Kiawah Family Vacation

We spent last week in Kiawah Island with the entire Lloyd side. We had an awesome vacation together, complete with lots of laughs, perfect weather and plenty of fun. Here are a few highlights of our week:

We started the week off with the annual Kiawah Island Amazing Race - Lloyd family style! Sadly, I was not able to defend my title as reigning champion, however I'm choosing to blame that on the lightening that caused us to stop early instead of the fact that our team had Malachi on a tandem bike with Erik and I was 34 weeks pregnant and riding a bike with a 25-pound toddler in tow!

The boys enjoyed our stop at the fire station during the race.

Elliott and Adeline liked playing with the truck in the sand.

Building sandcastles with Dad is the best!

Elliott helped dig,

and Malachi supplied plenty of water.

The kids thought the park was fun in the evenings.

Walker especially liked the swings!

More fun in the sand.

I think this was Oliver's favorite part of the week, naps on the beach!

Both boys loved playing in the water.

Malachi and I made a stepping stone at the Activity Center one afternoon. Malachi's is the one in the front on the right.

Elliott LOVED his bike rides, especially those with his bike-buddy, Aunt Meg!
What a great week full of wonderful memories!

Jekyll Island, Part 2

The rest of our vacation week on Jekyll Island was as fun and relaxing as the first part! Here are a few of the things we did:

Enjoyed appetizers and the sunset over the marsh at the Rah Bar in the historic district:Spent lots of time at the beach:The boys played like kids in the ocean:

A serious game of putt-putt:

With a few variations to the rules!
And nice relaxing dinners out. Erik and Andrew took advantage of the all-you-can-eat seafood buffet at B&J's Seafood and Steak in nearby Darien. The shrimp was delicious!
On the way home we stopped at Whataburger for breakfast taquitos. Erik was excited to see some pictures of his hometown, Corpus Christi, where Whataburger began. We were also surprised to find out that the manager that morning was from Chillicothe! Small world!

A BIG thank you to Grandpa Gene and Grandma Alice for allowing us to take over their house for the week. We had a wonderful time relaxing and enjoying your island. And another big thank you to 'Buelo and Yaya for keeping our boys, to CeCe for keeping Corinne and Cooper and to Grammy Marsha and Grandma Linda for keeping Camryn. It was so nice to have some adult time and know that our kids were in great hands and having as much fun as we were!

Jekyll Island, Part 1

Last week was a time that Erik and I have been anticipating for the past year. We began on Saturday by heading south to Kevin and Becky's (aka 'Buelo and Yaya's). Of course, no trip would be complete without a few mishaps along the way...ours happened to be a flat tire in Kentucky!I must brag on Erik a little though. He had the flat fixed (temporarily) in no more than 15 minutes and we were back on our way!

After dinner the whole group (Kevin, Becky, Uncle Bruce, Aunt Sigi, Kayla, Austin, Whitney, Ed, Christina, Erik, the boys and I) headed to the Crazy 8s race, an 8k that Erik, Kevin and Bruce ran. They had a special category for teams of two whose ages add up to 88 or more (Erik is 31, Kevin is 57), and it just so happens that Kevin and Erik won 2nd place!

Erik and I, along with our friends Ed and Christina left Sunday morning to begin our real vacation, which also meant Malachi and Elliott's real vacation began as they got to stay with Yaya and 'Buelo for Cousin Camp!

Sunday we didn't do much more than drive, get groceries, arrive on Jekyll and get unpacked. Monday we spent most of the day at the beach and then we biked around the historic district of the island, one of my favorite things about Jekyll.

Erik taunted a snake, until it coiled up and hissed at him!

I have a picture of me and Erik in this very spot, the courtyard of Crane Cottage, from our first trip to Jekyll together 7 years ago. Needless to say we look a little different this time!

Monday evening we were excited to welcome Heather and Andrew as they arrived from Atlanta!

Tuesday was another relaxing day at the beach. For dinner we went to Southern Soul BBQ on St. Simon's island - highly recommended! The boys were happy:

And so were the girls!

More on the rest of our week to come soon!

Our Little Fish

They love the water and we're so fortunate to have a pool nearby that we can use...especially on these extremely hot days!

Pandamania

Last week we went to Chillicothe every evening for Bible school. It's a long and exhausting week, but Malachi loved every minute of it - which made it completely worth it! Our theme was "Pandamania, where God is wild about you!" I was in charge of Crazy Crafts and Erik was in charge of Bamboo Blast Games. Elliott got to go to Pandamania Preschool where he even learned about the different topics each night. At the closing on Thursday the kids sang their songs for us and we found out they had brought in almost $700 and made over 100 backpacks to send to a children's ministry in Dallas, TX!

You can see how exhausted Elliott was each night!
Malachi is on the right with his friend Isaac.

Elliott is sitting on the stage for this song. He wasn't a huge fan of being on the stage...he wanted to be down where he could run and dance a little more!

Malachi got a CD with all the songs from the week and we've been singing and dancing a lot this week. He's even mentioned various times how he wishes we could have Pandamania every day! Thank you to Miss Carrie and Miss Nanette for putting so much time and energy into a great VBS for the kids and to Mr. Joe for being a great leader for Malachi's crew!

4th of July Weekend Fun

Last weekend was busy and fun - just how we like them! We began celebrating on Sunday with Blake's graduation party. We had a great turnout of family and friends to congratulate Blake on his big accomplishment.

When we got home Sunday evening I decided it was time for some haircuts - and Malachi opted for a mohawk!

Elliott got his first haircut too, although he wouldn't sit still enough to match his brother.

Aunt Meggie was down for the entire weekend and Malachi loved having someone to sleep on his top bunk...especially since she didn't snore!

The annual Knisley 4th of July party was a hit as usual, and this year we had perfect weather. The boys got to swim for the first time this summer.

And we discovered how much of a daredevil Elliott can be. He was even jumping into the pool on his own by the end of the evening. I think he'll be wearing swimmies from the time he leaves the car until he's strapped back into his seat anytime we're around a pool!

The guys kicked the kids out of the pool after dinner to play their traditional game of water basketball. I'm proud to say Erik even won one game!

The kids weren't too disappointed since they had King Kong to play on!

And, of course, we ended the evening with sparklers and an amazing fireworks show. I think it gets better every year - thank you Knisleys!

Happy Anniversary!

Wow!

8 years, 4 states, 2 apartments, 2 houses and 2 - soon to be 3 - sons.

We're quite blessed!