The Life of Riley: Our first trip as a family of 4

I get serious cabin fever, so being stuck at home all day with a toddler and newborn is very hard for me. Paul was in a wedding on June 15th in Pawley's Island, and my dad said we could go stay at the beach house the week prior if we wanted, because it wasn't rented. This sounded like the perfect opportunity to get out of the house for a while! Although I knew I wouldn't be doing too much relaxing on the beach, it is still much nicer to be inside with an ocean view. Something about the beach just instantly makes me happy. So, first up we did some light packing.

The baby is back there too I promise...

I thought it was bad packing for one child...holy moly. After we took all day quickly got the car packed, we headed to my favorite place on earth, Charleston. You better believe I was able to check off a southern mommy dream come true off my list; my babies in adorable matching outfits!

Tell me this isn't the most precious picture ever?? My heart melts every time I look at it!

LOVE!

We made it by to see my grandmother, because she had not had a chance to meet Miss Katelyn yet. Although our trip was short lived, because after dragging Brady to look at granite and driving what seems like forever (why does it take so long to get anywhere in Charleston??), he was very tired and quickly deteriorating.

But, let me just tell you about the FIRST time we attempted to look at granite and see my grandmother. We finally left the house about 4:00pm, because I thought it would be easier to go in the afternoon after nap, etc. WRONG. Forget about just normal Charleston traffic, we waited in a huge line of traffic to get over the connector to Mt. Pleasant just to discover that it was completely blocked off by fire trucks and police officers due to a wreck. So, we turn around and attempt to go through Sullivan's Island. Well, so did EVERYONE else who couldn't get across the bridge in rush hour traffic. Well, on our way through Sullivan's Brady starts throwing up in the car. So, we pull over on the side of the road. I take him out of his car seat, and he seems ok, so I load him back in. However, Brady thought we were pulling over to let him drive the car, so he starts screaming. We keep going on our journey listening to him scream the whole way. Thank goodness I decided to feed Katelyn before we left, so she slept like an angel the whole time. We finally make the executive decision to turn around, because by this point the granite place would be closed, and it would take us 2 hours to get to James Island. On our way back to the house Brady throws up AGAIN. So, we pull over in front of someone's house on Sullivan's Island and let Brady finish throwing up. I walk him a little ways down the road just to be sure he was ok. Well, then he spots a golf cart. So, he starts chanting "golf cart, golf cart", and another tantrum begins. We take all his clothes off and load him back in the car to listen to him scream the whole way home. I have never been so happy to get back to the house and out of that car! Needless to say, the next day we decided to run our errands in the morning, and it was a much more pleasant ride.

Yes, this pretty much sums up his mood...

At the house, we spent some time just lounging. Brady liked to sit in this window and pretend it was his "car". (Do you see a theme here? He's still obsessed with cars.)

I had my first glass of vino since Labor Day weekend last year! It was delicious! I figured what better place to indulge than at the beach.

In the morning, Paul would get up with Brady and go get us breakfast. We ate Bagel Nation every day we were there, because it is just THAT good.

Sausage, egg, and cheese egglewich deluxe. So yummy!

And, of course there was a lot of golf cart driving. This boy was in heaven.

Trying on daddy's boots. He loves to put on everyone's shoes!

I really wanted to take Katelyn out to the beach at least for a little while. I chose the absolute hottest day we were there which wasn't too smart. There was absolutely no breeze, and we lasted for maybe 5 minutes before I had to take her in. Poor Paul spent probably 30 minutes setting up all of the gear for a whole 20 minutes of beach time. Brady was even too hot to stay out there.

1st trip to the beach!

He really didn't like getting in the water too much (must get that from me).

Playing in the sand was much better.

After a morning at the beach, they took some good naps!

Brady was too funny. At home, he always has to tell his dog, "night dog" before he goes to bed. He found this broken 3 legged toy dog at the beach house, and every night before bed he would tell him, "night dog". And, before we would leave the house he would tell him, "bye dog". He has also started saying, "bye y'all!" which is hilarious.

Cat naps on mommy are the best.

Wild Dunes just opened a new pool this year, and it is fabulous. It is like a giant kiddy pool. It is a zero entry, so Brady had so much fun playing in it. It was much easier to go there than to the beach. Coco met us at the pool one day to play!

She is a trooper to tag along wherever we go!

Our cool dude.

Friday my dad came down and took Brady back to Columbia with him, and we made our way to Pawley's for Chris and Amanda's wedding. Paul's parents were nice enough to come take care of Katelyn, so I could go to the wedding and reception for a little while. I had enough time to watch the ceremony, eat some food, chat with friends, drink a glass of wine, and dance with my husband a couple of times before we got the call that Katelyn really wanted her mommy. That's ok, because mommy really wanted her Katelyn by then too :).