Charleston, SC

While the Mettler family was visiting us, Lareasa planned another surprise by having friends from Nashville meet them in Charleston for a couple days.  We tagged along as well since Will is fortunate enough to have time off work and doesn't report until the Nov 28th.  Charleston is only a 2 hr drive for us from Richmond Hill so after our trip to Hilton Head, we arrived in Charleston late afternoon on Monday.  We let Eric and Lareasa have the evening with their friends to catch up while we went downtown for dinner and to walk around.  One neat feature we found walking around downtown was that a lot of the buildings/homes had lanterns by their front doors like usual.  However, many of these were lit by a flame and not electric which we haven't noticed around Savannah yet.  On Tuesday, we walked around downtown.  We walked through City Market which reminded me of a Pike's Place atmosphere.  While Pikes Place Market in Seattle is built on the side of a hill and is 3 stories tall, Charleston City Market is about 3 or 4 city blocks long.  It has lots of tables however that vendors set up daily to sell different things.  Many vendors sold jewelry, clothes, or baskets woven out of the palm branches.  No fish market like Pikes Place Market has :)

After walking around City Market, we decided to take a carriage ride.  This is something Eric has always wanted to do and thankfully Grayson did MUCH better on this tour than he did with the trolley ride in Savannah!  We were able to see much more of the homes in downtown Charleston on this tour and found it much more informative than the trolley tour we took in Savannah.  It probably helped that our tour guide seemed to be carrying on a conversation rather than just talking from a memorized script like we experienced with our guide in Savannah.  I loved all the red doors buildings and houses had like the picture of the church below, along with all the historical houses and architecture.  Charleston has done a wonderful job preserving the historic feel of the city and not letting home owners change the outside appearance of homes.  

The oldest grocery store in the city

After the tour, we were all ready to eat and we ate an Irish Pub near City Market.  The food was good and the kids were thrilled to get balloons from the waitress when we were ready to leave.  Give Grayson a balloon, and he'll be happy for a good hour!  Needless to say, he was NOT happy when mommy tied the balloon away from him so he would stop playing with it and take a little nap while we walked along King Street which is the "shopping district" of Charleston.  

Before heading back to the hotel and having dinner, we stopped on John's Island to see the Angel Oak Tree.  It is a live oak tree which are all around Charleston, but the oldest live oak found to date.  It is at least 1400 years old and quite impressive!  

It was a fun day discovering Charleston!  I love Savannah for the fact that it has lots of little parks/squares all throughout downtown.  However, there seemed to be a lot of historical things within/around Charleston.  Will and I are already talking about other things we would love to go back and see some other time.  If anyone wants to come visit and stay a weekend with the boys,  you're more than welcome and we'll take a weekend away to Charleston! ;)  

Hilton Head, SC

On Monday we headed up to Charleston, SC and decided to stop at the beach since our friend Eric had never been to the Atlantic Ocean.  We stopped in Hilton Head for a few hours to enjoy the weather and have some lunch.  It was a much warmer day than we expected and ended up wishing we had shorts on like the kids!  Grayson loved playing in the sand as usual, but still has his little phobia of the ocean for some reason.  Ever since the second day at Myrtle Beach this summer he screams when we try to get him near the water.  He's much happier from a distance playing in the sand.  Hopefully this fear of the ocean disappears soon since Will and I both see us going to the beach often come spring/summer!  Here are some pictures from our trip to the beach.  Most of them are of Grayson and Brooklyn playing of course. :)  

The kids looking up at an airplane overhead

Will trying to encourage Grayson to the water... he ran away instead

Grayson loves when you make a tower or sand mold with his beach toys and then destroying it.  Brooklyn had to be pretty quick to destroy it first since Grayson's hands were ready and waiting as soon as I got the cup packed with sand!

A safe distance away from the water, but he was still unhappy about being brought out there!

The whole crew!  

Downtown Savannah

This past week we were fortunate enough to have friends from Washington come visit us for a few days.  Eric and Lareasa are our friends that had their little girl, Brooklyn, the same day Grayson was born.  They also had a baby girl, Kelyn, who is now 6 months old.  Lareasa had surprised Eric for his birthday with a trip out here since they both love the south and wanted to make sure they had a chance to come out and see us within this first year of living here.  We celebrated Eric's birthday with my family's traditional butter cake and managed to fit a lot in during the time they were here!  On Sunday, we went to downtown Savannah to walk around and enjoy some lunch.  There was an old ship docked there at River Street and we were able to take the kids on it to see inside.  

There are people all over Savannah that make roses out of palm branches.  They are sold like how you would see people trying to get men to buy a real rose for their girlfriend or wife walking by on the street.  A man was handing them out for free to the little girls and moms by the ship so Grayson and Brooklyn found lots of enjoyment out of the roses for awhile. :)

We also took a trolley ride tour while in Savannah.  Grayson had gone on one with my mom this summer while we stayed downtown while house hunting.  My mom said he did really well on the trolley with her.  We were not as fortunate to have him behave as well this time!  This is the one and only picture I got on the trolley due to him not wanting to sit on the seat or in a lap and wanting to get up and run around.  Thankfully the driver talked over a loud speaker so his screaming at times did not drown out what they were saying.  

We stopped before our tour was up at one of the stops by the park for the kids to get out and run around.  Needless to say, once they hopped back in the stroller to walk around town a bit they were fast asleep!  Our Christmas gift from Grandma and Grandpa Campbell (the double stroller) came in quite handy during our friends visit!

These are a couple pictures from Lareasa's camera from the trolley tour.  

It was a fun and long day of exploring Savannah and of course the kids were then in need of a bath before bed!  Who can resist the cliche bathtub pictures?!  Grayson and Brooklyn had fun playing together in our big master tub, and Will was just as happy to have them out of the way while he cleaned up from dinner (I was just as happy to not have dishes to do! :))

Our next adventure was to Hilton Head Island.... which you will see pictures in the next post! :)

Grayson and Brooklyn.... back together again!

Grayson has been "friends" with Brooklyn since they were just hours old!  Of course, their friendship is forced upon them by the fact that we are close friends with Brooklyn's parents, Eric and Lareasa.  The story of their "friendship" is unique in the fact that they share the same birthday.  Not only were they born on the same day, they were also born in the same hospital room.  Some of you may have heard the story, but for those who haven't... here you go!  Our friends Eric and Lareasa Mettler found out they were pregnant about a month before we found out.  Then, once I had gone to the doctor and had my first ultrasound, we discovered that our due dates were less than a week apart.  January came upon us quickly and Lareasa's due date came and went... much to her dismay!  Will of course returned home from Afghanistan and 2 days before my due date I went into labor.  Grayson was finally born at 4:26 am on January 26.  Only a few hours after we left the delivery room the Mettlers came into the hospital ready to have their little girl.  She ended up being put into the same delivery room we just left and little Brooklyn was born late that night!  It has been fun watching the two grow up and it was sad to have to move away from them last year.  They happened to be our first visitors to Georgia just this past week when they came to visit with Brooklyn and her new baby sister!  More blogs and stories about our adventures with the Mettler family are coming next! Here are just a few pictures of Grayson and Brooklyn together over the past year and a half.  :)

Brooklyn & Grayson-1 month

4 months

8 months

14 months

22 months