Pawley's Island, SC

The day after we flew back from Seattle, we drove to Pawley's Island to spend the week at an awesome beach house with friends from church. As soon as we got to Pawley's Island we loved it, our favorite beach on the SC coast by far. It was a great week of beach and fellowship, however there were a few bumps in the road, as E didn't sleep as well on this trip and woke up pretty early some mornings, and we had to take him to the doctor while we were there because he woke up from a nap basically screaming with a big red puffy eye. The rest of the afternoon he wasn't himself, he would cry hard anytime we would lay him down. As an answer to prayer, there was a pediatrician nearby who was on our insurance, and we were able to get an appointment really quickly. We took him in and it ended up being that he scratched his eye, the dr said it would be better by the next morning, and it was, which we were very thankful for. Here are some pics we took on our trip.

This is the view from the back dock. The back of the house was right on the marsh, which was really cool because we could fish from the dock and kayak the creeks. The front of the house faced the beach, which was right across the street, which was so nice to be able to just walk to the beach.

The marsh straight ahead of the dock

To the right of the dock

Mark "crabbing"....there were a ton of blue crab in the water, and to catch them all you had to do was tie string to a stick and attatch a chicken neck to the string, put it in the water and the crabs would clamp on with their pinchers and not let go until you lifted them to the surface and put a net underneath them to lift them out of the water.

Look at all the crab they caught in one morning. I was unsuccessfull in catching one crab, which was pretty sad b/c people were catching them all around me.

Taylor caught a big crab

Sun setting over the marsh

"Boogie boarding"...I put parenthesis because the waves here are nothing like the waves on the west coast...however there were some waves that were decent enough to catch and ride for a while, but just not the same.

Waiting for a good one

Mark is helping one of the kids try to catch a wave

Haha, I was taking a pic of the beach to the right of us, and didn't even realize I got Will's face in the pic

The beach to the left

There's a decent wave

The ladies lounging in the sun

Storm clouds a-comin

Not exactly sure what this bird is called...anybody know?

E's first time on the Atlantic coast

Daddy and son

The family

This was so funny when we put his feet down the tide came up and rushed over his feet and he immediately jerked them up away from the water

The three of us

Once again

Emmory's second day on the beach. We were so thankful for a few days of really nice weather, not too hot and mostly cloudy so the sun wasn't blazing down on us, so E was able to come out for a lil bit

Me and E hanging out on the blanket

I love my lil boo!

Close up

Daddy and son again. Thank you John and Christina for a great trip!

Cannon Beach, OR

Here are the pics from our first trip to Seattle and Cannon Beach, Oregon. Unfortunately we only took pics at Cannon Beach.

This is E in the car at our first stop, to feed him at a rest area

Mark decided to take a pic of me feeding him

Mom and Dad at the rest stop

On the road! It's about a 3 1/2 hour trip from Seattle to CB. We drank lots of Henry's rootbeer on the trip since we can't get it in SC.

Mom in the backseat, keeping E happy when he was awake

We're here!

Mark's "we're here" pose

E was sleeping when we got there, and he had used his burpcloth as a blankie haha

View from our room

We laid E on our bed to continue sleeping once we got in the room

Outside the room ready to go on our first walk

On our first walk on the beach! It was cold that morning

Mom and Dad with sis Christy and bro-in-law Kevin outside our fav breakfast place The Lazy Susan in town

Eating breakfast, Grandma and Aunt LouAnn joined us

Mark took pics around the table

Dad decided to stick out his tongue

Mom and Nama

Grandma

The classsic Lazy Susan muscle shot, except I forgot I was supposed to make a serious face

E looking cute in his beach outfit

E's first time swimming! He neither hated it nor loved it, just had a straight face pretty much the whole time

In the water

Love the expression on his face, "I'm not so sure about this"

The family in the water

Me and my lil boo

More family pics

E and Aunt Kimmie

E and Uncle Kyle

The whole swimming crew

E on the beach in the pack n play with his toys

Happy boo on the beach

Mark and Kyle relaxing on the beach

The beautiful Oregon coast in the morning looking towards Haystack Rock

Looking towards Twins

The Twin Rocks

Starfish are all over the rocks

From Twins looking back towards Haystack

E and Aunt Kimmie. Kimmie was the only one who didn't get to see E right after he was born, so she was pretty much glued to him the whole trip.

Grandpa Gifford, Mark and E before we went on a walk

Heading towards the beach

The three of us on the beach

If you are wondering why we are often bundled up, it is cold in the morning and evening here on the Oregon coast, it isn't like the south.

The crew on the walk

The Rock in all her glory

E walking with Daddy

Kimmie and I

Dad and I

Sweet pic, E fell asleep towards the end of the walk

In town before we head back to Seattle

Sleeping E

A few pics of our fav places in town...this is Pizza Afetta

This is Osburne's, not Osbourne's (haha inside family joke, I would explain but it probably really wouldn't be that funny to you)...really good ice cream

Bruce's Candy Kitchen, best saltwater taffy ever, and many other yummy sweet treats

The town of Cannon Beach...it is the cutest town ever!

That completes all the pics from the first leg of our travels this summer, will start working on the pics from Pawley's Island next. Thanks Mom and Dad for a great week!