Last Days of Summer... at the BEACH!

Every year we head to the beach in September. After all of the tourists have gone home. After the weather has cooled (slightly.. we do like hot weather at the beach). It's a good thing that summer lasts 7 months in SC.

Back to the beach house at IOP. This must have been our 7th or 8th year here.

Here are the kids, just before we hit the beach for the first time.

Mason enjoyed the sand.

Kate's big thing this year was surfing.

And she was such a tough girl. Wiped out on some gnarly waves.

Even Mason got in on the fun.

Of course Don surfed.

And I tried the paddle board thing.  I'll say that it isn't as easy as it looks, and works best when the ocean is pretty calm. 

Foster, however, did not surf.  He's getting old. He did a lot of sitting.

And caught a few frisbees.

Mason discovered fried shrimp.  He's such a southern boy. Fried shrimp, sweat tea, boiled peanuts! Mmmmm!

 

Kate "helped" Pop fish.  Honestly, I'm shocked he didn't catch her.

   

This truck was a huge hit.

We ate at our favorite restaurant - The Wreck.

We took a walk along Shem Creek.

There was the usual outlet shopping. Here are Kate and Mason riding a Carousel. Notice that they're wearing shorts. My Mother wouldn't let me ride those when I was a kid when I was wearing shorts.  And here she is not only encouraging it, but allowing them to eat brownies at the same time!! Shockingly enough, no one got sick afterwards. Luck!

Kate and Daddy at Red's.

It was a great time! Thanks Nan and Pop for a fun week!

2013!

First Friday!!!

We have been thoroughly enjoying our long, Labor Day weekend.  We kicked it off Friday in one of our favorite places: CLEMSON!

The evening before the first football game, there is a parade through downtown, complete with cheerleaders, bands and beauty queens.  In lieu of taking the children to a football game (we're not insane), we left work a little early and headed to town for the festivities. Kate has been practicing her cheers for weeks now, and was ready to try them out.

This year was particularly exicting because the first game was, well, kinda big. So big, in fact, that ESPN came to town.

Game Day is not one of those every day things, so it was pretty exciting to see the setup. And get the kids picture in front of the barrier. Yes, Mason has a bracelet on his head. No, I don't know why Mason continues to put things on his head. M has always enjoyed watching College GameDay. I think it must be the colors or something.

Mason was so excited to see it all in person, he slipped under the barrier and took off.  Luckily the guys on the other side were young and laid back. He turned around when they said hello.  Here's Don hoisting him back over.

Kate got her face painted.

And then on to the parade!

And it was just like any good southern parade.  

There was a band (the most important one):

Flags:

And Cheerleaders:

Beauty queens:

Tractors:

Bass Boats (ok, maybe I've never seen that before):

Kayaks (ok, that's not so southern):

Odd placement of cows (thanks to the Future Farmers of America):

Enthralled:

Kate's favorite (OK, it was a toss-up between this and the walking Wendy's Frosty):

And Mason's favorite:

We had a blast. On Saturday, Don and I returned to town for the game. We bought tickets on the street - and paid more than any sane person should.  We tailgated. We had a great time. Oh, and the Tigers won. GO TIGERS!