Wedding!

A tad over two months ago, we went to Charleston to go to Uncle Peter's wedding!  Thom John was the Best Man and Sean was the Ringbearer. On the day of the wedding, we spent most of the morning walking around downtown Charleston.  After a hearty lunch, we went back to the hotel for naps and getting dressed up. Daddy was off to do his Best Man duties and Mommy tried to get the kids down for a nap. Clare was compliant, but Sean resisted. And resisted. And resisted. Finally, with about 1/2 hour left in the allotted naptime, he fell asleep. Typical! So Mommy got herself ready and then got Baby Clare all gussied up and then it was time to wake up Sean. Thanks to the promise of cartoons on TV, Sean grudgingly woke up and got in his fancy little suit.
Mommy walked the kids over to the Charleston Place hotel with Grummy and Auntie Rachel and we all paid a visit to the groomsmen's suite to drop Sean off with Daddy.  Clare and I left to go take our seats and we left Sean with the groomsmen to get prepped for the big moment.

Sean's picture of Daddy:

Here's Sean walking down the aisle with Pop Pop.  When the doors opened, Sean spotted me and said "Mommy!" then walked down the aisle with Pop Pop, holding his little pillow nice and high.

Sean kept himself busy (and quiet) during the ceremony by munching on pretzels and "fishing" with his pillow.  Eventually Baby Clare got tired of sitting down and the three of us moved to the back of the seats so Clare could cruise around.

After the ceremony, but before pictures:

With the Bride and Groom:

The kids were starting to get a little rowdy during picture time, so I moved them inside to watch the rest of the pictures from the windows.  They helped provide entertainment to other family members waiting their turns for pictures:

At cocktail hour, Sean got into the party spirit:

And he found his cousin Patrick - these guys probably had the best time of anyone at the wedding!

Clare tried her best to keep up, but as she wasn't quite walking yet, it was tough.  Good thing Daddy was around to help:

"Smile!"

 

Sean hugging - or smooshing - Baby Clare:

Source: Heirloom Creative Photography http://thennowlateron.com/

The photographer had a "photo booth" area with props and we got a photo of all four of us!

Source: Heirloom Creative Photography http://thenowlateron.com/

Guess who?

Source: Heirloom Creative Photography http://thenowlateron.com/

The kids loved dinner - Clare decided she liked my crabcakes and fancy truffled risotto better than her kids' meal, so she helped herself. When it came time to dessert, we were happy to share with each other. I had some of her giant cookie and she had some of my cake. I think we all remember how much Clare likes cake :-)

Sean managed to take a break from running around with Patrick for his dessert:

After a lot of eating, dancing, walking, and running around, it was time to get the Sooy Babies back to the hotel to crash.  However, Clare just couldn't wait that long - sleeping in Daddy's arms:

She barely flinched when we moved her to the stroller. Sean, however, was NOT happy about leaving the party! We all had a such a good time!

Magnolia Plantation

One morning during our trip to Charleston, we visited the Magnolia Plantation near the Ashley River. We saw lots of trees with Spanish moss - or "tree beards" as Sean called it.

This guy greeted us in the parking lot:

Our first stop was the petting zoo.  This zoo was serious - the animals were just running around the place. We were tripping over bunnies and getting nuzzled by hungry deer every 10 seconds. This gang of turkeys - again, just out and about - kept making a ruckus every few minutes.

One of the many peacocks who runs around the place willy-nilly decided to show Sean who's boss:

After the petting zoo, we walked around the gardens:

A Lady Clare tree!

We admired the outside of the main house:

After watching this heron stalk his lunch, we decided to head over to the picnic area to have our own lunch:

This peacock tried to join us for lunch, but got a little too close to the stroller which was holding a sleeping Baby Clare. Sean and I scolded the peacock and he strutted elsewhere.

Baby Clare woke up soon after that and joined us for lunch - sandwiches, deep fried peanuts, and sweet tea.

Fort Sumter

Shortly after arriving in Charleston, we took a ferry over to see Fort Sumter.

While Daddy and Clare explored the museum, Sean and I looked out at all the boats in the harbor and spotted a new friend:

Sean loved the ferry ride - Thom John took Sean out on the deck to look around while I stayed inside with Baby Clare. She snoozed while I listed to the informative narrative playing over the loudspeakers.

Arriving at the fort:

Looking across the harbor at Sullivan's Island:

After arriving at the fort, we listened to a brief lecture by a park ranger and then we were set loose to explore the fort. Sean liked climbing all the stairs to get to the top of the fort, which was really, really windy!! When it was Mommy's turn to take Sean up to the top, Sean gleefully whispered that we were hiding from Daddy and that he would never find us. As soon as we got to the top, Sean shouted, "HI DADDY!" he was so pleased to have "surprised" Daddy.

While Sean and Daddy went off to explore again, Clare practiced her cruising along the walls of the fort...

Downtown and the Battery

Back to a post about our trip to Charleston. After arriving late Thursday morning, we had some time to burn before hopping on the ferry to Fort Sumter, so we took the Sooy Babies on a quick walk down to the Battery. We also walked all around downtown with family on Saturday morning before the wedding. Here are some snaps from our wanderings:



"Wow! Look at all these cannon balls! They're not hot!"

 

Sean wanted to go swimming!



The kids played in a gazebo ... moments before a wedding took place here!

Sean followed this super-friendly dog around and named him "Stevie"

"Stevie" and Sean had a good time splashing around in a fountain - what a way to cool down on a hot sunny morning!