Not as Planned

We had our Spring Break a few weeks ago and we headed to Kiawah Island South Carolina for a week on the beach. In years past we always had wonderful weather full of sunshine, bike rides around the island and tons of beach time- this year it didn't go quite as planned. There was rain in the forecast every single day, one day they broke a record low temperature of 40 degrees and on the sunny day we had at the end of our vacation there were 40 mile per hour wind gusts on the beach.
When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade. We enjoyed some good family time despite the weather, taking in a Children's Museum:

(My adorable nephew Ben)

(They had the coolest grocery store)

(Tim prisoner on the pirate ship)

(Luke performing a puppet show for us)

We had fun exploring Charleston's bakeries on the rain and found some incredible cupcakes and keylime pie to keep us happy despite the 40 degree temperatures and pouring down rain that day. We had an amazing lunch at Poogan's porch in Charleston, which if you are ever there I HIGHLY recommend, YUM!

We still were able to get 2 days in on the beach, although freezing and cloudy, we enjoyed watching the kids play and explore and having our feet on the sand and looking from treasures from the ocean:

(our sand castle creation, decorated with shells by Lauren)

(Tim showing Ben how to dig in the sand)

(a father daughter dance on the beach)

(mom and dad on the beach)

(super Luke)

(My brother Dave, his wife Barbie and son Ben strolling on the beach)

(Ben exploring)

We got to spend a lot of family time together in our beach house, and it was nice time that I know I will always cherish. Was it the most ideal situation? No! Was the vacation all we had invisioned, NO! but did we have great family memories together despite what mother nature handed us, ABSOLUTELY!

My favorite memories of the trip were the Amazing Race Scavenger hunts we created as a family. We would set out on bikes on the cloudy drizzly mornings in teams of 2 (my mom  and my kids were always on one team, sometimes my dad joined them) and then Tim and I were on the other team with Dave, Barbie and Ben. We would take turns being the clue leaver and the clue finder and the team who was searching had to text pictures of the clues found in order to get the next clue. The hunts took us all over the island and we all had fun doing it- I especially loved the thrill it gave Luke and Lauren.

On the last day, the sun came out and although it wasn't a beach day, we enjoyed some time in the sun on the back patio:

(Luke and I enjoying the sunshine)

(Tim and Luke soaking in some rays)

(Ben)

So, Spring Break 2011 will always go down in history as a wet and soggy beach vacation, but for me it will be one that I cherish on a different level because of the creativity it involved and the family bonding that ensued................good times : )