Relaxing in Hilton Head

For anniversary #3, we headed down to Hilton Head Island, SC over Memorial weekend.  We rented a condo right on the beach and had great views.

View from our balcony

View from beach to our rental - just a quick walk!!

It's me!! on the balcony

Nearby plaza - actually pretty big - lots of restaurants and shops - we walked here to go out to eat.  Luckily we were in a great spot near everything - didn't have to drive at all once we got to our rental.

We didn't realize it until we got there, but a tropical storm was headed our way!  Luckily all that meant was very windy days and rain on one day.  We were still able to go out on the beach every day - although it was so windy one day that I kept losing my hat.

It's a little hard to tell in the picture, but it was very windy!

Caution flags were out every day on the beach, but a lot of people still went in the water

Matt enjoying the waves!  I didn't go out that much - the wind was making such big waves, I'm not a fan of that.  Stings my eyes and I get paranoid about losing my contacts

 A little chilly during our walk down the beach

We kept seeing these on the beach - jellyfish???

During the rain...

Happy Anniversary!! Matt is a bit pink from a sunburn

Happy Birthday Matt!!!!!

For Matt's, um, 29th birthday this year (interestingly, we seem to be aging backwards since moving to NC!!) - we didn't do too much, because we were leaving the next day for our Hilton Head trip!  (see upcoming post for those pictures).  I got him a small gift and we went out to eat at one of his favorite places.

What is it??!!??  Drumroll please...

It's a 2011 Cardinals World Series Champions Budweiser!!  Adding to the collection...

Matt was a little bummed that he couldn't just go out and buy one of these after the World Series last year, so I found one on Ebay for him!  Happy Birthday!! :)

Savannah Surprise

This year for my birthday, Matt told me he had a surprise and to take the Friday and Monday around that weekend off work.  The big surprise was...a weekend in Savannah!  We have been there once before, and loved it.  A very pretty place to visit, with a lot of things to do.  And they are especially well-known for their big St Patrick's day festivities, which involves one of the biggest parades in the U.S., if you can believe it!  I think this actually refers to the amount of people that attend the parade (this year, it was estimated at 1 million, I think?) and the amount of floats,etc in the parade. 

We arrived on Friday night, and Matt had gotten us a great rental right downtown, and very close to the parade route.

This was our rental.  We stayed on the main floor, right side.

View down the street from our rental

Saturday morning we got up early, dressed in our St. Pat's t-shirts and beads (courtesy of Matt's mom) and armed ourselves with some mimosas.  We found a spot on the parade route at about 9am (it was scheduled to start at 10am).  There were tons of people already there.  The parade ended up lasting until about 3pm!!!  We started getting tired a little before that, so left early and went back to rest up for nightly fun!

We noticed this sign while walking around, and were impressed that St Patrick's Day is so big, it requires year-round committee headquarters!

More pictures of Savannah...they have many different "Squares" in the middle of city blocks that all seem to be named after city founders or Civil War heroes.  Savannah also has many fountains, and for the holiday, the water in all fountains was dyed green!

Water turning a little blue the day after...

Thanksgiving at the beach

Thanksgiving at the beach....what could be better??? Not much, I think!  :)  Matt and I decided to stay home for Thanksgiving this year (actually last year, since I am so slow getting this post up!).  We wanted to save money on plane tickets but figured we would just be on our own for the holiday.  Then, some of Matt's family decided to take a beach trip so we tagged along.  Had a GREAT time!!  We went to Edisto Beach (close to Charleston, SC).  Matt's Aunt Janet and Uncle Steve drove up from Florida and stayed with his parents.  We rented a house with his sister-in-law Leann, her husband Cole, and Matt's nieces Megan and Molly.

Ron, Steve, and Matt relaxing after the big meal

  A rousing card game, involving a lot of cheating! It was going too fast for me to get the rules, so I just stood back and took some pictures.

Leann and Cole

Molly & Megan

The whole family (looking right into the sun!)

Roy was loving all the extra attention he got from Megan

 On Friday, we took a drive to a nearby vodka distillery - the Firefly Distillery.  Lots of fun, and great weather!  Matt and I learned (after we got back home and talked to some local people) that it is a well-known local vodka here.

Cheers!

Carolyn was really thirsty!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Trip to Illinois

I decided this year to take a few days and fly out to visit some siblings over Halloween weekend.  I stayed at my brother Rob and sis-in-law Michele's house.  While I was there, my younger brother Thom and sister Tara also came to visit.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera (!) so had to steal pictures that they took on their phones, which are mostly of the kids.

Henry - 10 1/2 months,  Eva - 3,  Sam - 4

Every morning, Rob & Michele's three kids snuggle in their room while the adults take showers and get ready.  I would come in and snuggle with them!

Isaac is shy for the camera

Cheese!!

Enjoying the swingset

Getting ready to cut the grass

Decorating Halloween cookies

Sam and Eva are very interested in carving the pumpkin

Posing with the jack-o-lantern

All dressed up for Halloween!! Eva is a princess, Henry is a train conductor, Sam is a car mechanic, and Michele is an astronaut.  Time to trick or treat!!

Autumn in NC

Our backyard

Backyard #2

We took a drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, up through central and north NC and into Virginia.  Stopped several times to take pictures.  I forgot my camera, so these pictures were taken on Matt's phone.  The leaves were so beautiful - a little hard to see all the colors on these pictures, wish I would have remembered that camera!!

Trip to Outer Banks

At the end of September, we took a short trip to the Outer Banks ( islands off the coast of NC).  This was our first trip to the Outer Banks since moving here.  We have been to the beaches several times in South Carolina but never to North Carolina beaches.  This is mostly because there are a lot of great places to go on the beach in SC, and they are a shorter drive.  I bought our trip off of Living Social, and it included a stay at a B&B.  We were both slightly apprehensive about staying at a B&B, as the last two times we stayed at them, it ended up being less than what we were expecting.  However, we had a fantastic time and this B&B was great! 

Matt in front of The White Doe Inn

We stayed in the Raleigh room

Matt outside on our private veranda

 We were only a short walk to downtown and the ocean.  It was too cold for swimming but nice to walk around.

View of the harbor

 We went for a drive along the coast and decided to go to Corolla, which is where the wild horses are.  They roam free along the island, but are prevented from going into Virginia or into the towns of NC by large fences.  We also stopped by the local horse museum, and learned that until about 20 years ago, when the fencing went up, the horses would often wreak havoc in town by getting in trash and also causing traffic problems.  On this part of the beach, you can drive your car (if it's 4WD) and try to catch a glimpse of the horses.

We didn't think we were going to see any horses, and then on the way back to town we ran across 4 horses hanging out on the beach!





  We also had some other excitement on the trip - Matt discovered a scavenger hunt in our room and then solved it!  This started when I was leaning against the bedpost and it fell off.  Matt was trying to fix it but couldn't and then checked all the bedposts to see if they had this problem.  Under one of them we found a note!  (apparently I was not the first one to lean on the posts!).

Here's the note.  In case you can't read it very well, it says Look behind the carved word CROATAN.  I was a bit stumped by this clue, as we were in the Outer Banks so there were a lot of things about Croatan (the Lost Colony) in the area.  So, I gave up after about 2 minutes of pondering.  Matt, on the other hand, kept at it until he figured it out!

 Turns out another note was hiding behind a picture in our room of the colonists carving the word "croatan" on the tree.  (after Matt noticed this, I realized I had just been looking at these pictures the day before when we first got to the room, but apparently I was not paying good attention!)

Here's the note that was left:
Wow - You found it!  Take the penny for good luck but leave the notes and another small token for others to find.

Alright, I admit it...kinda nerdy but it was fun to find on our trip! :)