Beach!

We are back from the beach! We had the most perfect week! The weather was sunny and mid 80s all week and didn't rain at all except for Friday afternoon. The girls had such a blast all week and it's hard to believe it's already over! Both ways the girls did AMAZING in the van. I told Brandon that I think they behave better in the van than they do at home! There was hardly any crying, even by Abby, and the girls played so nicely together and we barely even used the DVD player to keep them entertained. I was really thankful and amazed at how well they did!

Abby learned a few new things on our trip. She learned to wave. If you wave at her or say "hi", she will lift her arm up in response, kind of like a half wave! She also said "ma ma" for the first time! She's said it a few times since, and possibly even meant it b/c she said it when she was upset. I of course just loved it :) And, although she is still not quite crawling, she did learn how to go from being completely on her stomach, to up on her knees and then back up to sitting. This is so great b/c she has been so frustrated lately about getting stuck on her stomach. In fact, this afternoon when I got her up from her nap, she was sitting up in her crib! I guess we'll have to lower the crib rail now, since she does know how to pull up from sitting as well. Anyways, I think I have almost 150 pictures! So, I will put a slideshow at the end and just share some of my favorites. If you're reading this on facebook, I'll put an album up on there.

Sammi and Maddie LOVED the ocean and beach! They pretty much never got tired of it and it was really nice that the house we stayed in was right on the beach, so we could just walk out the back deck and onto the beach! Here are my favorites of the girls.

Maddie would spend a long time, just by herself, playing in the sand :)

Uncle Nate got Sammi and Maddie this raft to ride the waves in. Maddie loved it! Sammi was too afraid to like it very much.

Sammi seriously thought she was surfing on her care bear surfboard! She was such a crack up all week. I should have written down all the funny things she said.

Lots of time was spent building sand castles

This was at Pawleys Island

Having fun with Pap Pap!

Abigail on the other hand HATED the ocean! I was sort of surprised by this, b/c she loves the pool and bathtub, but I guess the action and noise of the waves really scared her. And she hated the sand too. After a day or so, she would start to make a whining noise as soon as we stepped out the back deck to head down to the beach! She knew where we were taking her, and she was not happy about it! By the last day, she at least let me stand in the water while holding her and she thought it was funny to "wave" at the waves. But, she screamed if I tried to put her in the water!

Her very first reaction!

We eventually got the idea to put her in the raft with some water, so it was like a pool and she liked that, as long as there was no sand on her! So at least she enjoyed the ocean one way or another!

She also liked sitting in the little chair, up away from the sand! Nana also spent lots of time with her both inside and on the beach. Unfortunately I never got a good picture of them playing together!

This is a picture of Murrells inlet. Last time we were here, we spent a lot of time fishing on Pap Pap's boat out there. This was taken one night when we went out to dinner.

And here is all of us, except Pap Pap who was taking the picture and Maddie who was hiding behind Brandon. She had a rough couple of first days adjusting to a new place and was in quite the mood, especially at meal times. But, after a day or so, she warmed up and kind of got over it, thank goodness!

Can't leave out a sunset picture!

We also did some surf fishing and Sammi caught a sand shark! After she caught one, Uncle Nate caught two at once! As soon as Sammi realized she really had a shark on her line, she ran as fast as she could away from the rod!

One morning we went to Brookgreen Gardens, which was a very neat place with lots of statues, gardens and a wildlife zoo. It would be nice to go back and spend some more time there next time.

Here is the alligator that was in the zoo part! He was HUGE!

We also went to Charleston one day. We went the aquarium, which the girls really loved. They especially liked the otters and penguins! Charleston is such a neat city, we really want to go back and spend more time there! Brandon especially liked this bridge that is behind us in the picture. It was really cool. And we got to visit a friend of ours and my Mom's while we were in Charleston so that was really nice!

And here is a picture of the love birds, Nate and his fiance Norma! They were both especially helpful with the girls and had lots of fun with them :)

Brandon and I also got to go on a date to a really nice restaurant one night! We can't thank Pap Pap and Nana enough for giving us that opportunity! It was very nice to have some time alone together. And we can't thank them enough for inviting us to come down to the beach with them! We had such a great time and it was really one of the nicest vacations we've ever had. We couldn't have asked for a better time!