First Grade

I can't believe that Sims is in first grade!  By the time summer was over, Sims was ready to get back to school (and stop going to summer camps).  It has been an easy transition for him from kindergarten, and a couple of his friends from last year are in his class now.  We took a picture of his first day of school, and of course Merritt wanted to be in it as well.

I love how proud Merritt is of her big brother in this picture.  Sims is growing up so fast and is becoming such a hard worker.  We are all very proud of him!

Summer Trips Make Me Feel Fine

We took 2 other trips this summer with family.  In July we went down to Lake Murray in South Carolina to visit my dad.  It was like a mini family reunion with everyone who came to spend the long weekend together.  We had so much fun hanging out on the water and on Dad's and Alex's boats.

We stayed in the cutest little cottages that had a couple of restaurants on the property and a beach area.  The kids had a blast together as usual, and the grown-ups actually got to spend a little time together.  I am hoping that this will turn into an annual event!  And perhaps next time I will take some pictures!

At the end of summer, we revived what used to be our annual Holden Beach trip with my mom and family.  Our hiatus involved going to Ocracoke in 2013 and to Isle of Palms in 2014.  I can't believe it had been 3 years since we had been to Holden!  The last time we went, there were 2 kids in the family, and now there are 4!  I think we were all ready to get back to basics with a relaxed trip staying in a convenient, oceanfront house.  With kids it is so much easier when there is no agenda and everyone can do what they want.

This ended up being quite an exciting year at Holden.  There was a sea turtle nest next to our house, and the turtles hatched while we were there.  We missed the big hatching in the middle of the night, but we were lucky to see the last few hatch one afternoon.

A tropical depression came through one of the days.  We didn't even know it at the time.  That's how much we kept up with the outside world while we were there.  The waves were huge, and high tide was extremely high that day.  The water was up to the dunes.  We even went on a walk during the storm, and it was quite an adventure.  (It sounds more dangerous than it actually was.)

The week went by very fast, but we got a few pictures of the kids.

We are all ready to go back to Holden Beach next year!