Isle of Palms, SC

As soon as the big boys were out of school, we headed off to the beach.  We didn't get to go last year, so we were super excited for a beach trip.  My mom (Mimi) has a cousin with a beach house on Isle of Palms, so we decided to head there for a change this year.  We've never been there before and enjoyed the new adventure.  The boys were excited to sit on this tree in the yard the first day down.

With all the shark bites happening, we were lucky that the only sharks we saw were this size.

Brighton didn't miss out on the fishing action, and helped with this one.  I think he was overly tired by the time they packed up though (or so I heard).  

While there, we headed into Charleston, SC for shopping and museums and playgrounds.  There is a really cool firetruck museum that the boys loved.  I was really impressed with their simulator (like you are driving a real firetruck) and the action 3-D movie that they show about fire safety!

You can even make your own fire badges with customized colors, pictures, and names.  The boys loved that!

Then there was the beach.  Going anywhere with four kids can be challenging, but the beach is no picnic.  Just getting ready for the beach and getting everybody's swimsuit on and sunscreen is a challenge.  To help out with that, I bought four long-sleeve sun shirts for the boys so I wouldn't have to buy gallons of sunscreen for this trip.  We did insist on hats, and they mostly complied.

We've never stayed at a place where you could walk to the beach.  The boys were in heaven.  They were ready to go right after breakfast and head back again after nap time.  We even did an after-dinner trip (although we stayed a little closer to shore during shark-feeding time).

Brighton even found a live starfish.  The tidal pools on this stretch of beach were very large.  Jamison really enjoyed these pools that would sometimes come up to his chest.  He like that the waves were minimal because he's not a big fan of the waves.  We brought nets and attempted to catch fish....those things are fast.  

Chandler really loved swimming in the ocean this year.  He caught a few rides on the boogie board too.