Landon's 2!!

coasting on his reputation today because he's a little fragile, so it's hard to be fierce. ~StoryPeople

While in Hilton Head, SC, our littlest man turned 2 years old. His actual birthday was spent touring Charleston, SC so we decided to have the actual celebration the next day when we were staying closer to home.

Landon did a great job on the long car trip down (and back) - he's a very happy, content child who doesn't complain much. He takes delight in the smallest things, and you should hear his squeals of delight when Mommy comes down the stairs or Daddy walks in the door. The day we celebrated his birthday, it was a nice enough day to visit the beach which was only a 10 minute walk away. Not too many people were on the beach, and though the water was too cold to enjoy, the boys had a blast playing in the sand.


The day before his birthday, we ordered a custom cake for Landon from a nearby supermarket. We searched for any kind of cake that had trucks on it (it is his one passion in life right now), but since that didn't exist, we settled on a farm scene with a John Deere tractor. We had brought about 3 wrapped presents down with us for him to open, however it was the cheap $5 tractor cake topper that he cherished and kept with him the entire vacation.

Landon must have understood quite clearly what a 2-year-old is supposed to be like and what is expected of him, because within a day or two of turning two, Landon started acting like one. He became very sensitive to things, frustrated and overall more expressive. It was amazing how Landon changed just over the course of our vacation. Not only did turning two affect his emotional development, but it also affected his physical and verbal development as well. He started trying to say words such as "star" and "moon" and making verbal noises he hadn't made yet. This was a relief for us as he had yet to actually start talking.

Turning two also showed us for the first time that he could run! We're not sure if it was being cooped up in the car for so long and then in the stroller during our tour around Charleston that finally spurred him into action, but as soon as he hit the beach the next day, he started running and wouldn't stop.



So now we have an official two-year-old in the house, and he continues to delight us each day!

Charming Charleston

The biggest recommendation from friends was to visit Charleston, supposedly the most charming city in SC. It's location on the coast gives it the laid-back but elite charm of most any historical seafaring town. It has the attitude of a big city like our Boston with every imaginable upscale retailer down King Street and art galleries up Church Street yet lacks the congested traffic of cars and people you'd expect to find in a big city. Now I realize we were there in winter and not in the peak of tourist season, but we found ourselves in stores and on the streets without much other company. I will admit that Charleston was a tough city for us with three young children who didn't find much fun in the areas we visited. If it had been just Michael, Lauryn and I, we probably could have really savored every historical drop of Charleston along with shopping til we felt like dropping.



By the time dinner rolled around, the boys were tired, hungry and ready to go home (Reagan even asked several times if he could go back home and go to sleep!). We chose to eat at the Hominy Grill which had national rave reviews on their Southern home cookin'. It was pretty good, and I got to try grits for the first time which seems to be the South's version of risotto as there are as many different ways/flavors to cook grits as there are for risotto. And instead of the traditional dinner roll you'll find at every restaurant here, you'll be served cornbread (which we learned can be eaten with honey or syrup to make it extra yummy).

In our travels through downtown Charleston, we passed by the cutest little store called Cupcake and vowed to visit it before we left the city. So after dinner, we stopped by and picked up a few cupcakes which can I just say were the most scrumptious little mini-cakes ever?!? Lauryn just had to take a picture of them.
Just to give you an idea of some of the flavors they have besides the basic vanilla and chocolate, they have chocolate almond, peanut butter banana fluff and red velvet (which they're famous for but much to Lauryn's chagrin did not have any left). Yum-O!

The kids totally perked up when we told them we'd go visit the Holiday Festival of Lights (thanks, Peg!) which is a beautiful three-mile drive-thru with thousands of holiday lights set up in James Island County Park. Though pictures don't really do it justice, I'll share a few we took there.




It really was quite amazing and helped put us in the Christmas spirit being down South with no snow where we didn't even have a Christmas tree. Here's a video of just a tiny bit of our drive-thru which will give you a better idea of how festive and cool it all was:



Our visit to Charleston actually fell on Landon's birthday however we chose to celebrate the next day when we were staying closer to "home". Those pictures are up next...

On Vacation Down South

Yes, it's been ages since we've updated our family blog. Just coming back from our first family vacation in forever gives us a good excuse though to do just that. Our trip to Hilton Head, SC was quite an experience - some bad, lots of good, but mostly just what we needed. Friends of ours had a timeshare they weren't able to use this year and offered it to us. We just happened to end up in SC though we've realized from now on we'll push more for locations closer to the equator at this time of year! :) It was a bit cold being December and all; it rained mostly, but we did have our warm sunny days that helped redeem our vacation a bit. We had our encounters with wildlife, our day at the beach, eating grits for the first time, days visiting nearby Southern cities such as Charleston and Savannah and, of course, our long car trips down and back. I'll try to include our photo diary here and in the next couple of posts.





Do NOT feed the alligators!






Our One Day at the Beach

More to come...

Announcement

Hey there! I will now be posting my pictures on my new blog. No worries, I'll still write here occasionally for thoughts and whatnot.

My New Blog

P.S. This is our 50th post! Ya, I know..over a year and only fifty, but I think we should celebrate in some small way. (hehe, anything for a celebration right?)

To Go or Not To Go?

Sorry I haven't been on for a while, blogging hasn't been on my mind lately. Haha, I might as well just call this 'Lauryn's Blog!' I started school last week - more like unfinished schoolwork from last year. What has preoccupied my mind is college. Everyone always asks you "So you're going to college?"and "What are your plans for next year?". My automatic response is "Yes" and "College", but I never stopped and thought why I really wanted to go. College, as I knew it, was a must. It was the next step, the buffer between school and reality, the place where you found life-long friends and trained you for the job of your life - and gave you a good reputation. I thought I knew what I wanted to do, I thought I knew what career was for me, but when I got a taste for it, I realized that's not exactly what I wanted. I have an interest in many things, I know what I like and what I don't like, but I don't know what I want to do. There are a lot of jobs out there that I haven't discovered yet, and I understand that a lot of jobs require a college degree. So why am I rethinking this whole college idea? First - money. Yes, I know you can get financial aid, or student loans. But why be years into debt for classes I don't even want to take? I think if I wanted my own business, my money could be used for that. Second - I like the idea of having alternatives, like taking individual classes. Or why not travel? Have the world be my classroom (not that traveling is a cheaper option). I could do mission trips, for example. The thing is, I know I probably won't be motivated in college. If I teach myself what I want to learn (which is what homeschooling is anyway), I will be a whole lot more motivated and it will most likely stick in my head longer. When I think of people who haven't gone to college, I somewhat look down upon them. Not that I was brought up that way at all. My mom wasn't able to finish college, and I think she is a very smart person. But I think that I feel that way because I have high expectations of myself and feel like others have of me too...whenever someones asks me those typical questions. So I'm weighing the pros and cons of college - which I should have done like two years ago. The good thing is my parents have no qualms about me not choosing college, as long as I find my path.