South Carolina Trip, Part One

On the first of August, we woke up 15 minutes before my alarm... that's right, we were up at 3:15 in the morning. We'd planned to leave at 4:30 to visit my family in South Carolina but since we were up, we gathered things quickly and hit the road at about 3:45am.

Our trip to South Carolina wasn't mentioned here before because it was a surprise! We arrived at my parents' at around 3:30pm and quickly greeted the little ones (the dogs) before changing to go surprise Dad at his work. 

I'd planned to take pictures of the surprise, but didn't get a chance. Mom called and got someone to take Dad to the back of the dealership because she had a surprise for him. When we walked in, there were a bunch of people gathered around. "Are you the surprise?" they asked. I smiled, and quickly noticed Dad standing there talking to the person who'd had him go to the back. He looked over at the commotion in the entryway and did a double-take. I saw his jaw go slack as he gave me a confused look. I waved and then he shook his head and walked over. I've never seen him that surprised! 

We stood around and talked before he had to get back to work, and Mom assured him that there were no more surprises in the works. Mom lied. Sunday was the big surprise.

We went back home, ate dinner and played with the dogs. Mini bit me. 

We were there to observe the nightly "Daddy's home" ritual that the dogs excitedly enjoyed.

And then I snapped this freaky picture. Alien dog.

Once the excitement was over, the dogs had a little nap.

The next day, my sister came over and we headed out. We had lunch at Moe's... Carson's first time there and he liked it a lot. He and Scott went off to purchase some last-minute birthday gifts for Dad and Mom, Becca and I went to downtown Beaufort and walked around.

We too had some last-minute birthday preparations to shop for, and headed to the dollar store. We found things for Dad's party and also these hats.

The next morning, these losers woke Dad up to wish him a happy birthday.

And he went out to mow the grass.

We gave Dad his gifts, which included an ice cream maker that we put in the freezer immediately.

Then we got cleaned up for a trip to Charleston.
We had lunch at the Mellow Mushroom and just walked around downtown, showing Carson King Street, the Battery and the Market. We drove around past the Citadel and Rainbow Row on our way back home.

Everyone else made an ice cream run at Chic-fil-A and Dad FaceTimed with his sister.

Back at the house, Carson and I formally met Scott's six goats. They are the funniest looking animals.

 
And after the goats were safely in the pen and dinner was finished, we had cake and our homemade ice cream.

While we ate we watched an episode of Aerial America, a really neat show on the Smithsonian channel.

The REAL surprise was to come the next day...