Chimney Rock

Chimney Rock is a gorgeous state park in North Carolina.  We loved it so much - I can't believe it took us so long to get up there, and now we can't wait to go back and spend the weekend in the camper!  I actually just saw it mentioned in Travel and Leisure Magazine as possibly the best view in the US!  It is breathtaking and certainly hard to capture in photos, though we tried.

Down at the lower elevations, before the clouds moved out

Grady in front of "Grady's Animal Discovery Den" - Grady the Groundhog is their mascot :). 

The Great Woodland Adventure Trail was awesome - about .75 miles, easy, with lots of educational activities for the kids along the way

Pretending to be a turtle :). All the sculptural elements were done by local artists and many were beautifully done

Camille on a giant acorn

On a bear

Pretending to be raccoons

Up on a ledge

The view from near the top

At the top (well you can hike higher, but it is fairly strenuous - G and I want to try it next time!)

What an amazing place!  We definitely want to return to see more of the trails and to check out the super cute little town there.

Summery Fun

Fourth of July week we had some red, white, and blue fun!  We made skewers with cake, blueberries, and strawberries, which we dipped in a yummy cheesecake dip.  The kids had a blast with this!

We also made red, white, and blue muffins for breakfast on the 4th

That week we also did some park hoppin'

The following week Anson headed off to his very first week of camp, at the Y.  He was a bit hesitant, but definitely had fun and still mentions it now.

Grady and Camille enjoyed some time together at the Children's Museum

Grady, at the top of their new climber!

At the new outdoors exhibit

Grady loved building these 3-D objects and completed every challenge they had

Camille, pretending to work at the bank

They did a song together in the "newsroom".  I think it was "Wheels on the Bus"?

More park hoppin' the next day

That night I took Grady to "Starry Nights" at Roper Mountain Science Center.  They have a large planetarium (largest in the state) and a huge telescope.  It was too light still to see anything out of the telescope, but we will go back in the fall.  The show was great, and Grady even listed all the planets, in order, for the whole crowd!

It was a great experience!

Hilton Head - Part 5

The next morning the girls went to the spa, while Eric took Grady fishing (where there were quite a few turtles and an alligator incident!) and Papa hung out with Anson.

Camille got the full treatment and quite enjoyed it

Meanwhile...

That night Nana and Papa had a little cookout with the kids and Mama and Dada got to have a date night at Live Oak, the newest restaurant at Sea Pines, located in the new golf clubhouse.

The next day was our last full day at the beach.  We soaked it all up!  I love these pictures of Camille.

Anson made a few older girl friends at the beach and hung out with them all day.  It was so cute, and they were very nice to him!

A few pictures from our last dinner, at Big Bamboo

Listening to some live music before we left

The last morning we took a nice walk on the beach before we had to go...

Saying goodbye to Nana and Papa

It was such a great beach trip, with beautiful weather and fabulous company.  Anson asks all the time if we can go back soon and stay in THAT house.  Good times!