Our 10 day vacation

Here we are back to reality after a 10 day vacation. Well, sorta.

I haven't touched a computer since Thursday a week ago. Wow! We have spent time with both Cole's family and mine in both the mountains near Ceasar's Head and the beach at Sullivan's Island. It was a much needed and absolutely wonderful time after all of Cole's studying!

I have 120 unread blog updates and feel out of touch with all of you!!

You may have thought I abandoned blogging altogether. But, I haven't, and here is a "small dose" of our vacation time:

Towards the end of Cole's board studying, he opened a Dove chocolate that I had packed for him for lunch. Here is what his message said:

 Sometimes the Lord just knows what we need to hear!

We did indeed just that...promised ourselves a reward, a night out on the town! Compliments of Cole's parents, we began our vacation here in Charleston with a very nice dinner at Charleston Grill at the Charleston Place Hotel. It is always ranked as the best restaurant in Charleston, and having tried quite a few, we agree! Everything from the service, presentation, food, and live music was first class.

Gotta love self-timer.

On Friday we headed to Cole's family mountain house near Caesar's Head in the Mountain Bridge Wilderness Area. We did a lot of relaxing, reading, looking for blue ghost fireflies, talking, and hiking. The weather was awesome, highs in the 80s and a slight chill at night. Pretty perfect for me...warm enough to wear sandals, but just chilly enough to put on a long sleeve shirt. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we are going up again for our anniversary and I can't wait!

These pictures are from our trail run/hike we squeezed in before dark! It still amazes me that this is just outside the door.

The rest of the weekend I celebrated Lesli's wedding. I wish I had more pictures. Please send them to me if you have some :) She was gorgeous and the wedding was really fun!

Fearsome Foursome (as Cole calls us) at Lesli's rehearsal dinner at High Cotton

For the fourth, we had a cook out in Greer and then headed back to Charleston. We regrouped to stay out at Sullivan's for the week with my family. This week is traditionally vacation week for my dad and our family. I can only think of a few fourth of july celebrations we have been in the state for. This year, since Cole, Marian, and I all had commitments in Charleston, we rented a house on the waterway/marsh on Sullivan's. Dad, Mom, and William came down and we stayed at the house all week and commuted in to work/school.  The house was perfect for us...all wood which my dad loved, dock with water deep enough at all tides for the boat, and big porches for us to eat, read, and play games on.

My mom cooked killer meals for us all week. I believe the diet is going to have to begin today!

Low Country Boil. Yes, we are with our hands on newspapers! 

 We did a lot of this..

Marian catching those fish

Cole and I on the boat

William kayaking

Marian, Stephen, and Syl crabbing

Marian and me on the dock

Watching the race with William, yes my first one ever, and playing card games.

Cole and I got really close to 4 dolphins on one of our kayak rides. It was so fun! We also got to see manatees!! I had no idea that we had manatees in the Charleston waters! Growing up manatees were my favorite animal. I know, weird, but maybe not so surprising when I think back to my favorite animal as a really young child...goats! Still to this day I have no idea why, except that I really liked them. We laughed at memories of me sponsoring numerous manatees in "save the manatee" programs. My favorite one I named "Manny".

I couldn't think of a better 10 days than spending it with family like we did! God had our best interest in mind when he allowed Cole to get an elective rotation first. Cole had wanted to begin on surgery (to get the hardest rotation done first), but instead ended up with an elective. He was disappointed at the time, but now after his boards and being a little burned out, we cannot imagine anything better than starting off this way! He was able to spend time with our families because of this normal work schedule. Not only did the Lord provide this time for us, but also opened up a spot for Cole at Deyten's Shipyard Medical Center and Harvest Free Medical Clinic. This is the same clinic Cole worked in last summer, thanks to the generosity of Loy Stewart and Dr. Freeman. He loves it there - the people, patients, and the Christian mission. We are enjoying every second because in a few short weeks, he will hit the ground running at the MUSC ER.

PS...If some of you are looking for accounts of our trip to North Africa, scroll all the way to the bottom to see my older posts. You can also click on them here: Answered Prayers, Greater Things, All Nations, Culture Shock, Brokenhearted, Clinic Days.