weekly reviews (I guess I got behind a tad;)

September seems to be a crazy busy month for us....we have a few September birthdays in the immediate and extended family; like in our household alone 50% of the people were born in September, and 50% in January. Add to that: siblings, parents, cousins, nephews, nieces...and we travel for these birthdays...twice, so it gets kind of crazy in September.   But, to help take some of the stress out of the craziness, with more travels coming in October (at least for the hubby;), we decided to forgo our annual camping trip to the Smokeys this year, and camp more locally.  Other than the horrible mosquitos, it was fabulous!


Scenes from the last three weeks of craziness:


bridal shower for my nephew's fiancee':
 


my medicine cabinet, plus Reiki, after I stepped into a fire-ant hill....my foot seriously healed very quickly!

my new nature-inspired jewelry line!

 
celebrating my mom's 69th Birthday, Hilton Head Style:

cool sea turtle sand sculpture:

my container garden update (not much survived...but bell peppers and Meyer Lemons did!)

camping on the beach, cool sun rises (since I had NO excuse not to wake to go see it, since I was literally right on the beach)

our birthday girl turned 11! there was camping AND horseback riding!

oh how quickly they grow:


scenes from our Hunting Island State Park camping trip (one hour by car, 3 miles by boat;):

lots of cool driftwood!

 
me and my mommy and the puppies:


camping in a maritime forest with the ocean just yards away: 


perspective:


 regular visitors to our campsite:


and then there was this time, when J and I kind of took a wrong turn on Hilton Head, and landed at a new rum distillery tour and tasting....ooops:

and a great time was had by all, full of joy, beauty, and adventure! 

ON THIS DAY: FB Memories, five years ago today!

I had WAY too many posts, but I was kind of excited about our recent move to Paradise and all;) But I have to share, so I'll just do this in one post (I think you'll agree it's worth the share;):
1. heading to the beach (Hunting Island) for a sand sculpting contest and a steel band!

2. Super serious sculpters arrived with measuring tape, rubber hammer and lots of wood
3. Totally humiliated:O. Stood up for a minute, sat back down on my chair, it wasn't there:/ strong atlantic breezes. Yes i had witnessess laughing with me:D
4. I'm going to cave in their mote if the GROWNUps next to us keep stepping on my 4 y/o's castles!! (this is a VERY serious threat here people!)
5. Second Place!!!!

Wednesday...a look back, in honor of the upcoming annual sandcastle contest!

We participated in this contest on Hunting Island, five years ago, when we first moved down to SC.  At the time we were living on Lady's Island, which is very close to Hunting Island.  The girls won second place in their age group!  Look how little they were!  Just 4 and 6 years old...where DID all the time go????!!!!!

Dharrrrrrrrrrrr she blows, scally waggs

and today's adventure involved a trek back to our original SC neck of the woods......Hunting Island.  This is the area where we lived during our first eight months of life in South Carolina.  It's hard to believe we haven't been back to Hunting Island in over two and a half years???!!!!!  Wow time flies!  We headed back to our old haunt to partake in the Pirate Festival festivities, plus some other fun in the area. 



in no particular order, introducing....

pirate #1


and pirate #2 (note: since I was unable to locate a pirate eye patch, she made herself one!  clever little pirate;)

first there was a scavenger hunt...happy to report, they followed all the clues and located the gold coins!

then they climbed the lighthouse...finally...they have wanted to do that since we first moved down three years ago: 

 
so glad J didn't drop my phone :O 

 check out the view from the top of the lighthouse!  definitely worth the $6 they spent, and the toasty trek up:


next we headed back to our beloved Nature center, where we first met Buddy the terappin diamond turtle three years ago..she's doing great!  She's VERY sweet (that or she was looking for handouts....my vote is the former;)
 
obviously I have a very special fondness for Buddies;)


we also had ourselves a nice little picnic:

and took a short walk on a long pier (isn't this a crazy cool photo!  I saw a transluscent map hanging inside the nature center, and saw this as a prime photo op....I wonder if anybody else in the history of mankind, has ever taken this shot? :D) 


 

who's this crazy fam?

  
and the pirate festivities resume.  We listened to a naturalist speak about the history of some of more well-known pirates of Beaufort County....Blackbeard is probably the most famous.  Hard to believe that in the late 1800's...that all of Hunting Island was undeveloped, but a hunting ground for Pirates (maybe that's where it got its name, hmmmm?)....we also learned that almost all of those famous pirates were either hung or beheaded...there was even a famous female pirate...they were going to hang her, but found out she was pregnant, she they let her go:)

following the cool history lesson, the girls created their own treasure chests:


and then, what day is complete without ICECREAM!  so we headed over to our favorite surf shop that we discovered and visited often when we first moved down...Bubba's Barefoot Surf Shop....(so many fun photo ops here;) 
oh, and the icecream is FREE...and you get a choice of flavors and  VERY generous scoop! 


 

and I kind of fell in love with this guy:

so we are now the proud owners of a smaller version of him....because NO house is complete sans a cool tiki doll :D


the end....family movie night now...and then one sleep to da beach!!!