First Family Vacation | Botany Bay Plantation

Ugh, y'all. Summer has officially come to an end for this teacher, and I might be in a period of mourning for awhile. I had such a great summer with my little family, and having my cute babe keep me on my toes each day was so special. However, every good show comes to an end. So here we are. BUT. I can at least reminisce on our summer a little bit longer by sharing our family vacation from June. (and maybe if I wish hard enough, I can wish my way back in time...)

Like I said, back in June, we hit the road for our first family vacation as a party of three. We were taking Harper along just the two of us, which was kinda terrifying, but exciting at the same time. She's never been a total fan of her car seat, so driving for longer than an hour was going to be one heck of an adventure in itself. We decided to stay a little closer to home for that reason - you know, in case this trip was a complete and utter fail. So, the South Carolina coast it was. We decided the best time to leave was about 5am - we were hoping to get a few hours on the road under our belt before she woke up for her first feeding. Once the car was packed, we carefully put the little babe, pajamas and all, in her car seat and hit the road. She woke up as we loaded her in, probably confused more than anything, but fell asleep not too long after we left. But no worries were needed because she completely blew us away with how amazing she did the whole ride. She slept great, woke up for her feedings, played with her toys. Completely rocked it out. Proud parents for sure. Since our check in time to our little cottage wasn't until three that afternoon, we decided to take a trip to Botany Bay Plantation on Edisto Island. I had seen pictures and read about this place, and dreamed of going ever since. I figured while we were down there, why not check it off the bucket list. And SO glad we did. This place is a complete dream. Fields of sunflowers. A gorgeous beach that looks like something from a movie. Shells everywhere. Gorgeous plantation throughout. It was stunning to say the least.

Buuuuuut, as we quickly learned, this vacation wasn't on our time, but on our six month old's time. :) We walked down to the beach to let Harper dip her toes into the water for the FIRST TIME. She absolutely loved it, and it just about made my heart explode. We were skeptical to take a six month old to the beach by ourselves, but seeing her little face light up put our worries to ease. 

But as sweet as the moment was, it was short lived... Little girl was tired, hungry, and just plain ready to be somewhere where she could kick her little chubby baby feet up to relax. So, we enjoyed the beach while we could, fed the tater tot, and took a drive through the rest of the plantation in hopes of Harper falling asleep. (...that moment when you just want your baby to look for one picture with you, but she's not into it...)

Botany Bay was gorgeous, and it's definitely a place we want to visit again when we can take it all in just a little bit longer. But we were excited to get to our cute cottage in Bluffton, South Carolina to enjoy the rest of our vacation. :)