Beaufort and Baby Showers

In case you missed my other post about it, Morgan is having a baby! This is cause for much celebration, and with babies, the best celebration is a baby shower. I offered to host her shower in Beaufort off-hand, and it became a plan, so at the end of June, we headed up to our hometown to shower that baby boy!

We were going to go on the Friday before the shower, but Morgan was off work and I got off work early, so we went on Thursday. That turned out to be a great idea because we got more time with Grandmama, and little did we know that we were going to need more time there. 

We arrived around dinnertime, and took an after dinner stroll out to the dock. Grandmama takes sunset pictures every night, and I take them every time I'm out there at sunset. It's captivating every time, even though it can't be captured fully, and especially not in an iPhone photo. 

It was getting dark, so the light was not great for pictures, but we took them anyway. Here's one of the "big two" with Grandmama. Sydney, Morgan's sister, was out there too, but none of my pictures with her in them turned out even remotely acceptable. Sorry, Syd! 

Speaking of, since Sydney was with us, and that never happens without the whole family there, Morgan's and my eyes were opened to the reality that we sit at the top of the grandchildren totem pole. Morgan, my sister Becca, and I are the three oldest grandchildren, and we spent lots of time at Grandmama's when we were younger. Then lots of grandchildren were born in short succession and time with those grandchildren (with the exception of my family, everyone else moved away) was shorter. So poor Sydney (grandchild number six) was very loved, but didn't get the perks we had. We realized that for the first time, oops. 

I went down the next morning to ask Granddaddy about getting a watermelon, so here's a picture of him working while I beg him for something. Definitely not the first time this scenario has occurred. 

We had crabs for lunch. The newspaper was from last July, so we read about the World Cup finals as we ate. (see our personalized cups as oldest grandchildren? Morgan, Becca and I each have one, and then there's one with everyone else's name on it - Sydney didn't want that one)

We spent Friday afternoon going through old books we loved as kids and making lists of the ones we wanted to look up to add to our collections. 

Morgan went to take Sydney to her other grandparents' house and the rest of us ate Grandmama's delicious spaghetti (my favorite) in the living room while watching Aerial America, Ohio.

When Morgan got back, we looked through old pictures and tried to figure out what Baby Colucci is going to look like. We're pretty sure he's going to look at least a little like Morgan. 

I got up early the next morning and went to my parents' house to help set up for the baby shower. 

We covered marshmallows in colored white chocolate and dipped in sprinkles. This Amazon box was our solution for drying them in the fridge. 

It was sort of a bow tie/little man theme. I didn't want to go too overboard, but I did want to use little bow ties in a banner. And that basket on the bench was for children's books. I had people bring a book instead of a card, and there were some really cute ones!

Mini and Oscar, the dogs, were not supposed to be invited, but they don't do well in a room alone (they cry) and we didn't think the goat pen was a good solution, so they were there. They were fairly well behaved, but Oscar kept sitting on the back of the chair. 

The shower was all family and long-time friends, so almost everyone knew each other already. After gifts were opened, people stayed for an hour and a half just talking. 

We played a game similar to the newlywed game where we asked Caleb questions about babies/being a dad and Morgan had to guess his answers. He was pretty accurate about most of them, but his answers still made us laugh. 

After the guests left, Dad and Scott came home and Jillian came over. In his excitement, Oscar sat on Mini to get to Dad. 

It was great hanging out with Jillian at my parents'. We stayed up until very late talking, laughing and crying. It was very like old times. 

The night was late, and circumstances made it seem longer. I stayed up very late and after church when Dad and I went back out to Grandmama's, I took a nap in the hammock. 

Granddaddy had the aforementioned watermelon waiting for us and it was delicious. 

Grandmama and I left shortly after to take a trip to Labor and Delivery. 

After the baby shower, Morgan had to go to the emergency room. They weren't sure if she and the baby were okay so they stayed until Monday morning. Since there was a chance Baby Colucci would arrive, Caleb, his mom, Uncle Mark and my cousin Stuart all came up from Ocala. The baby ended up being okay and they just put Morgan on bed rest until further notice, but since we didn't know anything for certain, Carson decided to come up as well to get me just in case my ride had a baby. 

I took another sunset picture when we got back.

Carson arrived at 1:30 in the morning. When he got up, there was quite the breakfast spread on the table.

Still tired, I took a nap after breakfast. When I woke up, plans had been made to go to Hilton Head and eat at a restaurant Granddaddy and Grandmama had told us about, The Skull Creek Boathouse. Carson and Grandmama had fish sandwiches and Granddaddy and I had shrimp baskets.

Then we tried to get a group picture.

Next, we went out to Harbour Town in Sea Pines. Even though I grew up near there, I've never been to Sea Pines or really explored Hilton Head at all. It's funny the things you miss when you live in a place (and a reason we made a bucket list in Cleveland - so we didn't miss as much).

We would have gone up in the lighthouse, but it was expensive, so we settled for a picture.

And here we are on the 18th hole of the golf course. Dad and Granddaddy have gone out there a lot for golf tournaments, but I hadn't, so we had to take a picture on the green.

Next, Granddaddy suggested we go to the Salty Dog Cafe. We didn't get food, but we did get T-shirts. I'm sure you've seen these shirts around. I've never seen so many as we did when we lived in Ohio. I think the entire state vacations in either Myrtle Beach or Hilton Head in the summer, and it cracks me up. 

We had a lighter dinner but a decent amount of dessert that night, and a big breakfast again in the morning. Carson and I met Mom at Alvin Ords, my favorite, for an early lunch before heading back to Tallahassee. 

Our weekend in Beaufort took an unexpected turn with Morgan, but I'm so glad she made it back to Ocala safe and sound with the baby still inside her. It would have been very exciting to say that she had a baby in South Carolina, but thankfully it didn't have to be! I had a great time with Morgan and then loved exploring with Granddaddy, Grandmama, and Carson.