Gabriel Family Beach Trip

This week was the Gabriel Family Beach Trip on Hilton Head Island, SC and we had a fantastic time! Unfortunately, Richard and I both had to work through Wednesday, so we didn't get to head down until Wednesday evening. Luckily, the drive was really easy - no traffic, no stops, other than dinner, and really nice speed limits all the way down, so we got there in about 4.5 hours of driving time - not bad at all! We stopped for dinner at Cracker Barrel (yum yum) on our way down and enjoyed some good old Southern cookin' for dinner. It was quite tasty, as usual - Lily loved her grilled cheese and green beans.

We got down to the beach right around 10:30 that night and got to catch up with everyone for a bit before heading to bed that night. The next morning, Lily discovered the grand staircase pretty quickly. She thought it was one of the coolest things she'd ever discovered. She wanted to go up and down, up and down, all the time, but she got pretty good about staying away from them if someone wasn't there with her to help (for the most part). Luckily, we had so many people there, it was easy to keep an eye on her!

Thursday morning/early afternoon, after breakfast, naptime, a walk for mommy with Grandma, Aunt Margaret and Uncle Hal and then lunch, we headed down to the beach. Our house was about 5 blocks from the beach and it was a really nice walk down there. This was my first trip to Hilton Head and I absolutely loved the beach. It was beautiful - a nice flat beach with hard packed sand, which made it easy for Lily to toddle around wherever she went. The tide stayed out for several hours, which gave Lily a nice spot to sit in the shallows and splash around. As soon as we arrived at the beach and took her out of her stroller, she made a beeline for the water (with daddy right beside her). Before we could even take her cover up off, she splashed right into the ocean and plopped down - ready to play! She absolutely loves the water. She wanted to be in it all the time and really had no fear. She was knocked over a couple of times by the waves, but didn't care at all - just kept crawling and splashing around in the water. Lily and daddy also had a great time playing in the sand - daddy digging a big hold and Lily "helping", while tasting the sand every once in awhile. Here are some pictures from our first beach day:

Up and down the stairs

Opening and closing all the doors (and there were lots of doors!)

Happy water baby

Playing in the water with Grandma

Digging with daddy

The big hole daddy dug

Thursday night, we had the birthday celebration for Margaret, Richard and Aunt Margaret. All of their birthdays are just a couple of days apart, and Richard and Aunt Margaret actually have the same birthday. We celebrated with delicious grilled burgers and hot dogs, with cake for dessert. A perfect end to our first beach day -  I love grilling at the beach. We ended up in bed kind of early that night, after our long day the day before.

Friday morning, we woke up to another perfect beach day and headed down to the beach after morning naptime and Lily's lunch. The weather was perfect again and the tide was even further out than the day before. Lily headed straight for the water again and plopped right down to begin her day at the beach. She and daddy even headed out a little further that day to jump the waves. I've never seen such a calm stretch of ocean before, except in St. Lucia for our honeymoon. The waves were just Lily's size and she absolutely loved going into the deeper water with daddy holding her. The water was the perfect temperature, not too chilly, but just enough to be refreshing. We did some more digging in the sand after ocean time and, after a snack, Lily headed back to the ocean with Grandma and Granddad. After playing in the water a little more, Lily and Granddad had a hike on the beach. Lily collected shells and sand and handed them off to Granddad for safe keeping during their hike. Grandma even found a sand dollar for Lily to keep as a souvenir from our trip. We even had a little bit of unexpected excitement during the morning - a runaway umbrella! A group down the beach from us lost their umbrella in the beach breeze, but lucky for them, daddy is a fast runner and stopped the umbrella from getting too far down the beach - and from hurting anyone. Here are some pictures from our second day on the beach:

In the deep water with daddy

Jumping waves!

Chasing the birds on the beach

And here are some pictures of daddy's beach umbrella rescue:

Snagging the umbrella mid-flight

Handing back to the owners - they seemed grateful

After heading home from the beach that day, we all got ready and headed out to dinner at the Skullcreek Boathouse. What a beautiful place to eat! We sat outside, with a wonderful view of the ocean and even got to see the sunset. The food was great (Lily and I had fried shrimp and it was delish!) and so was the company. It was a fabulous way to spend our last evening at the beach.

After dinner, we headed back to the house to hang out for the evening and Lily got to enjoy some of her favorite dessert with Grandma and Granddad - ice cream!

The next morning, we packed up all our stuff and left the beach, for the last time this summer. We had such a fabulous time and really, really enjoyed getting to spend such quality time with the family.

Below are a couple of videos of our munchkin - the first one is her trek down the beach to the ocean (it's kind of a long one, as there was a lot of beach to cover, but she was determined to get there!) and the second is her splashing in the water - enjoy!