A Carolina Vacation
Well hello there friends and happy Wednesday! I’m excited to dive into today’s post and share our most recent adventure with you all! Last week, Landon, Benaiah and I left for vacation and escaped from the frigid Illinois temperatures to balmy, breezy South Carolina. This vacation was truly everything I hoped for and I am so thankful to feel so refreshed and inspired as I tackle the daily grind. I missed keeping in touch with you all though and I am more than happy to be back, chatting with you all!
Anyways, onto vacation. Instead of giving you a detailed, day to day account of every adventure we shared, I will give some high level highlights (with plenty of photos!)
We decided to leave for South Carolina Saturday morning, unfortunately I got super sick Saturday morning, which meant we pushed our time back by half a day. I was bummed to miss half a day of vacation, but since I couldn’t even stand up without feeling nauseated, I figured it was a good choice to push our departure time back. Once we got going, our traveling went smoothly and we stopped mid-way in Kentucky for a quick, overnight stay. After getting a couple hours of rest (and lots of coffee) we drove another eight or so hours until we made it to our destination!
Since we arrived pretty late in the evening (Sunday night) I was aware of the beauty of the area until Monday morning. Monday morning, after devotions, we ventured out to the beach for a family.
Honestly, until last week, I’ve never been a huge beach person. I mean I liked beaches and the ocean, but was never in love with it. That is, until I stepped foot onto the Carolina beaches. HELLO GORGEOUS. I immediately fell in love with the ocean and the vastness of the beauty. Landon and I would love to live next to the beach, someday. Landon, Niah and I set off for an easy paced 7 mile beach run and explored as much as the beach as we could. Thankfully, Landon did most of the pushing of the stroller (it is HARD to push a stroller on the beach!) The rest of our Monday was spent getting some groceries, exploring the area, and taking a family swim in the indoor pool.
The rest of our vacation days blur together, but the highlights include a five mile solo beach run (for me) and spotting a dolphin! I was so excited to see a dolphin in its natural habitat! I’ve never seen a dolphin, let alone see a dolphin while running and I think my entire day was made.
I also had a great 7 mile run and my five mile run was the fastest I’ve run a five miler in a while (clocking in at 38 minutes!) One of my favorite moments from the run was running back to my boys and seeing them playing together on the beach. As I approach them, Niah looked up, laughed and ran towards me with Landon close behind. That’s definitely a moment I won’t forget.
Some of our favorite parts of vacation was frequenting the beach in the morning, taking walks and exploring the area, renting bikes and biking Myrtle beach, eating ice cream, watching Pysch, reading books together and visiting Charleston!
We also made some simple, easy homemade dinners and the Mexican themed dinner was one of my favorites!
While we were in Charleston, we met up with our friends who were also visiting Charleston! (So fun!) Charleston was breathtaking and Landon and I cannot wait to go back. I honestly can say I have never commented on a parking garage being gorgeous, but in Charleston they do things differently. I couldn’t get over the architecture and sheer Southern charm/beauty. This little, historic, gorgeous seaside town definitely caught my heart. I had to stop almost every couple minutes a take pictures of everything surrounding me! We stopped at a local coffee shop, Black Tap Coffee and were wowed by their almond milk lattes! I would highly recommend stopping if you are ever in Charleston! While heading to Charleston, we stopped at Sullivan’s Island and soaked in the beauty of yet, another beach. Sullivan’s Island is adorable and the town reminded me of something out of a Nicholas Sparks book. The little beachy town was perfectly ascetic.
While we were touring Charleston, we also headed out (with our friends) to see Fort Sumter! It was such an amazing experience to see something so historical. Benaiah loved watching the seagulls from the boat.
This trip was so fun and watching Niah’s joy and delight in having both Landon and I together, all day every day, was so precious. He loved roaming around in the sand and building sand castles, watching the sea gulls, and swimming. And even with a 15 hour car ride, he was a trooper and did a great job!
Saturday morning we said sad goodbyes to South Carolina and drove about 7 hours to stop over our friend’s house overnight. It was so sweet to be welcomed into our friends home and we were able to then drive the last 8 or so hours, home feeling much more alive!
Overall, it was such a beautiful trip and I felt so blessed to be able to spend extra time with my two favorite people.