lots of new games and things for the car because I knew it would be a long trip. One of the things I got were crayons. Hailey's never really drawn before and is starting to notice us write and ask to "draw" too so I thought it might be something fun.

Other things we used were cling-ons for the window (we used them on a cookie sheet), Goldilocks and the three bears house and stuffed animals, pushing pom poms game, DVDs and new books. All in all she did good in the car, she just needed a lot of entertaining.

We had an awesome vacation and are so blessed to be able to spend the time with our families!

Holden Beach

After our week in Hilton Head, we traveled about 5 hours up the coast to Holden Beach to spend time with Ryan's family.

Hailey didn't like the ocean as much at Holden Beach. The water temperature was a lot colder there, so maybe that was some of it. She still loved playing in the sand and she got to pick up TONS of sea shells.

 Hailey loved standing in all of the beach chairs. I guess it made her feel taller?! Who knows, but she could climb in then and just laugh and laugh.

Here was our beach set-up most days. (Excuse the unflatteringness of this picture, I was eating a snack and so was Hailey, oblivious to the picture taking.)

in her own little chair

with Mimi

One day Ryan and his mom took Hailey on a walk down the beach and came back like this...

I guess the walking wore her out. She slept like that for a good hour.

The house we stay in at Holden Beach is right on the Intercoastal Waterway and Hailey LOVED to go look at the "shish" (fish). She would ask about 20 times a day, no exaggeration, to go outside and look for fish. She loved it when they jumped.

Rebecca (Ryan's sister) tried to paint Hailey's toenails this year, but she would have none of it. This is as far as she got; one toe. Hailey screamed and pulled her feet back. I guess she didn't like that they had to be still.

Rebecca also got Hailey her first pair of rainbow flipflops while we were there. Doesn't she look adorable?

One more picture of my stinker for this post. Hailey was playing with some keys and tried to put them in the door to unlock it...she watches everything!

This was only half...I know, I take a lot of pictures. I promise, only one more beach vacation post...

Hilton Head Island- Part 2- Picture Night

One night before we went to dinner we tried to get a bunch of cute pictures...Here's how they turned out!

I LOVE this picture of her!

Hailey and Cailin

Another one of Hailey's favorite things to do...

LOVE this one too!

 An attempt at family pictures after dinner one night.

She wanted us to smell the flower she picked

proudly showing off her flower

Hailey wasn't all that interested in our Japanese Steakhouse dinner. I really thought she would like watching the food being cooked, especially with how into cooking she's been lately. But not so much...

Another night we went out for ice cream. Hailey was much more interested in playing with the balloons and running around outside than she was in eating ice cream. Didn't expect that one either!

One night Ryan and I got to go on a date! He surprised me and we went on a sunset dinner cruise around the island and got to see fireworks from the boat. It was so wonderful!

While we were cruising, Hailey stayed with Grams and Das and this is what I saw

Love her!

And just because she's cute I can't leave this out.

There are no words for this cuteness

I know there have been a TON of pictures so far, but our beach vacation was only half over. Next up, Holden Beach with the Epleys!

Hilton Head Island- Part 1

Brace yourself for lots of pictures and posts coming in the next few days. We just got back from two weeks from vacation yesterday and I've got a lot to catch up on...

For our first week at the beach we joined my parents at Hilton Head Island. Unfortunately my sisters and their families weren't able to come this year but my aunt and cousin joined us instead. Hailey had a great time playing with Cailin (5 years old) and I'd venture to say Cailin enjoyed playing with "baby Hailey" too!

I think one of Hailey's favorite things to do that week was go on a bike ride. She constantly asked for "bike" and "ride". She absolutely loved being driven around. She liked to see whoever was riding the other bikes with her and liked to sing "The Wheels on the Bike (Bus)" as she rode.

Hailey really came to love the water while we were gone too. We took her to the pool almost everyday and she definitely got more and more comfortable as the week went on. The favorite pool that we went to was one of the zero depth entry pools, where the water gradually gets deeper as you walk in, kind of like the ocean. The first day we went Hailey stayed in ankle deep water but later in the week she wanted to keep walking to where the water was over her head, and then got mad when we picked her up! She also got to the point where she would "jump" (or walk) off of the side to us in the pool.

The beach...Hailey loved playing in the sand on the beach. She learned how to make sand molds of things and wanted us to do it constantly saying "make". Her favorite was of course the Elmo that my aunt brought her. She loved playing in the tidal pools too. She would just walk into them and sit down and start splashing.

Notice that Elmo isn't too far away in any of these pictures...

sweet curls and chubby legs

kissing the sand molds of Elmo

I'll leave it at that for now, but don't worry there's still more to come...I don't want to forget anything!