Vacation comes to an end

We visited the beach one last time to say good-bye.  What a fantastic vacation! 

The Country Club lifestyle

Hilton Head is covered with more golf courses than you can imagine.  Grandad offered to take Mallory to his favorite course where they have lessons for kids.  They take up to 5 kids at a time, but only Mallory and one other kid signed up, so she practically had a private lesson.

Hadley wasn't old enough to participate in the lesson, but she grabbed a putter and practiced on the putting green anyway.  Her style is definitely more croquet than golf, but she had fun doing it her way.

Both girls were sporting their "golf skirt/dress".  I bought these darling outfits from the Lily Pulitzer shop in town - don't they look very southern and like they belong at the country club??

Grandad attempts to teach Hadley some golf ettiquette - mainly, not to use the pin to pound holes into the greens!

Sometimes you just have to feel your way to a good swing

Hadley's croquet form

Mallory and Coach Dave.  He was a great coach for a first lesson.  Very patient and encouraging but quiet and not demanding.  Here he shows Mallory how to keep her toes pointed forward.  She struggled with it for a bit, until he put tees in the ground to mark her toe postion.  After that, her feet never budged!

Mallory made her way through the enture stack of balls and then they took a water break.  When she got back, Dave had rebuilt the stack.  I think that discouraged her a little to see there were even more balls to hit.  But she said she wanted to continue on...

Toward the end, Mallory got 2 blisters on her fingers.  Dave offered to let her stop (after we got band-aids) and she asked to do 3 more.  I was really surprised at her focus and determination, and her desire to keep going even with blisters!

When it was all said and done, Mallory asked for her own set of clubs.  She is taking golf camp in August - so we will see how that goes before looking into clubs.

Animal Farm

There was a little farm on the property of the Sea Pines resort.  I napped through this outing but I think the pictures tell the story of the girls having a great time at the farm!

Hadley's horse was named Patches.

This one handed trick kills me!  She couldn't let go of her glow in the dark bracelet.

Mallory's horse was appropriately named Romeo.  Check out that 'do!

The goats made their way onto the rooftop

I think petting the baby fawn may have been Mallory's favorite. 

The Vanishing Island

On the second day in Hilton Head, we took a boat trip to see dolphin and to visit the Vanishing Island.  The tides in Hilton Head are quite large (typically 9 feet) so this particular island only appears at low tide.  As a result, there is a plethora of shells, sand dollars, and other sea creatures that are washed in and out with the tide.

Hadley likes to huddle at the back of the boat.  She is like me - she likes to stretch out her legs, catch some rays and maybe a quick nap.

Grandad looking relaxed

Mallory was the dolphin lookout

First real close up of dolphin - hard to catch it for a great picture!

This is the dolphin that was close enough for us to see his/her eye!  It was super cool.

Seaching for goodies on the island

The island was pretty large and you could walk out into the water for at least 100 yards and only be up to your knees.

An alive sand dollar

A horseshoe crab - yikes!

Hadley playing mermaid

This starfish was moving - and moving fast!  I have never seen an alive starfish, much less one that was making tracks so apparently.

Mallory having a zen moment at the condo

Hadley - still in princess mode, even at the beach

Dinner at the Grumpy Grouper - fried oysters - YUM!  The threat of ketchup on the princess dress was enough to get Hadley to finally take it off.

Beach time

After we wrapped up our grand tour of Disney, we rented a car (a mini-van, actually, with features such as automatic doors that were most entertaining for the kids) and drove Hilton Head.  Grandad and Grancy were already there waiting for us.  They spent the week before we arrived relaxing, playing golf and perfecting the art of doing nothing.  Once we arrived, all that was out the window and the real fun began!

Day One Agenda:  Remain as unstructured as possible to decompress from Disney!  We loaded up our bikes and headed for the beach.  I would have never predicted it, but the biggest hit of the beach was a little game called "moving massive amounts of sand from one place to another".  Good thing Grandad and Grancy had found great shovels!

This is about as close as close as I will let the camera get to me in a maternity bathing suit! 

Mallory and Grandad scouting out the jellyfish

Let the shoveling begin!

Clint played engineer and built sandcastles with Hadley

Our first of many dolphin sightings - we saw dolphin almost every day.

Ta da!

Hadley loved the beach.  The excitement extended all the way to the tips of her fingers!

Mallory felt the need to tear down the castle each day before leaving the beach. Perhaps she didn't want other kids claiming credit for her work??