Happily, Maggie was still awake when we got to Charleston, so the girls were able to get their last whoops out and have some fun reacquainting themselves before bedtime.
On Saturday morning, Matt had to attend the graduation ceremony where he teaches, so the rest of us headed to James Island County Park's "Splash Zone" water park. The weather was uncharacteristically cool, so while we appreciated that fact for most of the weekend, it did make the morning at the water park a bit chilly. Both girls were shivering and Maggie took two unexpected head dunks, but she was a great sport about it! I sent Michael in for the real playing with Libby this time and got in probably only about to knee deep myself, using the "taking pictures" excuse. I'm sorry, but it was COLD.
Everyone gave the lazy river a shot, but Maggie quickly took one of her head dunks there and Libby mainly just wanted to play on the steps after only a very short ride with Daddy. However, the uptight lifeguards (we did feel VERY safe) were quite strict about rule-following and put a stop on her stair play, as she did not have a raft, as required in the lazy river. (Folks, there were maybe 30 other people at the large park at this point and very few taking advantage of the river...)
Post water park, we ventured over for some great play time at the dry land park and small spray ground, where the girls had a blast climbing, jumping and generally being crazy.
Libby especially loved jumping on these toadstool things, where she hopped from one to the next over and over again and then this tilty balance beam that tipped from side to side as you walked on it. Talk about needing your balance! I was glad she held someone's hand when she did it.
Libby took great naps each afternoon we were there after such exciting and physical mornings. (And on Saturday, I had a bit of a nap myself too, while she slept and Michael went for a round of golf!) Katie made an awesome dinner of shrimp and grits on Saturday night and even made me a festive non-alcoholic beverage so that I could better fit in with the fun. We even got to enjoy a movie that night, "Friends with Kids," that none of us had seen yet. Kind of the modern take on "When Harry Met Sally" I guess. Even some of the scenes were practically the same - but sorry, no Nora Ephron writing. Michael and I did enjoy it, though.
On Sunday, we got to enjoy the beach and a ton of boiled peanuts! Thankfully it was warmer on Sunday and the water wasn't too too bad, so we got to have a lot of fun at the beach, and I even got in the water. Libby jumped waves with both of us, swam, dug in the sand, ate peanuts, buried feet in the sand, ran around and generally had a good time. Our friend, Lauren, and her new hubby, Edward, joined us there, too!
While Libby napped, Katie, Lauren and I did a bit of outlet shopping and then we had more fun times with our husbands and the girls at dinner. We had some delicious Mexican at a fun spot just down the road from Katie and Matt's at Mex 1 Coastal Cantina. We were really in the "locals only" part of town, so there was no wait, despite it being Memorial Day weekend and while busy, not overly crowded. We even got to sit at a high top table and the girls were in extra tall high chairs - pretty cool! They colored and were so good, keeping themselves amused most of the dinner.
The girls also loved just playing outside in the back yard together "making bird food," cooking in Maggie's little kitchen or writing on the chalkboard. We even made them do "ring-around-the-roses." And they even came up with their own nickname for Commissioner, "Shuck." Don't ask me. I still don't have a good answer for that one, but they were adorable together with their own set of inside jokes already. And of course, bath time was exciting since they got to take them together, too. What a delight to watch a budding friendship. When asked at various points throughout the weekend what her favorite thing was, Libby's answers varied from "bathtime," to "the beach," to "eating dinner out." Of course, as we were driving around town, Libby was well aware that we were in Charleston, where Hurricane Hugo hit. So I had to tell the Hurricane Hugo story many times. Oh, and Libby found a new Pete the Cat book to love: "Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes." We read that one a ton.
I also got to get started on "And the Mountains Echoed," Khaled Hosseini's new book. (He also wrote, "The Kite Runner" and "A Thousand Splendid Suns," which I loved. We're reading this brand new one for my neighborhood book club and it's just excellent. Oh, and we watched "The Lincoln Lawyer" on Sunday night, which Michael and I had been eager to see since we listened to the audio book this spring. It followed the book quite well really, but of course the book was better.
What a great, fun weekend we had with the Parrys! The only thing better would be if we lived closer.
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