Charleston...

So with catching up...

Our trip to Charleston was one we won't forget. We purposely drove there from Ft. Jackson with plans of doing our own little balloon release for Liv's birthday on the beach. We had planned on heading out fairly early in the day, but Spud had other ideas. With not feeling so great, we ended up leaving in the early afternoon. Luckily, we still had plenty of time to do what we wanted to do while there.

The drive went well -- for me at least. It came as no surprise to James that I ended up passing out and sleeping most of the way there, ha. Between being in the 1st Trimester and doped up on progesterone, I'm pretty much hopeless -- sleeping is my friend...I sure was refreshed by the time we arrived in town though! We immediately hunted down a party supply store, but had no luck. The only thing we could find was a Dollar Tree (They sell those Mylar balloons), so we went there. I had originally wanted to get Liv several colored balloons, but since this was the only thing we could find, we each picked out a balloon for Liv and headed on to the beach. Once we found it (Folly Beach), we parked and headed on out...

The first thing we did was write Liv's name in the sand. Normally we'd write Jake and Jordan and many others, but not that day. That day was focused around our baby girl, so we left it at that...

We decided that before we release her balloons, we would walk the pier. On our way there, we saw quite a few crazies that were willing to surf in this cold weather...

Random shot of the hubs...

More surfers...

James laughed and said it looked like this guy was being held up by a ghost...

While I froze with the wind blowing, this dude waited for the perfect wave...

Once on the pier, we were entertained by all of the birds. There were two in particular that made us laugh. One was determined to devour a bone he found and the other wouldn't let go of piece of candy...

While we were out there, we decided to get a picture of the Spud. Not much to see just yet, but still...

I loved that we were the only nuts willing to go hang out in the cold -- so peaceful!

Once we were done, we got the balloons and headed back to the beach...

James was getting ready to release the balloon he had picked for Liv...

And off it went...

Unfortunately, Dollar Tree helium is rather useless. The balloon basically just sat there low in the sky, not going anywhere!

As it slowly crawled away, we stood and watched -- thinking of the Liv'ster...

The wind finally picked up and sent it over the water...

With how slow the release went, we wondered how far it was really going to go, so we decided to hold on to the second balloon. I had originally wanted to save one to keep in Liv's memory box anyways, so it all worked out in the end. So we sent James' balloon up to Heaven and kept mine here...

Once we couldn't see James' balloon anymore, we decided to head on out and see what else there was to the town of Charleston. I had been before, but I was probably 10 so it was basically like seeing it for the first time again. We aimlessly drove around downtown and ended up at Battery Park (overlooking Ft. Sumter) -- so beautiful!

We absolutely loved the park. As we walked through it, we noticed the homes nearby, so we decided to take a stroll through that area, too...

I may be a Grinch this year and we may not have decorated at ALL for Christmas (or did anything Christmas-related this year), but I did still enjoy seeing the decorations throughout the neighborhood...

I loved the streets...

By this point, I was starving and James wasn't too far behind, so we decided to head on out. It was a nice afternoon spent in a new city, remembering our baby girl. I'm glad that we were able to break away and take that little trip while James had a day off between his classes. As I said before, it was definitely one we won't forget!