South Carolina!

A few posts back, I mentioned that we had recently taken a trip to South Carolina to see my sister and her family. We've been home for several weeks, but I still want to post photos from our trip. Better late than never, right :-)?

When we told Brianna that we were going on an airplane again, she was seriously SO excited. She remembered our recent flights to California and back, and kept saying, "Airpane . . . ZOOM!" All of our flights actually went very smoothly, and Brianna did great on the plane. It ended up being a long day with long layovers, so I was very proud of how well she did.

Chris and I have discovered that LONG GONE are the days of travelling light! What is is going to be like when Brenson gets here?!? I took this photo as we were leaving the airport in Columbia, South Carolina to head to my sister's house. We already had about as much luggage as the two of us could handle (I was pushing Brianna in the stroller and carrying the diaper bag), and then discovered that we also had to haul the carseat we rented out to the rental car ourselves. Poor Chris was loaded down!

It was fairly late when we got to my sister's house, so we planned to sleep in the next morning, then head to Myrtle Beach at our leisure. It took us all a while to get around the next morning, so we didn't get to the beach until just after lunch time. The weather was gorgeous . . . just a little chilly (although perfect in the sun), so the beach wasn't busy at all!

I thought that this beach was so beautiful! The sand was absolutely powder-fine . . . completely different from the beaches we visited in Cali.

In the past month, our family has had our toes in the Pacific Ocean AND the Atlantic Ocean! Love it!

Brianna had a BLAST playing in the sand (and the water as much as we would let her). She buried herself, put the sand in her pockets, threw it in the air, rubbed her head in it, and even sampled a mouthful! She would have played in that sand for hours if we would have let her. She was a complete mess when we left, but the memories are priceless :-).

This photo says so much. Chloe Jo (my sister's little girl who is 10 months older than Brianna) DOES NOT like to get dirty, and therefore was completely unimpressed with the sand. She didn't want to walk in it, much less sit in it. And there's Brianna next to her, having a grand time making a mess!

Of course, we had take a few family photos on the beach. Brianna's face and body language is priceless in this one . . . so bored with photo taking and just wanting to play!

This is better:

Here are our hosts for the week. My sister, Lisa, her husband, Russ, and their daughter Chloe Jo:

The next day was Sunday, and by this time the girls had really warmed up to each other and decided to be friends. Getting ready to leave for church:

On Monday, we headed to Raleigh, North Carolina to see the capital. We weren't far from the NC border, so I wanted to be sure and visit NC while we were in the area. Seeing the capital was an added bonus!

Raleigh is full of history and beautiful, historic buildings. We parked right next to this church that was beautiful, so I had to get a family pic in front of this door.

We toured the inside of the capital building and it was pretty standard. There wasn't really anything about it that I thought was spectacular, but I'm glad that we toured it anyway. The girls did great on the tour even though it was during nap time.

On the capital grounds, there were two old cannons. Chris and I thought we were really funny when we put Brianna in one of them and took a photo. A police officer was standing near-by when we did this and made the comment that he knew that had to be illegal in some way, but he didn't know exactly how. Haha!

During the rest of our visit, both Chris and Russ had to work, so Li and I spent a lot of time at the house doing craft projects, playing with the girls, and visiting. One day, we walked to a near-by park and let them play for several hours. They had a great time!

This photo was taken just moments before Brianna face-planted off the slide and busted her lip open. I felt so bad! She was crying and bleeding, and I freaked out a little bit. I'm glad Lisa was there to help me. Poor Chloe Jo did not like it that Brianna was crying and cried too :-(.

The "older" girls hanging out at the park :-):

I posted one of the craft projects I did while visiting my sister (Brenson's mobile), and these super cute little outfits are one of the projects Lisa did:

One evening, we made cookies with the girls. Well, actually, Lisa and the girls made cookies while I took photos :-).

Brianna and Chloe Jo both love to help in the kitchen.

I think the best part of cookie making is licking the beaters and eating cookie dough! Chloe Jo took one lick of her beater, deemed beater-licking "a mess", and would have nothing else to do with it. Silly girl!

Brianna thinks that the "mess" only adds to the fun of beater-licking :-).

Chris and I both also wanted to visit the South Carolina capital while we were in the state. We were actually flying out of Columbia, so we left my sis's house in enough time to squeeze in a quick capital visit before catching our flight back home.

Now, SC's capital site was pretty impressive to me! It was HUGE for one thing, and so incredibly beautiful on the inside and out.

It was a bright, beautiful, cool morning in SC!

We didn't have a ton of time, but we were able to go inside for about 30 minutes. Gorgeous, simply gorgeous! Notice Brianna's busted lip from the park in this photo :-(.

I was a bit nervous about how the girls would be with each other while we were there. They are completely opposite personalities. Brianna is a very in-your-face, touchy-feely, loud child, but she doesn't really push her limits much. Chloe Jo is a very keep-to-herself, doesn't-like-to-be-touched, quiet child, but she tests her limits all the time. There were several times that Brianna got in CJ's space a little too much, but for the most part they did great (as long as Brianna wasn't touching CJ)! Brianna would watch CJ very closely, then mimic her behavior. While we were there, Brianna took the opportunity to try her boundaries several times, which is so unlike her! She would see CJ get in trouble for that behavior, so I don't know why she thought she could get away with it.
Brianna also talks a lot more than Chloe Jo. B will repeat just about anything we ask her to (and much of what we don't :-), but if Chloe is asked to say something, she'll generally say, "No." When CJ saw the attention Brianna would get by saying things, she decided that she could say all kinds of things, too. So, the influence went both ways.

It was so sweet watching them play together and listening to their little conversations. Brianna tried to boss CJ around, and CJ would have no part of that. It made Li and I laugh. Love our little girlies :-).