As soon as I realized the 4th of July was on a Thursday this year, Mike and I had a quick pow wow about where we should go and we both decided to head to Low Country! Our good friends Derek and Stacy had just finished a house on James Island and we were dying to see them, the house, their two sweet kids & niece, and have Vivi meet them all for the first time. We also wanted Suelen to get a chance to see parts of the USA aside from the Washington, DC area!

So we packed up allll the things and flew to Charleston on Wednesday night. After a crazy stop in Raleigh to wait out a storm, our plane eventually arrived and Derek sweetly got us at the airport and escorted us back to their gorgeous house. It is SO NICE to travel to places where people are set up to host families with littles, but these two went above and beyond. They had already set up 2 pack n plays, loaned us their car (with a carseat!!) for our stay, and had stocked their fridge with kid-friendly snacks (plus rose! And Mike’s new favorite beverage–White Claw!). Ahh-mazing.

We arrived late to their house and Mike helped Derek construct an awesome basketball hoop for their son’s 7th birthday (he’s a 4th of July baby!) while we all drank a lot of rose and White Claw. We probably should have gone to bed earlier than we did, because the next morning all the kids were downstairs bright and early to celebrate the birthday boy!

It’s too bad Caroline takes so long to warm up to people. This was about seven seconds after she met her “new friends:”

Seeing as it was America’s birthday, Vivi reminded us to get festive, people!

Vivi also found a little stuffie that she refused to give up during our stay:

The birthday boy got a cool new skateboard so we all headed outside to watch him try it out. That naturally led to allll of the toys getting dragged out of the garage onto the driveway. No complaints here! It’s so nice to have some breathing space for Caroline to play. I love where we live but wide open areas for play are definitely hard to come by. She didn’t have any complaints about wearing this sporty helmet, either. Here she is looking 2 going on 16 with her new BFF:

We had a fun day relaxing at their house, getting BBQ for lunch, and jumping off their loooong dock into the salty water:

We busted out the lawn games, sparklers, rose, and White Claw. God bless America!

The day turned cloudy and there wasn’t great visibility for the fireworks, unfortunately–but we sure heard them! Vivi Girl was not a fan and let us know it!

The next day, we headed into Charleston for a little lunch and shopping. We stumbled into the most gorgeous garden with a cute little cobblestone path winding through it. Charleston is just full of those little treasures.

Here are these best buddies at lunch. I think Caroline’s look just says it all:

Next we had to stop for ice cream in the best-smelling ice cream place I’d ever been in!

The rest of the day we relaxed at their house and played a game called Psych where you try to trick the other participants–it was a lot of fun. We also had a delicious charcuterie and cheese board for dinner.

The next morning we were up and at em, heading back into Charleston for the Farmers Market, where we spent some time in the bouncy house, grabbing coffee & breakfast sandwiches, and enjoying Italian ice:

Before heading to the South Carolina Aquarium!

Caroline is currently obsessed with turtles so this guy was a BIG hit! The SC Aquarium has an impressive Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center that was cool to learn about.

The biggest surprise was when Caroline watched a few other kids hop into the Hurricane Machine and then she immediately wanted to try it out. All three of these little monkeys LOVED it. The winds got up to 100 mph! Caroline shrieked with excitement and laughed and loved every second of it. Her hair was a hot mess when it was all over. Hurricane hair don’t care!

Vivi was just plain DONE at this point…

We ordered Italian for dinner and sent the boys to pick up old-school Scattergories and played that along with Name that Meme, all while drinking way too much rose and White Claw. I think, after seeing their recycling bin, there is no more White Claw left in the entire state of South Carolina!

The next day (our last), we spent a wonderful morning jumping in the waves at Folly Beach. My first SC beach outing did not disappoint–it was as nice as Jax Beach and the weather was absolutely perfect. I don’t have a single picture because I was in the water the entire time with Caroline, who could not get enough of the spray, the waves, the air–she loved it all. As the older kids hit the surf, she’d yell “my friends! let’s go with my friends!!” She wanted to walk herself but understood that in order to get out as far as they were, I had to carry her–so she relented. She loved being there with the big kids, even laughing at what they laughed at (pretending to understand their jokes). So funny. She is a little daredevil who wanted me to wait until the very last second to jump up when a wave approached. She called this “bounces” and said “mommy–bounce!” over and over again when she wanted me to pop up. And when we would pop up, she would yell “BOOM shaka laka!” throw her head back and laugh. Every now and then she would yell, “Mommy I’m so happy!” It was pure joy and one of my most favorite memories of the entire weekend.

The fun wasnt over yet though!! Just as we got to the airport to fly home, we learned our flight was cancelled…and the next available flight wasn’t until Tuesday. Um, no. Only other option? To rent a car. So rent a car we did!

Here is the group departing Charleston at 4 PM, ready for our 9 hour trekk home…see how excited we are?? Of course, my first thought was that if I had known we’d be leaving to head home at 4 pm, I would have stayed at magical Folly Beach jumping in the Boom Shaka Laka waves until 3 pm!

I don’t have a shot of us pulling into our driveway at 1 AM, but you can imagine how awesome we all felt. Major props go to Suelen who had to squish in the back between two bulky carseats and who did a GREAT job keeping the littles happy, entertained, hydrated, well-fed, and overall pleasant. For NINE hours. NINE. I swear she is a saint!

Thanks for a wonderful weekend, Charleston! We will be back (probably via a different airline!!)