We just got home from our 1st big trip with friends which has been planned for more than 1 year. We went to the Isle of Palms in Charleston, SC. We went with 8 other families/couples...a total of 6 children ages 1 year to 8 years and 18 adults. We all shared an 8 bedroom house, 3 stories, w/elevator. We had beach and golf course view. Emma Grace had a blast playing with all the children, although I think she might have gotten her way too often. We will work on "re-training" next week. Most of our days consisted of breakfast, beach, lunch, nap, beach, showers, dinner, bath, play, and then bed. It was so nice to not have a plan. On wend. ventured into town to the Low-Country Children's museum. All the kids had a blast. It is smaller than Edventure in Columbia, but I think it was better. They had an entire water room that the children could play in w/rubber aprons on, it was too cute. Each night a family would cook. On Sunday we had Mexican casseroles, Monday we had honey mustard chicken w/green beans, broccoli, and mac and cheese, Tuesday was appetizer night and everyone made a small dish, Wen was hamburgers, Thursday was our night and we made low-country boil, Friday we went out, Saturday was baked ziti. It was so nice to not have to plan but one meal all week. The low-country boil turned out so well. Charlie did such a good job of adding the ingredients at the right time so that it all tasted wonderful. I think even my dad, who is a pro at this recipe, would have been impressed.







On Friday Emma Grace spent the night with Logan at my friend Courtney's mom's house. I was a little bit uneasy about her spending the night away in a strange place. I was not concerned about April's ability, I just didn't want Emma Grace to have a huge breakdown and not be able to be consoled. Fortunately, she did wonderful! On Friday night we went on a cruise in the harbor on 45 ft sailboat that was owned by one of my old college friends. We enjoyed this opportunity and took tons of pictures! After the cruise we went to Social, which is a wine and Tapas restaurant. We ate risotto balls, mussells, brick oven pizzas, crab dip, hummus, and black-bean sliders. I think my taste buds had as much fun as I did!







I feel so blessed to still have such close contact with friends from college. It is not often that people maintain such close bonds after college. While eating dinner one night it occurred to me that these girls have known me before Charlie, they were there for my wedding, the birth of my child. They have laughed with me, made me laugh, and cried with me. This friendship is more than "sorority sister" blah blah...it is a priceless gift straight from God. I am so happy that I will be able to create lifetime vacation memories for Emma Grace. We have all committed to doing this trip every other year. I can only imagine the memories that she will have as a result of this tradition.





I am attaching some pictures of the trip, additional pictures can be found at facebook.com