Vacation Part 3: Sand Castles, Petting Zoo, Coligny Beach and Stoney-Baynard Ruins!

Have I mentioned how much I loved Hilton Head? It is a wonderful place! The beach time never got old any of the days we were there! Every morning when we got to the beach, my dad and Jeff would start to dig a big sand castle pit for Boone to play in.

The white balance is a little off on this one, but here they are working 

away on Boone's fortress.

We spent most of our beach time at Sea Pines Beach Club, but one evening after dinner, we decided to ride drown to Coligny Beach. It had an awesome deck with swings and a little splash park. 

Dad and Mom at Coligny Beach

The neat boardwalk area. It seemed like a nice place to sit in the evenings. Lots of 

couples and families hanging out.

There was a stables area inside of Sea Pines where you could go and ride horses, but there was also a free petting zoo. We decided to go check it out one afternoon and it was so great!

Boone found this rooster early on and followed him around a lot.

Buddies.

Checking out the goats.

Cute signs warned the kiddos not to jump inside the animal areas.

These beautiful hydrangeas were right at the entrance of the stables. I wish I could have cut some off for a bouquet, but I didn't! Those things would cost a fortune at the store and they were beautiful!

After busy days at the beach and running around the island, Boone loved book time with Nana and Papa. It was so nice to be with them for a whole week.

As we would ride around Sea Pines, we kept seeing a sign for a ruins area in Sea Pines. My interest got the best of me and my parents and I decided to bike over there and check it out one afternoon. The ruins were the remaining pieces of the plantation from the island. 

This is what is remaining of the plantation house after a fire.

If you look closely, you can see the oyster shells they used to create the walls of the plantation house. How neat is that? So interesting to see that they used the resources around them, no matter how different, to build the home. It is so neat that you can still see the oyster shells in the walls that remain.

It was sort of an eerie feeling to be back in the ruins. It was such a contrast to the other areas of the island with beautiful homes and pristine golf courses, but I think that it is neat that they have this area to see some of the history of the island. The plantation was on somewhat of a hill in what is a very flat island, so during the Civil War, it was taken over by the Union and they set up camp there for a time. 

One last picture... My parents watched Boone one night and let Jeff and I get away for a dinner out. We went to a restaurant on the island called A Lowcountry Backyard Restaurant. It was a really cute place! It did look like house and we sat in a backyard. We ate fried green tomatoes, pimento cheese and I ordered shrimp and grits! It was delicious and so fun to have a date night. Thanks Dad and Mom for watching Boone!

One more post still to come full of pictures!

Thanks for reading!

Thorntonfest!

One thing I love about the area we live in is all the free community activities that it offers and they are usually geared toward families. We decided to check out the Thortonfest with some friends after I ran in the Cottonwood Classic, the 5k for the festival, earlier that morning, . (Sidenote- I won 3rd place for my age group... That says more about the lack of talent of others in my age group than in my talent, but oh well!) We had a lot of fun and everything (besides the food) was free!

Checking out the petting zoo. There was actually a cow roaming around the petting zoo..

There were some kiddos pulling the grass up and trying to feed it to the bunny, so of course, Boone decided he needed to get in on the action! He followed around a bunny at the park the next day trying to feed him grass too! 

Our friend Yliana and her daughter Lainey.

Lainey riding the ponies.

Boone took a turn too.

Ryan carrying Sawyer.

Riding with Boone in the train. We weren't sure he was big enough to ride in a car by himself, but...

he got his turn with his friend, Renner.

Boone and Renner checking out the trash truck.

We had beautiful day to check out Thorntonfest, and I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't completely packed. We had a lot of fun! Looking forward to more fun, summer events!

Baby Animals

Back when we first moved to our hotel in Denver, we met another family that was living at the same hotel. They had a little boy and Boone and their son Sawyer always seemed to be interested in each other every morning over breakfast. I started talking with the mom, Haylie, and we found that they would be moving to a home near where we would be living. We've been able to keep in contact and hang out quite a bit. It really is neat to see the people God brings into your life in sometimes very random ways.

A few weeks ago, Haylie asked if we would be interested in going to a farm with them. Someone in their church had some baby chicks, a lamb and some kittens that they would let us come check out with the boys. We finally found a day that worked out and the weather was perfect. We had a really fun time and Boone loved seeing the animals. He's able to make the noises for most animals, so he ran around yelling "Bawk, Bawk!" for the chickens and "Baaaaaa!" for the lamb. Thanks Haylie for inviting us. It was fun to get away from the 'burbs for a bit and get some fresh air out on a farm.

Boone and Sawyer checking out a basket full of kittens. They were

still too small to be adopted out! And I can only imagine Jeff's face 

if we had brought home another cat!

Boone loved sitting under the table and checking them out.

Outside near the chicken coop.

Boone and the lamb.

Boone and a big, old dog that the owners have had for a really long time.

Baby chickens. They weren't tiny chicks, but still too small to be out in the coop.

Boone found a squirrel tail. I know most moms wouldn't let their kid carry 

around a dirty, old squirrel tail, but he thought it was the coolest thing.

Boone and Sawyer admiring the chickens. Sawyer can't quite walk yet, 

but he loves trying to keep up with Boone.

Boone with the lamb again. He seemed so sweet.

Playing in the front yard.

The little dog wanted nothing more than to play fetch with Boone, but Boone didn't understand why the dog kept wanting to take the ball.

There was an epic power struggle. The funny part is that the dog 

was so sweet and playful, but Boone just didn't quite get it yet. Too funny!

So we found another ball and everyone was happy.