Hilton Head Island | Beach Vacation
After our first stop to Florida, it was time to travel up the East Coast and find our way to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. This tiny island off the Georgia-South Carolina border still remains one of my favorite places to visit. The Spanish-moss filled trees all over the island are so calming and my heart feels at peace. I always look forward to my trips out here and this past Christmas was no exception.
We left Great Grandma and Great Grandpa’s house in Florida after lunchtime and drove up to Hilton Head. The kids did well for most of the five hour trip, and we arrived in time to start preparing for bed. Good rest was necessary in order to prepare for the next several days of activities!
While the weather was warm, we spent the following two days biking around the island and spending time outdoors. Most of the island is flat and filled with miles of bike trails. It really is the perfect set up for cruising around and enjoying the scenery. My parents had previously bought several bike child carriers which worked out great. I pulled Savannah in the bike trailer and my dad carried Orion on the extra bike seat. Orion was so comfy in his chair, he took a little snooze!
Look how precious my little guy is! If you look closely, you can also see one of my parents’ dogs riding in the basket on the front of the bike. That guy’s name is Brady, and he goes pretty much everywhere my parents do where dogs are allowed. Brady’s sister is named Olivia, and she is riding in a basket attached to my mom’s bike.
The second day was a little colder; we biked to the new children’s playground near Coligny Beach to let the kids run around. It was an impressive playground! It has a giant wooden ship with ropes, ladders, and slides all around and inside. The area around the ship has swings, see-saws and miscellaneous other items for which children can climb and play. I snapped a few photos of Orion on the swings and captured him doing a perfect GQ pose while toddling around.
Soon it was Christmas morning! We celebrated in our matching dinosaur pajamas by opening gifts from Santa Claus. Then we changed into Christmas sweaters and enjoyed exchanging and opening presents with Gah (Grandma) and Grandpa and having a giant group video chat with my extended family. We even got Daddy on the line! Both Savannah and Orion liked all of the items that Santa brought them and their gifts from their grandparents. Savannah especially liked helping her brother with his gifts.
Christmas is so much more fun through the eyes of children. It has always been a special time of year for me and a holiday that I enjoy spending with my family, but now with my own children, Christmas has become so much more. Watching Savannah’s face light up with Christmas magic and how proud I am when she expresses desire to give gifts to others are memories I will cherish forever.
For the rest of the day, we watched Christmas movies, listened to Christmas music, and played with all of the kids’ new toys. Dinner that evening was a special preparation of prime rib, jello salad, potatoes, green bean casserole, and pasta. Delicious! Despite the cold outside (it surprisingly was colder in SC than it was back home in CO), we had a good Christmas celebrating the joy and warmth of the holiday season.
No beach vacation however is complete without a trip to the beach! We bundled up and drove over to the beach for our final two days to let the kids play in the sand. We brought several buckets, shovels, and toys and let the kids go wild. Even though it was too cold to splash in the tide pools, both Orion and Savannah still had a good time building and destroying sand castles. On several occasions, Savannah ran around pretending that a crab was pinching her toe. It’s so funny to watch her imaginations come alive.
Soon it was time to say good-bye to Hilton Head Island. As always, my trips down there go by way too fast. It was fun-filled almost week of pickleball, seafood, and biking with a little bit of shopping sprinkled in there too. I would miss the beach, but I was also looking forward to spending a few days catching up with old friends and some more extended family. Until next time!
January 27, 2021
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