Christmas in Ohio

 We spent the weekend before Christmas in Ohio. Checking out Bluffton where will we be moving in 3 short weeks, and having our annual family Christmas at Aunt Krista's house.

 

The littlest cousins.

 

Who would barely sit still for a picture. 

 

Tess helped get dinner ready

 

They all played a little

 

And then it was present time

 

It was way too exciting for some.

 

The Lumberjack, er, Bobby is his new hand knit hat.

 

Big Trav opening his almost sold out tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld

 And the little girls checking out the music video for Frozen

 

Followed by singing

 And dancing, of course.

 

Ready to be closer to home so these visits won't be such a trek. 

The Stockings Were Hung

 

My lovely new mantel

 

When we bought the house, we were mantel-less

 

But thanks to my husband's mad carpentry skills

 

And the removal of the gas logs

We now have a wood burning fireplace

 

With a mantel that looked like this in October

 

But is now dressed up for Christmas

October

Scenes from October

 A visit to Ohio and Brumbaugh fruit farm

 

Carving Jack O Lanterns

 

Decorating for Halloween

 

And heading out to trick or treat.

A Trip Down South

 Well, further south. 

Over Labor Day weekend, the family headed down to Charleston, SC for a mini vacation.

 

The first day we were there we headed to Folly Beach.

Bobby and the kids are way out there.

 

See?

 

We played on the beach for a few hours, then headed to downtown Folly Beach

for dinner at Folly Beach Crab Shack

 

The second day, we headed to downtown Charleston to check out Battery Park and the historic homes of the downtown area.

 

Yeah, lots of pictures of Tess. But who can resist this girl?

 

See this huge tree?

That's where the limb Travis is leaning on came from.

 

So we checked out the cobblestone paths

 

The courtyard gardens

 

and the amazing architecture.

 

 

Maybe pretended like we were "home"

 

Enjoyed the shady park

 

And the fountains

 

That you can play in!

 

Did you know you can sail to the Bahamas? From Charleston?

 

In the afternoon, we headed to Isle of Palms beach.

 

Which you may notice, is a little busier, so not so many pics. 

We had dinner at Coconut Joe's.

 

On the third day, the kids played in the pool for a bit while we washed our beach towels.

 

We headed up to Summerville to check out the historic downtown

and have lunch at Perfectly Franks, the home of some really wacky weiners.

 

In the afternoon we headed over this huge bridge and stopped in to Patriots Point.

(Un)fortunately, the rain that came through that afternoon had knocked out the power and they were running on generators so we couldn't go on the ship.

 

There were a few old guns to look at outside though so the kids checked those out before we got back into the car and headed to Sullivans Island .

 

To me, Sullivan's Island is the classic Carolina beach, covered in sand drifts.

 

Million dollar beach homes dot the shoreline

 

The kids were not as impressed with SI. It was a little gloomy and windy due to the rain earlier.

And there were many sand bars just off the beach.

 

After having dinner at Taco Mamacita, we went back to N. Charleston, packed up our bags and crashed for a few hours before heading home in the wee hours.

 

We all had a great time on our mini vacay. It was nice to finally get away for awhile. 

And since we'll be taking another mini trip back to Ohio this week, 

I thought I should finally get around to posting pics. 

 

Pip greeted us when we got home. On top of the kitchen cabinets.