Hilton Head 2013

I haven't had much time to blog lately. I have been doing a lot of cleaning and a whole lot of substitute teaching! It has left me little time for doing things like this.
But, I wouldn't trade it for anything AND I love, love, love getting to be at school with my kiddos! I honestly would do it every day if I could.
Fortunately, we were able to pull together a last minute trip to Hilton Head this year. It was such a blessing!!!!! We were SO excited!!!! Some friends of ours that we have known since childhood GRACIOUSLY allowed us to use their condo in Sea Pines for next to nothing. We could not be more thankful to them! We had no idea how nice it was going to be! Wow! It far exceeded our expectations! We've never stayed IN Sea Pines before and it was great! We had the absolute best time. We had to squeeze all of our activities into just 4 days this time though because the kids' Fall Break is only 3 days long. Boo! We left late on a Friday night and returned the following Thursday. Ok, so maybe we threw in an extra day for fun, but it was SO worth it! We still got to do almost all of our "usual things" that we do when we go. We went to the beach every day and stayed for a long time. Normally, we go to the beach in the morning and head back to our pool for the afternoon. But, since we went so late in October, the pool at the condo was C-O-L-D, so we ended up spending all of our time at the beach, which suited me just fine. I could live on the beach, so I had no complaints at all! Unfortunately, Sadie got DRILLED by a jellyfish on the 2nd day. Ouch! And, when I say "drilled", I mean "DRILLED"!!!! Bless her! She had about 10 welps all over the bottom of her leg. Luckily, a lifeguard was present and was able to come and spray vinegar all it, which took the sting away. Fortunately, Sadie did not let that stop her from getting back in the ocean. Whew! (I have to admit, it kind of kept ME from getting back in though)
We went on another deep sea fishing trip for shark. We caught several sharks and several HUGE red fish! So much fun! It is definitely a love of mine that I never knew I had. I absolutely LOVE it!!! I love the thrill, the challenge, the wait, the victory, and just the pure peace of being out in the middle of the ocean. Lake fishing does nothing for me, but I LOVE deep sea fishing!!!! The kids loved it again too! They got to catch all of our bait and they thought that was a lot of fun. We also had a very friendly dolphin literally swim RIGHT up to our boat and hang with us for a while. Coolest thing I have ever seen in my life! It even triumphed over all of the fishing we did that day! The dolphin literally stayed by our boat and hung out for a while. He would come up and smile at us and then swim away for a minute and then come back. The kids could not believe it! Heck, neither could I!!!! I thought that kind of stuff only happened in movies! I was ready to just jump in and take a ride on his back, but then quickly remembered we were "shark" fishing. Definitely didn't want to take the chance to grab onto the wrong fin!
On our last day, we stayed at the beach ALL DAY LONG. Literally, we got there around 10:00 that morning and stayed until after sunset that night. We even went and got pizza and had a little beach picnic for lunch. Oh, the memories we made. They will surely last a lifetime!
My heart was definitely full when we left. I was so, so thankful that we got to go this year. The kids had the time of their lives and they are still talking about it every day.
Other than that, not much else has been happening. Goodpasture's football season ended last Friday, in the 2nd round of the playoffs. Although, I'm sad for the players, I think the Phillips family is ready to have Daddy back! We are definitely ready for some sort of normalcy to kick back in before the madness of the holidays begin!
Sawyer is doing great in Kindergarten! He is so smart and he is reading so well already! I am so proud of him and he has exceeded our expectations of what we thought he would be able to do at this point. He is one of the very youngest in Kindergarten (which is why he will do Pre-First next year), but you would never know because he does such a great job! I am one proud momma!!!
Sadie is loving First Grade too! She has definitely had more of a challenge academically this year, but I think it's because Goodpasture pushes them so hard! She is doing things and learning things that I know I didn't do until 3rd or 4th grade! I love seeing her try and I love seeing her excitement when she accomplishes something or makes a really good grade. She has a small class of only 10, so I think she enjoys that calmness.
Onward and Upward to the Holidays we go!!!