We had last weekend off so we took a mini-vacation down to Charleston, SC. It’s been a while since we’ve been on a “just-for-fun” vacation and we’ve been wanting to check out Charleston for quite some time. The city is just as awesome as everyone says it is. The homes and businesses exude sweet Southern historic charm and the creeks lined with tall grass are just as beautiful as they are in pictures. In the few days we were there, we did as much as we could do with a 1.5-year-old to experience all that Charleston has to offer, which involved lots and lots of walking.
Yes, we stripped our son down to his diaper and let him play in the fountain with the other kids. He loved it!
Shortly after that, he konked out cold for the remainder of our walk.
This is what we saw when we looked up as we crossed the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. It’s a spectacular cable-stay bridge over the Cooper River connecting downtown Charleston and Mt. Pleasant.
We took our point & shoot on the bus tour. When’s the last time Higs & I had a self-take?
We got to spend one of our days at the beach, which was so relaxing.
Nolan enjoyed this beach experience much more than the past few. He was busy playing in the sand and finding shells for a large chunk of the day and even enjoyed jumping waves with us.
And then he konked out again.
I love the creeks and waterways of Charleston. They’re so beautiful and calming, even on a cloudy evening. The view makes me feel like I’m back into an old Southern novel.
We met up with our past clients (and now friends!) Lauren, Mat & their son Lucas (who’s just a few weeks older than Nolan) for a play-date early one morning in hopes of beating the heat of this scorching North Carolina August. The boys, who are 17 months, got along just fine, but are still at a point where they’d rather play next to each other or by themselves than with each other.
Nolan was completely content for a while with the acorn he found. Why do we even buy him toys?
Props to Mat for making it down the kids twisty-slide with Lucas on his lap!
Hahaha! Weeeeee! Nolan loves slides!
See? Playing next to each other, but not together.
We put them in the wagon together and went for a walk around the park. They didn’t talk or babble to each other, but kept passing their books back and forth. At least they were sharing.
This is Nolan so much these days: running around and exploring with us chasing after him trying to get a photo of his face, rather than just his cute behind.
Higs’s grandma, Helen, is a very intriguing woman. Higs says (oh-so affectionately) that she’s stubborn and bull-headed, yet wise with experience. In the 14 years that Higs & I have known each other, his Grandma has always been a consistent figure in his family’s life. She’s always had more energy than I thought someone her age could ever have. Up until a few years ago, Higs would often stop by to say hi and find her climbing trees on a mission to trim the branches. While she’s reserved in most situations and is content to sit and take things in, she also has a stubborn streak. She’s not angry-old-lady-stubborn, but more so that when she’s got an opinion about something, she’s not afraid to let it be known.
It amazes me to really sit and think about all that she’s witnessed and experienced in her 88 years. She’s told stories of how she flew from Pittsburgh to San Diego when she was 19 to see her brother off to WWII and took a train back across the country by herself. During the war, she had a jobs as a welder and then worked for a company developing artificial rubber as a war effort. Her employer offered to send her to study chemistry at The University of Pittsburgh, but she declined because her husband had just returned from the war and she decided to stay home to be a housewife and raise two daughters, one of them being Higs’s mom. It’s pretty crazy to think about how different her life, and ours, would be if she had taken them up on that offer. Would Higs even be here?
These hands, which have done everything from shake hands with President Kennedy to hold her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, are still accepting of whatever experinces life brings their way.
I wonder if, when she was our age, that she could imagine her life as a grandmother and great-grandmother, because that’s something I just can’t seem to wrap my head around. Right now I can’t picture us being her age and watching Nolan’s kids have kids. I’m having a hard time just realizing that he’ll be moving to the 18-24-month old room at school next month. It really puts a lot of things into perspective when you think about how much we really experience throughout our lives. One thing I do know for certain is that she’s enjoying every minute she gets to spend her family, which is beautiful to watch.
We love her and all of the spunk that comes with her 88 years of experience. She really should write a memoir.
I didn’t realize it and probably wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for our blog’s admin page. It reminded me that the first post of Jackie & Zack’s wedding at Graylyn was our 100th post on this blog. (So this is technically #102).
It’s so hard to believe. It’s been a labor of love, but I’m proud to look back on all that we’ve done since this blog went live almost exactly a year ago. We’ve met a lot of really amazing people from all walks of life and each of them, as well as every new experience, has added value to our lives in one way or another.
It’s been fun to see all that we’ve done and how far we’ve come, not only in the past year, but since our good ol’ blogspot days. Even though I look back at our old blog and cringe at the sight of some of those images, every single one of them is a part of our story and has helped evolve us into what we’ve become today. So thank you to our first handful of brides who trusted us to shoot their weddings when we just starting out. Thank you to our son who’s had a camera in face since day-one and has been lovingly exploited for the past 16 months. And thank you to everyone who visits our blog to get a glimpse into our life and the lives of our wonderful, wonderful clients. We can’t wait to see what the next 100 posts bring!
And because every post on a photo blog is better with an image…
…yesterday morning reminded me that the sky’s the limit.
These patriotic mini-pies (which are filled with cherries and blueberries and topped with a sugar-coated pie-crust star that had been cut out with one of Nolan’s toys) were just part of our holiday feast. Hope everyone had a safe and enjoyable holiday weekend!
