The Good and the Bad

The good: I just got back from the the most fun, relaxing, wonderful trip ever and got to spend some great quality time with my sister and parents.


The bad: The picture below of us getting ready to board the Carolina Belle to take a Harbor Cruise is the only picture we have of our wonderful trip. And to mock my pain the scanner made the picture backword.We arrived back from our trip Saturday late and Sunday I was so excited to show Bryan all the fun pictures we had from our trip. After searching every single bag we figured it was left in the rental van. So many phone calls were made over two days and finally we convinced the lady to personally go and look. Well it appears some rental car cleaner is enjoying his/her new camera and I hope when he/she looks through the pictures and sees a wonderful family enjoying themselves his/her heart gets a sharp stab of guilt, serious guilt, knowing that they deprived us of having those memories for years to come. So you are just going to have to imagine the adorable pictures of:

My girls anxiously staring out the window getting ready to board the airplane.

Our first night there and my girls' first time seeing the ocean.

Wading in the ocean that first night. The water is 85 degrees this time of year. I can totally handle that temperature.

Our wonderful condo and the beautiful screened porch and view of the lowlands. The marshlands there are so pretty, especially at sunset.

Our mornings at the beach. We spent at least four hours there every day and ate peanut butter sandwiches.

My girls covered head to toe in sand.

Boogie boarding. I'm just so disappointed I didn't get to post pictures of me in my swimsuit.

The starfish we caught.

Julia's sand castle birthday cake with shells and sticks for candles.

The wonderful crab shack we ate at two nights because the she-crab soup was so divine.

Eating at the famous Hominy in down town Charleston.

Our trip to the Battery and Julia standing on top of the cannonballs.

The beautiful Charleston Harbor.

The Folly Beach lighthouse and the sunset pictures we were able to take (I get angrier and sadder as I make this list!) We actually saw dolphin jumping while we were there.

Our tour of Provost Dungeon and Julia posing with the pirates.

The family photo in front of Rainbow Row. The homes there are so beautiful.

The view from the boat ride (the one picture above) where we learned more about Charleston and got to see so many dolphin jumping.

Oh, the sadness of it all. I guess that Bryan and I are just going to have to take another trip there next year. It really was the most fascinating and beautiful place. I can't wait to go back and be sure that I have pictures to document it.

I must also thank my wonderful family for coming and spending time with me. I forget how much I miss them until I drop them off at the airport and try to hide my tears. My girls got too used to having them around. Audrey was even calling them "Nana", "Papa" and "Dah-Lee". We miss you and hope you come back again soon!
While they were here we also went to the zoo and Julia rode all the rides at Jungle Jack's Landing (yes, those pictures are lost). We also went back to the Rose Garden and listened to bagpipes (nope, no pictures). We went to North Market and walked through Gooddale park (pictures gonzo). So ya'll are just going to have to come back so we can recreate it. Until then just pretend these pool pictures are in front of a beautiful ocean...

Yeah, it just isn't quite the same.
Dang you car rental man/woman/spawn of the devil!

Could You Email Me Those Pictures?

Have you ever asked someone to email you pictures because you forgot your camera and then let those pictures sit wasted in your inbox collecting cyber dust? Well I am guilty of this and was perusing my email and found some pictures that provided great blogging (okay maybe "great" is a bit of an exaggeration) material that I was allowing to go to waste. So here they are in no particular order.

First off is a few weeks ago we went to Cincinnati to visit our good friends and went to this very fun water park. This is Julia going down the slide. She was absolutely convinced that the little boy following her was a kid from her primary class. No matter how many times I tried to convince her otherwise, she would not believe me. So she ran around calling him "Andrew" the entire time. Audrey did not enjoy this too much and yet I continued to splash her convincing her that she was having fun.
Oh, I hate this picture but I am posting it anyways (judge me if you must) because I wanted to document my running of the Race for the Cure. This is my third time and by far the fastest I have run it. Running is definitely not in my blood and in fact if there was a "slowest runner" contest I believe any one in the Phillips family could take home the trophy, but I was pretty pleased with my time and had a great time running it with some fun girls.
One of my favorite parts of the race is going around the booths and getting free pens and visors. I wear my Skinny Cow visor every time I go running. I know, I have amazing fashion sense.
Now we are taking a trip back in time to April. This was a little Easter Egg hunt that Julia participated in...
and this is the great group of people we did the hunt with. Look at those leafless trees. I'm so glad that the trees look like...
these trees do. This is actually at the same park ironically enough. We are now jumping to last week when we had a little Bike Parade. Some friends from the ward got together, decorated their kids' bikes and watched them pedal around a big circle. The kids loved it. We were fortunate because our bike is already decorated with princess stickers and patriotic wind mills. You can tell Julia is focused and ready to ride. We appropriate named her bike the "Princess Hog" and you can see with her determination it lived up to it's name.
Okay, maybe we should name it the "Princess Mongoose." Either way it was a machine to be reckoned with. Julia was pretty sure she had won the race even though there were a few kids that lapped her. I love the self-assured confidence of three year old's. She's even cool with her boy turned semi-girl bike. The parade was so much fun and next year we are shooting to do it without training wheels!

Stars and Stripes

So it was our fourth Fourth here in Ohio and I can't believe we are quickly approaching our five year mark living here. I can't even wrap my head around all the things that have changed since we made that drive out here five years ago. The biggest change would have to be these two adorable girls.
Do you think they have changed in the past year? Where does the time go?
We once again headed to the parade where Julia made out with some serious loot. She was selective in what candies made the cut. All hard candies were promptly given to Bryan and I. Otherwise she had a great time standing with her friends and gathering her spoils. She especially enjoyed the little flag and red white and blue necklace.
Audrey loved all the commotion.

Is that not the cutest little line up of kids you've ever seen?A picture of the moms, which is very over due considering we're the ones always taking the pictures.

Julia and her boyfriends. Julia is often surrounded by boyfriends. My sweet little Audrey. It kind of looks like Bryan is driving that tractor behind me doesn't it? I assure you it is not. If it was Bryan the biceps would be like three times bigger.

We had a wonderful BBQ with friends afterwords. Could my little patriotic girls be any cuter? We also went and watched the fireworks. Audrey thought they were amazing and Julia thought that the little boy that had the glowing light saber and did kung fu moves with her was much cooler. It really was a wonderful Fourth. We feel so fortunate to live in a country with such an honorable heritage and where we are able to have the freedom we do.