Beach trip!

We just returned home from a wonderful vacation to Myrtle Beach with Papa and Mimi (Luke's parents) - and their dog, Bonnie, Anna Kate would want me to add. It was spring break for the university where Luke's dad teaches, so they asked us if we wanted to get away for a few days. Of course we took them up on it! We had a great time relaxing around the beach house, walking and playing on the beach, visiting some area attractions, and doing a little shopping!

Our first full day there we headed out to the Brookgreen Botanical Gardens which I had heard of, but never visited. It was filled with beautiful plants, flowers, trees, fountains, and sculptures which we all enjoyed walking around. They also had a sweet little children's garden that Anna Kate loved!

Running around the fountain!

She really liked the turtle train!

I thought this quote from The Little Prince was sweet...

If you can't read it, it says, "Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." A good reminder that our children do not think like adults and while of course we need to train and discipline them, sometimes we need to just let them be children!

Another one of our mornings we spent at Broadway at the Beach. We really didn't make any purchases (well, except for fudge at the chocolate store...), but we enjoyed feeding the big coy fish and playing on the playground! And I enjoyed looking at children's clothes to get ideas for making them myself!

Feeding the fish

Anna Kate loves to slide and thought it was super fun that Mimi did it with her!

When we first decided to go to the beach, I knew that I wanted to take some family pictures while we were there. Nothing super fancy, just our own cameras and Luke's parents as the photographers, but family pictures nonetheless. I made these sweet dresses for the girls and had enough leftover fabric for a skirt for myself...so how could I resist! Luke's just lucky that I ran out before I got to him...haha! Oh, and I found a super cute idea online for making fabric hairbows...LOVE it! Anyway, for those of you who live around here, pretend you haven't already seen the dresses if they happen to wear them for Easter...or maybe the Carolina Cup...

Here are some of the best shots. Not too easy to take pictures of this family of four, but I think we got some cute ones!