Hilton Head, SC

It is crazy to think that we have been home from vacation for 2 weeks now! Wow.. how does time get away from me!

We had a great time. Our condo was small put recently re-done, so it was really nice to just sit and hang out in it. It wasn't the typical "old beach" theme that most places are. It got the job done as far as condos go. I would be thrilled to go back and stay in the same one again.

We arrived late Saturday night. Once we got the car unpacked we kicked off our shoes and ran down to the ocean. Wedding clothes and everything! It was after 11 and the moon was full, so it was beautiful!

We spent most of our time in the pool. I love the idea of the beach, but hate the sand. And we all were pretty content with the pool after we got stung by jellies within 15 minutes of being in the water on our first day.

We hit all the local hot spots for ice cream, lunch, dinner and daiquiris :) Our condo was right across the street from the major shops and restaurant pavilion. So it was easy to get ready and walk over. We barely drove anywhere the whole week because everything we needed was across the street.

One day we rented bikes and rode around the island. That was fun, but hot. We got to see an alligator while we were out. A guy passing by mentioned that they liked to eat little girls... so of course Finley spent the rest of the week worrying about being eaten by an alligator. So thank you random guy for that.

I got to have an afternoon to myself while Matthew took Finley to the pool. I packed up my computer and went to the coffee shop near our condo and sat there by myself with the quiet for a while. It was heaven!

We made the trip down to Savannah to see family one day. We spent the evening walking around River Street. We took Finley into one of the iconic candy shops and let her pick out a treat. It was hot and muggy, so we didn't hang out too long. Which made me sad a little bit. Matthew and I spent our 1 year anniversary in Savannah and I was hoping to get a family picture in front of the Forsyth Park fountain. Matthew and I took a picture there with just the 2 of us. So I would have like to have an updated picture, but we never made our way over there :(

Almost every night after dinner we would go walk the beach. Finley's favorite thing to do was look for the muscles that dig into the sand. I think that was the highlight of the trip for her. She is still talking about them, and says that they are in her food. Silly girl...

We took it easy for the most part. We really didn't have any specific plans we wanted to do, expect for visiting family the one day. It was nice to be able to take our time getting ready and going anywhere.

Now for some pictures from our trip!

Now we start the count down until we leave for Nepal!

6 weeks!!

Setting the bar for vacations

We have been home from vacation for about a week now. This year we had a great time! There was some hesitation and doubt when we planned this trip that it would be like the last one we went on.

So let me tell you about the family trip that set the bar for all family trips after that. Let's just say the bar wasn't set very high....

Let me set the stage for you....
We were headed to St. Simons Island, GA.
It was July 4th weekend (July 4th fell on a Monday that year).
Finley had just turned 14 months old.
The day before we left she decided to walk for the first time.
At the last minute we decided to add an extra day, so we left a day earlier then planned and had to priceline a hotel room last minute.
At some point the week before we left I had a migraine. You may ask what this has to do with the trip... Well one of my meds (unbeknownst to me) made me hypersensitive to the sun (i.e. it made me allergic to the sun) and we were headed to the beach. Fun times.

It was Wednesday night and Matthew suggested we leave Friday afternoon instead of super early Saturday morning. This way we do the 6 hour drive Friday night and are ready for a day at the beach the next day. I was all like "uhh... yeah! Let's do this!" So we priclined a hotel about 30 minutes outside of St. Simons. The plan was that Matthew would work until lunch, he would come home and we would pack the car and be on the road by 3.

That Friday morning I had a play date at the pool planned, so I still meet up with the other mom. I figured this would be good for Finley to tire her out. She wouldn't be going down for her nap because I thought she would sleep in the car. Around lunch time we packed up and headed home to meet Matthew. We quickly packed up the car and were on the road by 2! I remember this because Matthew was surprised I was so prepared and we were ahead of schedule. Like planned, Finley fell asleep and slept most of the drive. So far so good... the trip was starting off without a hitch. About halfway through the drive my scalp started to itch, then itch some more. I could feel a rash in my hair and it was starting to itch like something serious. I mentioned this to Matthew, but figured it was because I hadn't showered after leaving the pool. We made great time and arrived at our pricelined hotel on the later side of dinner time. We checked in, dropped our stuff off and went to get something to eat. By this time I am starting to itch all over my body. Finley also decided to eat about 3 bites of her crazy vacation expensive kids meal.

That night we went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. We put Finley down in her pack-n-play. She fell asleep pretty quickly and we watched TV for a bit. Some time around the middle of the night Finley woke up and would not go back to sleep. So we brought her in the bed with us. This seemed to help her sleep, but didn't do much for helping us sleep. Around 5 am the cleaning people started to get their stuff together to clean the room. I know this because we could hear them on the other side of the wall of our room. I itched all night and woke up the next morning with a full blown rash all over my body!

We stopped at a pharmacy for some oral and topical benadryl as I tried to figure out what I had a reaction to. We knew we couldn't check into our other hotel until after 3, so we headed to the beach. I lathered myself up in sunscreen, wore a massive hat, and an under armour shirt most of the day on the beach. We had to lug all of our stuff out, which included a tent. So basically we made about 8 trips to and from the car. The plan was to stay out until check-in time (3 or 4 pm), but by noon I was feeling awful. The sun made my skin hurt, the sand made it itch, the ocean made it burn. I couldn't leave the pop-up tent. Finley wouldn't stay in one spot and kept trying to eat the sand. The beach was PACKED. By lunch time I was done with the beach. So we packed up (8 more trips to and from the car), went to get lunch and then check into the hotel. Again, Finley didn't eat anything except her french fries. We finally got checked into the hotel and got cleaned up. We tried to put Finley down for a nap, which didn't work. That night we spent our time down by the lighthouse. There are tons of shops and places to eat so we enjoyed our time walking around. That night back at the hotel went pretty much the same as the last. We got Finley to sleep pretty quickly, but she didn't stay asleep for very long. It didn't help that there was a room full of drunk 20-somethings across the hall from us that was up partying until well after 3 am. The only reason they stopped was because Matthew called the front desk. I was ready to go out and start a fight... but he thought it best not to. Don't mess with a tired mama that has a baby awake because you are scream foul words at 2 o'clock in the morning. I was ready to throw down.

Our days and night continued this way. Drag our stuff out to the beach, be miserable by lunch, drag it all back to the car. Go back to the hotel, shower, eat lunch (which Finley wouldn't do), go find something fun, but not sun related to do, then eat dinner (again, no eating for Finley) and finally end our night struggling to get some sleep. One night at 3 am, Matthew had to take Finley on a car ride until she fell asleep. Then had to bring her back in the room in her (front facing) car seat an hour later.

So needless to say... it was the worst family vacation. On that trip I told Matthew if we can't stay in a condo on the beach, then we can't go. Also, Finley must be potty trained and no longer needing a nap. This was the first year that all 3 of those requirements were met. When we decided to take a trip this year we figured it couldn't be any worse then the last, am I right? This year was great! We had a wonderful time and now cannot wait to plan another trip for next year!

Finley also had a blast. She keeps saying "are we going to the beach tomorrow?" and I have to tell her every day that we wont be going back until next year *sad face*.

Now for some pictures that make it look like we had way more fun then we actually did.

Her first time touching sand and ocean. She was not amused.

That shovel was not putting as much sand as you would think in her bucket. Most of it went in her mouth.

If she wasn't eating the sand, she was flinging it everywhere.

She was so proud of herself! Walking was so new and awesome, you couldn't keep her from taking off.

Half empty?

This is how things have been going for us right now. I just haven't been able to catch a break.

If I am being honest with you... I am a glass half empty kind of girl. I find the negatives and I dwell on them. When bad things happen, I stew and stew and stew until I boil over.

The last few weeks there has been a lot of bad. More bad then I want to deal with.

We have had bad news.
Things haven't gone as planed.
Money that we don't have has need to be spent on multiple car issues.
I have been running at 100 mph for the last month. Every day is something else. Some where else to be. Another doctors appointment. Something else that needs to be done. I feel like I am spiraling out of control.

And so today I sat in a parking lot for the 2nd time in 5 days with a broken car. My first instinct was to cry and be mad. At first I was, but then I just had to laugh. As I could feel my eyes begin to burn with angry tears at yet another frustrating situation, I stopped and prayed and then began to laugh.

I mean really? Who has this kind of luck? It must be laughed at.

As I sat there waiting for Matthew to come to my rescue, I began to list out the good things that have happened over the last few weeks.

So instead of being angry and listing out all the things that have gone wrong... I will choose to list out all the good things.

1.) We have seen a community of people come together to support a family that we love.
2.) I won my 2nd blog giveaway last week!
3.) Finley got to spend some quality time with her Grump while I was at the hospital with her Gigi.
4.) I got to see and joke around with my sister.
5.) My mom has a new knee which will help her be more mobile.
6.) Finley has had a friend come hang out with us for the last few days. He has helped to keep her busy and entertained so I don't have to.
7.) Finley went to the dentist, and her teeth look great!
8.) I have diet cokes in my fridge.
9.) And coffee in my cup.
10.) We had a wonderful baby shower for a friend and her sweet little girl that they adopted.
11.) Cupcakes.
12.) DVD players in the car.
13.) Our garden is busting at the seems. I can't pick the veggies fast enough.
14.) I have made and canned spaghetti sauce, pickles, diced tomatoes, and crushed tomatoes.
15.) I have been canning! (Which is way easier then I thought it would be!)
16.) We are healthy.
17.) Kylie got to go home late last week.
18.) Finley got to go over and play with her for a little bit this past weekend.
19.) We spent Saturday on the lake with Matthew's family.
20.) I didn't get sunburned.
21.) I went to the gym today.
22.) I have been able to increase my running from a run 3/ walk 1 to a run 5/ walk 1.
23.) I am down to a little over a 11 minute mile. For some this might be slow, but I was almost a 13 minute mile just a few months ago.
24.) We are going to a wedding this Saturday.
25.) After the wedding we are headed to the beach for a week! This cannot come soon enough!

So among all the bad that has been going on, there has been an abundance of good too.
I need to focus on those good things. They will be what helps me get through the next few days until we leave for our vacation!