Hilton Head Island

A week with cousins at the VRBO beach house on HHI, SC

here's the picture dump with captions:

playing charades

delicious seafood on the dock, Hudson's

We enjoyed lots of time together at the pool

Lydia, 11 Aaliyah, 10

Abby, 9 Violet, 8

Quincy, 6* Levi 4

Naomi, 2

*birthday boy

Sarah sharing her passion for nails!

1st day at the beach

a long morning walk on the beach

playground at our front door

smiles in the water

to the beach!

Tuesday night fireworks

a hot walk to Jamaica Joe's deserves a cool treat

busy at the beach

silly picture (their idea!-they had a lot of fun)

a sweet connection

our beachy vacation

The girls loved being in the kitchen

Cookie monster ice cream, oh my!

Naomi sat so still to get her hair done

everything she does is CUTE

Abby found a live sand dollar/sea biscuit!

working on their souvenir totes

tide's coming in!

dinner time

boogie boarding!

treat on the dolphin cruise

miles and miles of beach

mini golf date

they had so much fun "in real life!"

Violet riding the wave in

Crazy for fidget trading

Lots of dolphins so close!

Happy 4th of July!

Coles pulled together a Fourth of July parade on Saturday morning!

 

Team Rubicon Float.

(Ben just joined this group to aid in local disasters)

Abby walked our patriotic pup the whole route and loved it!

Lydia took turns singing “God Bless the USA” and waving a flag in the truck and loved that!

Ben and I tossed out candy and flags. 

The next night, lots of neighbors brought out their fireworks in the streets for everyone to enjoy. 🎇

Big Bend Nat’l Park

A big Texas bucket list for Ben: Big Bend National Park! Underrated because of it's location.

Camping in the Chisos Basin Campground, site 40, in the desert with phenomenal mountain views. Up in this mountain valley it was 15 degrees cooler than down below. 

Our roomy tent fit sideways. The girls thought it was pretty in the mountains.

The best part was meeting amateur photographer neighbor. Lydia learned a lot from talking to him. He got this shot at 3am after the moon set. Big Bend is one of the four darkest skies in the US.

Waking up to see the 360 degree view of the stars and Milky Way was stunning!

"Half the park is after dark."

The Window

The girls enjoyed scooting down the hills

Our new friend offered to take this picture!

Camp Stove Master

 

We got out as early as we could down to the Santa Elena Canyon Trail. That's Mexico on the other side of the Rio Grande.

  

Ben and Lydia crossed over with beautiful views.

Lydia got sworn in as Junior Ranger.

Glow party!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad!

The agave plant flowers once in its lifetime then dies. The ocotillo was also a very interesting plant.

We hit up the Fossil Exhibit on our way out. 

It was an awesome experience camping in the park. If we visit again, we'd go in a cooler month and soak in the Hot Springs and cross into Mexico from Boquillas for lunch! (closed due to COVID)