A cool breeze from up north-June.

We'd been home from the beach for less than an hour when the next adventure started.

Mama and papa's college friend, Mister Taylor, was due in town for a conference, so he came in a few days early to spend some time with us.

Mister Taylor, when not smoothly perched on a bench in a flood lake, is known for his jet-setting and world travels. He's currently earning his MBA from the University of Toronto and is living in San Francisco for the summer.

So we felt kind of bad that he had to spend the week with 3 vacationed-out goofballs. But Mister Taylor was very nice about it and assured us that it was a welcome change from his other travels. (We hope so, at least.)

Mama and papa did arrange for a babysitter one night so they could all go to Greenville to a Brazilian Steakhouse. It was awesome and they had to walk around lovely downtown Greenville for a while to work off all the bacon-wrapped meat they ate.

Thanks for coming to see us, Mister Taylor!

The last day of vacation- June.

You didn't think it would ever end, did you?

On our last day of vacation, we didn't have to rush out early to make a 13 hour drive home (it was wonderful to not have to face the drive between SC and Ohio), so we swam in the pool for a while before we said goodbye to our vacation house.

Here's the view from the back across the marsh. We hope we see you again!

Hunting Island State Park had a marsh boardwalk we decided to visit. There were millions of tiny crabs everywhere.

The road to nowhere.

The boardwalk ended at an inlet to the ocean where people were fishing. Too hot for me.

Zoom in on this picture and you can see all of the tiny crabs with one big claw.

Don't let the crabs get Georgie's toes!

Our next stop was the fishing pier.

This shot doesn't really do the long pier and its many fisherman justice.

During our walk, a blue heron landed right next to Henry. It was taller than both of us, but very skinny!

At one point it was standing on the pier with its next fully extended just a few feet from Henry. But mama didn't stop to get a picture because she was afraid it might poke Henry's eyes out. Because we all know blue heron's are so terrifying.

We stopped in Beaufort to get more chocolate from the Chocolate Tree (it's where Forrest Gump got his box of chocolates) then decided to head back home.

We stopped for supper at a Sonic in Columbia. I know mama mumbles alot about how hot it is in South Carolina, but it's worth noting at least we live in the upstate. Clemson has the benefit of at least being close to lakes and the mountains. Columbia is not so lovingly refered to as the armpit of South Carolina and is always 10 degrees hotter with no wind. Mama was nursing Georgie in the parked van (not on because mama hates sitting in an idling car) and was surprised to see 107 degrees show up on the thermometer.

But we certainly all felt the heat. One unintended benefit of our stop in Columbia was that it convinced mama to finally turn on the air conditioner. She's been trying to hold out until June 1st, but only made it until May 23rd. Mama, there's no shame in blasting the AC when temps exceed 100. Let the summer hibernation begin.

Beautiful Beaufort- Georgie.

Grams, the aunts, and the babies dumped the boys and the big kids and headed into downtown Beaufort. (That's pronounced "Bew-fert" for all you northerners.)

First stop was the National Cemetery. Lincoln designated it a National Cemetery in 1863. It was originally a cemetery for the Union dead in the Civil War. You know that Grams loves a good cemetery, so this was a gold mine. The Great Santini and the first all-black Civil War regiment that inspired the movie "Glory" are buried here.

It was a HOT day, so after 2 cemeteries we had to retreat to a coffee shop for some frozen drinks before we headed back out into the balmy 95 degree heat.

Next up was St. Helena Episcopal Church. Founded in 1712, it the oldest continually running church in the country. The cemetery would have been incredible, but they asked that no one left the pathway, so we couldn't examine any of the old graves (including two British Revolutionary War officers and one signer of the Declaration of Independence) up close.

We also got to see the Rhett-Macy house. The Succession Papers that started the Civil War 150 years ago were drafted and signed here.

At lunchtime, we headed down to the park overlooking the bay.

Beaufort is fantastic. When can we buy a vacation home down here?

Photo shoot 2 outtakes- Mama.

This family is just so darn photogenic. Here's another batch of outtakes from the photo shoot.

Henry drove the girls to the beach.

George was so pumped to get her own wagon!

PawPaw and his littlest girl.

These shots of Georgie and Papa might be my favorite pictures from vacation.

This could be the best of June.

A "river" ran from the marsh to the ocean. This shot was Henry's idea.

Who knows what's going on with my hair, but it's still a good picture.

Take a look over there- to the right!

Well, the blog has been up and running since November and mama just got around to updating the sidebar. Enjoy the links (13 kids have been born since we last updated the links on the old blog!), search for your favorite post and when you get to the bottom of the page, go ahead and subscribe to receive emails when we update!

Photo shoot 2- Mama.

We took a look at the 1,000+ pictures we took at the first photo shoot and there wasn't a SINGLE SHOT in which all of the kids were looking int he same direction. So we headed out again when the light was more favorable.

Craft time with Aunt Girl- Henry.

At the house, Aunt Girl had a craft for us to work on.

We all stripped down and got down to painting suncatchers.

I painted a car.

And June created a butterfly with three eyes that was entirely purple- her favorite color.

Later, mama and Junie caught the sunset from the balcony.

During our downtime, Georgie kept us entertained. Look at her new trick with mama. Before we got the camera out, mama had her standing up in her hands for almost 5 seconds.

Georgie thinks mama is so funny. Even mama blinking cracks her up.