Hilton Head Island - Day 1 and 2

Jen and I left for Hilton Head with the girls, just after traffic died down on Monday morning.  The drive was surprisingly short, only 4 1/2 hours, not including our extended stop for lunch at Cracker Barrel.  When we arrived at the hotel we got checked in and quickly realized that the room we had been assigned was a smoking room.  I called the front desk and let them know that was not acceptable for us, especially since we had two kids and one preggo - Jen, not me :-), so we gathered all of our stuff and moved rooms.  We were excited to check out the resort so we went to start exploring.  The hotel was really nice.  It had a large courtyard, two pools, a playground, and a nice private area of beach.   By this time, we were all getting hungry so we went in search of one of the hotel's restaurants only to find that a water pipe had burst, flooding several of the restaurants.  In an effort to  repair the problem they had shut down ALL of the running water for the entire hotel! It was dinner time so we jumped on the shuttle from our hotel to Shelter Cove Marina so we could get a quick dinner and get back to the hotel.  Harper, who hadn't napped that day, was getting harder to handle and while at Shelter Cove, Handley was running and fell.  She scraped both knees and one elbow pretty bad.  It seemed that our vacation was not off to a good start.  When we arrived back at the hotel we got one piece of good news, the water was back on which meant I could bathe the girls and get them to bed just in time for Jen and I to hover near the TV at 8 PM and watch the final episode of The Bachelorette.  Since we were all sharing a room that first night we heard every other word or so over the noise of the sound machine, but after both girls were sound asleep we turned it up a little and enjoyed every second of it before falling asleep that night.  I'd like to say that was the end of our bad day, but no one seemed to sleep well that first night.  First, Harper was up, then Handley, and then both of them decided to have a giggling slumber party around 2 AM!  All I could do was laugh at them, but I was so worried about waking Jen that I tried my hardest to get them back to sleep. Handley drifted off after I threatened her about not being about to swim unless she slept and finally, about an hour and a half later, Harper and I did the same. 

At Shelter Cove the first night. 

When we woke up on Tuesday, I just kept thinking that it had to get better and thankfully, it did.  We set the routine that we would follow all week long.  Breakfast, swimsuits/sunscreen, beach, pool, lunch - poolside, more swimming, snow cones - poolside, naps for the girls, reading on the porch for me, dress for dinner, dinner, baths, bed.

Tuesday afternoon the girls and I checked-in to what would be our room for the rest of the week and got ready for our another trip back to Shelter Cove.  Tuesdays are apparently the night to be there.  They have face painting, jumpy things, fire works, all sorts of street vendors, and a wonderful entertainer named Shannon Tanner that sings kids songs.  All the kids gather on the stage and on the crushed shells (which, by the way, Harper was absolutely fascinated with ALL WEEK LONG) and dance and sang along with him.  Handley named him, "that man who sings songs" and wanted to go see him every single night. :-)

I loved this picture of Harper on the stage surrounded by all of the bigger kids.  She was fearless and kept walking away from me to go up on the stage.  She was having a ball!

A few funny comments made my Handley that second day that are worth noting:

In the restroom she announced loudly, "My pee-pee looks like a sprinkler."

At Shelter Cove, while waiting for the fireworks she saw a kid who was obviously not happy to be in the stroller and whispered to Jen and I, "That kid is freaking out."

Thankfully, that night everyone slept much better.  Justen and Robby arrived just before 1 AM, after working all day Tuesday, but were happy to officially be on vacation.