edisto beach {camping}

i've had dreams about taking my children camping near the beach...

collecting shells during the day, wearing ourselves out in the surf and sun and returning to our cozy campsite at night to build a fire and cook dinner outdoors. an entire weekend where we never had to go inside. not once, unless you count the bathhouse. 

a weekend with bugs to fill my boy's bug house, and s'mores, and good friends, and a pancake breakfast. the best part was sleeping cuddled up together in the tent, all four of us, listening to the frogs at night and waking to the cicadas in the morning (yes - this is their year).

my two little bed bugs, exhausted and happy on their very first camping trip.

Sweet and Salty Days (and cookies)

Hello, August. What happened to July? 

These are the dog days of summer for sure. There is no escaping the heat and no escaping my preschoolers. It's not that I don't enjoy their company. It's just that occasional absence makes the heart grow fonder, and we have had not a single break from each other for quite a while.

Thankfully, we've had some diversions, like learning to ride a pony...

(she was much less nervous than her brother)

And of course some salty mornings on the beach, which never get old...

 I have loved watching them playing together. The older they get, the more they like to hang out. And lately they've been snuggling up together like puppies on the couch. 

We have several friends who've had new babies lately, so this weekend we made these salty sweet cookies to share with them. They turned out so good they didn't last long at all.

Salty Sweet Pretzel Cookies

makes 24

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. baking soda

1/2 cup butter at room temperature

1/2 cup tightly packed brown sugar

1/3 cup sugar

1 egg 

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter chips

1/2 cup broken up pretzel pieces

Sea Salt

First:

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.

Next:

In a larger bowl, beat the butter and sugars together on medium speed until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). On low speed, slowly add the beaten egg and vanilla extract. Beat to combine, scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the flour mixture in batches and beat just until there are no more streaks of flour. Stir in the chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, and preztels. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Last:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop out well rounded tablespoonfuls of dough and sprinkle with pretzel salt. Mash the cookies down a little on the pan to help them spread, leaving about 2 inches between each ball. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

Recipe adapted from here.

Sunset Beach

There is a bit of work involved in taking two young children on vacation for two weeks. Sleeping in one room is not easy, especially when your one year-old likes to wake everyone up. Getting them off of the beach and showered multiple times a day is tiring, and watching them on the beach all day when they are running in two different directions is not exactly relaxing. But those are not the things I want to remember about this year at Sunset Beach. 

What I do want to remember is this:

Popsicles on the deck with cousins

Stella's fearlessness around the ocean (and in the sand, on the steps, climbing the couch, and anywhere and everywhere)

Lots of time playing on the beach with cousins

Foard and Elk in their matching Volcom shirts

And spending time with Elk in general.

Also, my mom's joy in getting to spend time with all three of her grandchildren:

And our many, many sand castles:

We carried on the tradition of walking to the pier every night to get ice cream. Foard usually chose strawberry because red is his favorite color, but sometimes he chose "poconut". Stella walked on the hottest sand up by the dunes saying "hot, hot, hot" but not thinking to move. They are wild and rascally, but they loved being around the family and they settled right into the Sunset Beach routine.

When we moved to the coast I thought our Sunset Beach trip might lose some its luster, since we go to beaches all the time. It has not. It's not about being in a house on the beach, it's about being with family in the same house we've been sharing for 34 years. It's about watching my children play with their cousins on the same little spot of beach I played on with my cousins when we were little. It's about sitting on the deck strumming guitars and singing, and no matter how many directions we go in during the day (riding bikes, kayaking, yoga, surfing, skimmer boarding, Seafood Hutting) every single night we all sit down to dinner together.

Very little about Sunset Beach has changed in 34 years. There's a new bridge and a few more houses, but the island still feels quiet and safe. There are some new businesses, and some have gone. We have lost some people on the trip and gained some others, and some people leave for a few years and then come back. It is still a magical place where we can walk down the beach at night singing songs about the moon, chasing crabs, and searching for the triangular windows that let us know that we are almost home.

I am sad every year when I leave Sunset Beach. Always I think about how nice it was to be tucked in our beach house with my most loved ones for a week or two, and always I think about how things inevitably change for both the good and bad. The dunes shift, new houses are built. Children grow up and grown-ups grow old. I really hope that the sun never sets on our annual family Sunset Beach trip. My children are just beginning to be old enough to understand its magic.

Happy 2012

I'm a little behind, aren't I? 

We brought in the new year in our favorite way...

In our favorite spot...

With some of our favorite people...

What is a new year but a new beginning and a fresh new chance to start all over again? Do you believe in making resolutions? This year I resolve to have more beach days, more shared meals, more play dates, bike rides, hikes and conversations. I resolve to relax more and be closer to the people I love. I think the rest will take care of itself. 

The end. beginning

Oven Pancakes

Oh, glorious weekend, how we love you. This was a good one. The light was clean, the air crisp, and there were ghosts and goblins everywhere. Here's how we spent our two days:


Playing on the beach. Fall days are so nice at the shore. It's not too hot and the sun feels good on your skin.

Starting in October the dogs are allowed to stay on the beach all day, and they are everywhere and sooooooo happy. You've never seen so many happy dogs! If you're lucky sometimes the salt air mixes with wood smoke from fireplaces in the houses that line Sullivan's Island.

 

 It's enough to make me want to build a bonfire, roast s'mores, curl up in a sleeping bag and spend the night on the beach. But that will have to wait until these guys are a little older.

Listening to Warren Haynes live coming in through our windows. He was right down the street at the Southern Grounds music festival.

Watching Tennessee get beat by the mighty Alabama. It's a rebuilding year. At least now we have a classy coach, and one who can rock the orange pants with style. And here are the two Volunteers on game day.

Painting pumpkins. It's not the color combo that I would have chosen, but I like to let him do his own thing.

Anticipating moving into our house. We'll be there in four short weeks. I guess I should begin packing us up (what?). Here's what it looks like so far.

Eating soup, soup, and more soup. Recipe to follow later in the week. And for Saturday breakfast this oven pancake which was oh-so-easy and very popular.

Oven Pancake

9 eggs

1 1/2 cup flour (I used half white and half whole wheat)

1 1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

Put all in blender and blend until smooth. In an oven preheated to 425 degrees, melt 2 T butter. I used a cast iron skillet, but a 9x13 baking pan would work too. Next pour the mixture in the pan and cook for 20 minutes.

Serve these with whatever you like. We used strawberries and powdered sugar, but apples, bananas, whipped cream and maple syrup would all work as well.

And finally, sitting in this traffic jam as we waited for the bridge to open on our way home.

Goodbye weekend, hello Monday. The end.

Labor Day Weekend

Here are some bits and pieces from our Labor Day weekend with my Dad, Susan, and Stephen on Wild Dunes. Our favorite parts were dinner at Hank's, a rainy afternoon spent together indoors, chasing our children on the beach, and Foard's first high school football game (BE vs. Hanahan).

Hello Irene

The kids and I drove to Isle of Palms today to see what the waves looked like. Rain was coming down and the clouds were ominous looking so we stayed in the car, and I'm no surfer (surprising, I know) but the waves were truly rad. The schools are closed, the air here feels electric, and there is excitement everywhere. Best of all there were kids in the streets holding surfboards in hand, headed for the beach.

Some people are taking Irene very seriously. This is Meeting Street today via