charleston part two

 Traveling with two toddlers is a breeze. Seriously. Until you have to be in a hotel room with them for longer than twenty minutes while they are awake. And by then even the least germaphobic person would be cringing and saying things like, Don't touch that. Don't open that. At least put some shoes on!! 

 Car ride down to Charleston. Awesome. Lunch out. Awesome. Aquarium. A dream. Being entertained by anything in my bag of tricks while in the hotel room...not so much.

 Because toilet paper is just waaaaay more fun than any book/game/puzzle/magnadoodle/TVSHOW(what?!)/snack on God's green earth. 

 Funny, they've never, ever gotten into the toilet paper at home and they have every opportunity to do so. This toilet paper was special, man. It just was.

 Seeing them barefoot in a hotel bathroom makes me cringe. I'm somewhere in the middle on the worried-about-germs spectrum. Maybe it's the fear of all-things-catchable instilled in me by well-meaning nurses when my teeny tiny babies were born. Or maybe it was that news story about germs in hotel rooms and how sometimes when the rooms are cleaned they only wipe the glasses with a rag that's been used goodness-knows-where else. And you should probably pack a ziploc Baggie to put the remote in before you use it because there are really that many germs on it. Didn't you all see that one? Don't you pack a ziploc for the remote? I don't. But I wish I did. {I only don't because this man I'm married to is not even on the worried-about-germs spectrum at all in that he would never even think twice about germs anywhere. And he would probably not speak to me if I did something ridiculous like pull out a ziploc for the remote when obviously there aren't that many germs on it. To which I say, germs are not that obvious. But communication is important in marriage, so they say. So rather than risk non-speaking, I let him turn on the tv and then demand he go bathe in hand sanitizer.} 

After a great and easy lunch out and afternoon at the aquarium, Paul didn't think we should push our luck with over-tired children out for dinner. I knew he was right. But I was about to lose my mind keeping them out of things in the hotel room. So we headed back to the down town area to walk around for a bit and have some dinner. 

     Water break.

Oh my stars, was it hot. We walked through the market and put our name on the list at Hyman's because everyone says you should eat there when you go to Charleston and we've been to Charleston a bunch and never been. (For the record, I think I like all the other places we've been to there better. It was good, though.)  The lady at the door said they had a place for strollers. No problem. Yeah, except 82 other people had already parked their strollers, walkers, double strollers, Vespas, etc. there. While Paul and a waiter struggled to find a spot to put ours, I got to hold both girls while chatting with a mom of triplets while also trying to keep C from pulling my shirt down and L from climbing onto the bar. She said, It gets easier. I said, If I had triplets I would need some doctors to figure out how to attach a third arm. Kudos to her for making it to pre-teen stage. {Which, just saying the word pre-teen, makes me think it doesn't necessarily get much easier, just ...different. Sure, you can all sit down and eat like humans at a table but what about cell phones and boyfriends and talking back and grades?! Not easier, I don't think... I'm in no rush.}

These two used up all their sitting-still-powers at lunch which is why everything is all blurry from then on. At lunch, they colored and decorated with stickers and drew on their magnadoodles and sipped drinks from big people glasses like they were meant to dine out. At dinner, they acted like they'd never seen crayons before. We even tried to be those people who put a movie on their phone to keep their kids occupied.  {The great thing about becoming a parent is that you become a lot less judgemental. Oh, your kids will never do that? Yeah, they probably will. And you'll never resort to such and such? You just might and faster than you might think. Because really, in the end, there are no those people. Or we're all those people. Whichever.} Anyways, bribing with some iPhone time didn't work. Turns out hush puppies and a view of the street did the trick until we got dinner. I was so thankful for our table in that tiny corner. 

And then when our dinner did come, of course, they ate ours and not theirs. Apparently that flounder in the above picture is superb. I didn't try it. Because look at it. It looks questionable. But Lo even tried it. And the people at the table next to us had it, too.   

                             

We discovered they both like she crab soup. And, when Paul had to go back in for his sunglasses, I was thanking my lucky stars for hush puppies, once again. I don't even remember where they got those from...whether it was from the take-out bag or the girl on the street giving them out. All I know is that it kept them from going two different directions. 

      

Boy, were they exhausted from all that non-sitting. {Paul and I are actually sleeping in the picture below, too. We can totally function and move and interact while sleeping. It's a gift.} 

We loved our time in Charleston with 'just us.' After this we headed to Tybee Island to meet up with Paul's family for a wonderful week of Savannah and rain and the pool and rain and the beach and...rain. Good thing we love porch-sittin' in a good rain storm. : ) 

  

charleston part one: the aquarium

At the very end of June, P-dubs and I did something we rarely do with the girls--we had a little outing with just the four of us. I don't even know if we've ever traveled with them alone besides their first Christmas when we headed home to NH. {And that almost doesn't  count because they almost slept through both flights. Almost.} We go places with just the girls around Charlotte quite a bit but with both sides of the family living close by even those events are few and far between. We love it, really. The more the merrier and with two on the loose the more eyes/hands/people-in-general the better. {And these girls are surprisingly fast; so, really, it's the more the safer around here.} Plus, these kids are pure entertainment. I would want to hang out with them, too. Even if they weren't my children. 

Paul and I decided to leave a few days early for his family's annual trip to the beach so we could stop by Charleston and take the girls to the aquarium. We had been there once before and thought the girls were old enough to appreciate it. I'm so relieved to say that they did--otherwise it would have been a pretty horrific experience. Coming from the New England area where we were 'close' (in New England terms) to the aquarium in Boston, this was no New England Aquarium. {Except it really isn't all that different because fish are fish, right? And a one-year-old is going to think they're amazing no matter what.}

 

Notice the sweet curls on only one side of my child's head. Oh, that would be because she has taken to twirling her hair into some pretty impressive knots. Any tips to break THAT little habit would be greatly appreciated. Before she is bald.

 

Fedoras, anyone?

The jelly fish were a favorite. Fascinating little creatures. You'll notice a clear difference in our offspring's attention spans. Lo could have probably stayed at the jelly fish for twenty minutes, whereas, CG took note of all 32 of them in about 15 seconds and was ready to move on to the next most amazing thing she'd ever seen in her life. {This applied to all animals until the pelican. There was just something about that guy.}

A crab and a sargassum fish. {If you've ever taught second grade in CMS you would be fully prepared to bust out a nifty little poem about this crazy-looking fish.} 

THE PELICAN!!

Oh, this face. 'What?! He's just so...silly!'

They thought his splashing was the most hilarious thing they'd ever seen. It was pretty funny, I guess?

Lo ready to climb in with the sting rays. Umm no. 

She's so happy here because she was headed back over to Mr. Hilarious Pelican and was quite sure I was going to at least let her climb in the tank with him. Again. No. 

And CG wasn't ready to leave, for once, because what is he doing?!? 

The closest she got to a beloved sea creature. 

Birds are also pretty neat, though. 

And I'm pretty sure the SC Aquarium has got this on NE--an albino alligator. 

And that was that. Bye, fishies! Time for {another} snack. 

We loved the time at the aquarium and the time we had alone the next day but, I will say, traveling without the extra hands we so often have made the experience a little sweatier and produced really poor pictures. When you're trying to witness two reactions while taking a picture and trying not to lose a toddler, it gets tricky. 

Part dos of Charleston was not nearly as fun/smooth/rainbows-and-sea-turtles, let me just say. But those stories are often the better ones anyways. {At least, that is what I totally force myself to believe on a daily basis. I'm not the only one, right? Right?!}

summer time

I'm pretty much, officially, the WORST at blogging in the history of blogs. But, eh, in the grand scheme of things that's an okay thing to be terrible at, right? I'm also the worst at things like scrapbooking, posting things on Facebook, Instagram-ing (is that a word?), etc. So, in this day and age where it's entirely feasible (and not unheard of) to take 18 pictures of your toddler eating a single blueberry, I'm left with way too many pictures in folders labeled by month. I so appreciated having their first year documented here because I forgot a lot of those little moments. And with a summer that started with a lot of traveling and new experiences for the girls, I wanted to keep track at least a little better than I have. When I was going through my phone, looking at pictures from our first little trip, I thought, 'I'll just Instagram a bunch of these.' And then I was like, Who am I kidding...{Instagram is not very instant for me. I end up coming across a picture or being reminded of a moment weeks later and think, 'Shoot. I was totally going to edit that and post it.'} Thus, I give you pictures from my aunt's lake house, from the middle of June. 

My cousin, Wills, and his girlfriend, Kirsten. 

The girls LOVED them. These two love birds were the lucky recipients of a crash course in all things parenting. And they were awesome. {I've said it before, watching twins is a good form of birth control. These two will probably wait to have kids until they're at least 32.}

The girls would have been happy to drive four hours just to see twin dogs. Two dogs?! They were in puppy dog heaven. 

 

Perfect boating weather.

 The girls weren't huge fans of their life jackets but, alas, they're still too small for most other (less constricting) CGA flotation devices. Next year. {Ya know, if they gain ten pounds or so. Which is not looking good...}

They were, however, big fans of driving the boat, feeding ducks, and napping in the sun.

Those tiny legs just kill me. 

As does this face. 

I swear my kids smile. It just seems that when they are thoroughly wrapped up in something new, even if they love it, they're all straight-faced and serious-looking.

Paul and Gabe made it to the lake house on Friday and the girls had three of their all-time favorite guys in one spot. Oh, the joy. Even better than two dogs. 

It's hard to tell, but, she's thrilled. Thrilled. 

I was talking to my friend the night before we left, as I was thinking of the 532 things I just couldn't forget, and I asked her when vacations would be like a vacation again. She just laughed. But, honestly, that week was refreshing.  Yeah, we traveled with way more stuff than we ever dreamed possible for one week--pack and plays, lovies, blankets, enough snacks to feed a high school sports team for a week, baby monitors, two tiny doll strollers, toys....but the time spent with family made it worth the effort. Pure bliss. Good for the soul. 

{Also, if you care to see pictures of my babies smiling, duck-feeding, s'more-making, my aunt and uncle, me tubing with the girls (yikes), Kirsten getting up on the wake board (woohoo! High five!), their grandma, golf cart-riding, Kirsten and Wills  coralling the sisters during a meal out, and basically any pictures not on the water; see my sister's FB lake house album. She's way better about posting things. Way better. And there are some good ones on there. It just would have taken me approximately 2 months to choose pictures from there to add to this.}