River Adventure, Take 2

According to my good friend Sally, something isn't a tradition until you have done it three times. I can totally see our summer river adventure becoming a tradition, even though this was only Year 2. You can read all about Year 1 here.

This year's trip was generally similar to last year's, except that this time the McCartys joined us and of course we were on our new boat.

Our starting point, Atkins Landing on Lake Moultrie...aka where the boat leaves from...aka the perfect setting for a horror flick.



From there, we ventured over to the Pinopolis Lock







In re-reading last year's post, I realize that I wasn't perfectly accurate in the lake/river geography. The Pinopolis Lock lowers you to the Tailrace Canal, which merges downstream with the Cooper River.

In this picture, you can see the Tailrace Canal ahead and below. We were about 75 feet above the canal and it took about 20 minutes for the lock to lower us.





Here you can see the giant vault-like doors of the lock opening...




From the Tailrace Canal we merged into the Cooper River, which took us to the Charleston Harbor.



We spent a lot of the time outrunning a storm...we girls kept teasing the guys about not letting us have a relaxing vacation...so this picture is when our vacation officially began. :) We were tied up to a dock on the Ashley River...



Dinner at Coast Fri night...




On Saturday the guys headed back out on the boat and the girls did some shopping and browsing in the market. We also decided to do a carriage tour, which was so much fun! On Friday we saw the peninsula by water and Saturday we saw it by mule-drawn carriage.





Our guide was very knowledgable about the history of many of the downtown properties. I really felt like I should have been taking notes!







As we were rolling down the battery, our guide directed our attention to the Roper House. Hmmm...that sounds familiar...surely it belonged to one of my ancestors?? :) I honestly don't remember ever hearing anything about the Roper House, although I'm certain that my grandmother or daddy have given me the background on it at some point.

According to our guide, the columns of the Roper House are the largest on the battery. The columns served as a symbol to boats coming in to the harbor that the home belonged to a merchant. I couldn't get a good picture from my spot on the carriage, but I got a few from the harbor on Sunday morning.



It's the fourth from the right in this picture:


Since 95% of my blog readers are related to me :) ...I thought I would share a few more details on the Roper House.

It was built in 1838 by Robert William Roper. Several of the sources that I researched claim that it has the finest view in Charleston. Robert W. Roper only lived in the house for about a decade before he died of malaria. His wife, Martha Rutledge Roper sold the house. They had no children...so I guess its impossible for me to be a direct descendent (darn!). The house survived the devastating earthquake of 1886.

Which is a good segue to another topic that our guide discussed...natural disasters. According to our guide, geologists expect a major earthquake in Charleston about every 100 years and meteorologists expect a major hurricane every 20 (?) years. Which means we are about 25 years overdue for an earthquake and 2 years overdue for a hurricane. As we rode around looking at all the beautiful homes, I couldn't help but wonder how much longer they will be here.

Many of the old homes sport earthquake rods...basically huge bolts between floors to stabilize the homes. You can see the nuts on the walls of this house:


The problem is that the rods make the structures very rigid...and rigid is not good if we have another earthquake. Well, not if but when. Oh man, this is getting depressing. Moving on...

Saturday night we went to dinner at Amen Street...here we are before leaving the hotel...


And Sunday morning we headed back up the river! Thankfully there were no storms to outrun, so it was a more leisurely trip. Later we would run right into a storm at Atkins Landing, but along the way we took our time & stopped at the sandbar...then Graem & Justin rode the tube...not to be outdone, the girls rode the tube...we hopped back in the boat when we got to a no-wake zone where we saw...

Do you see it?


How about now?


We were tubing not 100 yards from that giant alligator! Did that stop us from skiing when we got on up the river? No. :)

Next thing we knew, we were back at the Pinopolis Lock...here is the river-side view:


So you might remember from last year that I had a little run-in with an officer in the Naval Yard. :) Although I tried my best to behave this year, I ended up getting pulled over when driving up I-26. I was {slightly} speeding...76 in a 70...but apparently officers don't take kindly to being passed on the interstate. Oh well, we had to have a little excitement, and since it didn't end in a ticket, I'm okay with it. :)

Us vs. The Swing Set

For the past few years our boys have enjoyed the use of a swing set that our cousins passed down. It has been well-loved...I think they have played on it almost every single day!

If you are a member of Sam's Club then you have probably seen the big swing set that has been on display in the store for the past several months. I had been eyeing it for a while...I know my boys well...they are little monkeys and they love to climb, swing, slide, etc. So...we decided to go in together with my parents and Graem's parents and get the big Sam's swing set for the boys as a joint birthday gift. And the old swing set will continue to get love from my nephew, whom we passed it on to!

We picked up our new swing set the day after we got back from the beach at the beginning of June. It sat all packaged up in our garage for a few weeks. We really wanted to have the whole thing assembled and ready to go before Roper's birthday party on 7/16...plenty of time! But...as we all know time passes faster than ever in the summer.

Graem took a day off work on 6/22 to tackle the swing set. He texted me at 12:52 pm to let me know that he had completed Step 1 of 36!! It didn't take long to realize that it was going to be more than just a weekend project! I think by the end of the day he made it through Step 4.

The new set came packaged in four big cardboard boxes with the slide separate. Each box was chock full of boards of all sizes...no rhyme or reason to which board was in which box! There was also one big box full of little baggies of hardware. I think it had about every different size and type of nut, bolt, screw, washer, etc!! So in the early steps just finding the right boards & hardware for each step was incredibly time consuming. Each board was labeled...if we only could have made out what the stamps said it would have been very helpful!

Yep, that board is an E5R, no doubt!


Graem was out of town for work last week, so on Monday and Tuesday nights I sat down with a glass of wine and the Gamecocks on tv and sorted out all the hardware...I put the hardware required for each step in its own ziplock bag. Then I went to work in the garage and also separated all the boards into piles. I think this helped the rest of the building process go a little more smoothly and it gave me some sort of crazy satisfaction to put some order to the chaos of boards, bolts, screws, etc!

Here is what the swing set looked like after Graem worked on it for one full day as well as several evenings (we're very thankful that it stays light until almost 9:00 this time of year!). At this point in the process Graem had done most all of the work by himself...I helped some with putting the boards down for the floors on each level. I got a little more involved in some of the later steps and we also had some help from Graem's dad. I definitely have a newfound respect for builders!!



Graem was glad to have some help from his "assistant."




Here they are...working hard...


So...like I mentioned, Graem worked on it all day on a Thursday and some evenings, then he was in San Antonio for almost a week. Most of our weekends this summer have been busy, and with Roper's birthday coming up we knew we had to finish it during the long weekend of the 4th. We spent all day Saturday working on it, with the help of Graem's dad. Sunday we went to the early service at church and spent most of the rest of the day working on the swing set. And then by mid-day Monday we were done!! Yay...our swing set shares a birthday with our country (haha).

This is what it looked like by the end of the day Saturday...roof on, walls up, picnic table built...


On Sunday the rock wall went up...


M conquers the rock wall...


We later realized that the rock wall was up on the wrong side {actually I knew all along but didn't push the issue}...which caused much consternation for Graem because when he tried to take the rock wall down one of the screws was stripped. He finally got it moved...he was bound & determined. His biggest motivation for moving it to the right side was that I told him from the beginning that he was putting it on the wrong side. :)

The next big step...the swing beam went up...


This is how it looked at the end of the day Sunday...


On Monday Graem finally got the rock wall moved to its correct spot. Here he is putting the finishing screws on the slide...


Ro takes a break at the little picnic table...


Finally...DONE!


I remember watching the news once when the state fair was in town...this was years ago but it has always stuck in my mind. They were interviewing one of the workers that helped put the rides together and he said that they always end up with a bucket of screws and bolts leftover. Scary, huh? Well, we ended up with quite a bit of leftover hardware ourselves!



I'm not sure how that happened...I'm thinking they just sent extra?!?

So...it was a lot of work...more than we anticipated from the beginning...but it was actually fun. I love the feeling of accomplishment! And Mason has told us repeatedly how much he loves it! :)

Between the swing set and our kitchen we've been consumed with projects so far this summer...we're very glad to be done with one of them! Everything that has been done for our kitchen so far has been off-site...they are working on the cabinets and doors but they want to wait to start ripping out countertops and replacing cabinet doors until after Roper's birthday party. So...I'm anxious to see some changes but it will be good not to have to worry about it for another couple of weeks.

Swim Lessons

Mason has done some group swim lessons in summers past, but this year we decided that he is old enough to actually retain some of his swimming skills from year to year and we wanted him in private lessons. A friend recommended Sarah and she has been great for Mason!

The lessons consisted of a series of four 30-minute lessons. After the second lesson I was a little disappointed because he didn't really seem to be catching on...I thought that maybe he is still too young and uncoordinated to get the breathe/paddle/kick-at-the-same-time down pat. But by the end of the last lesson I was quite impressed with how far he came! He still isn't actually "swimming" on his own but he is jumping in without floats and swimming up to the surface and in general is much more at ease in the water.









The last lesson was right before we were meeting up with some friends for the Gamecock Parade. Although Roper didn't seem to mind that he didn't get to get in the pool, he insisted on taking his shirt off like his big brother!

Baseball Parade

To celebrate our repeat national champion baseball team, the City of Columbia had a parade through downtown Columbia last week. It was really HOT...but we hung in there to show our support for the team! Although I think Roper was wondering what the big deal was...he was pretty miserable! Between the noise & heat & time of day (lunchtime) he was just not feeling the parade. He spent most of the time with his face buried in my shoulder or leg with his hands covering his ears! The rest of the children loved it and Tripp-man even caught some Zs!

I love this picture of my boys...


When did my baby turn into a little man??? This is such a classic Roper face...he is always cutting his eyes!


Check out Jay's big foam finger...straight from Omaha, courtesy of his dad who made the trek out to the middle of the country!


Giving people the finger (haha)...






Can you see the pain on Ro's face? He wanted outta there!


Mason's favorite "float"...


It's hard for me to identify the players in street clothes...but I'm pretty sure that's Matt Price with his hand in the air...how could you miss those chops?!?





Coach Tanner (who happens to look eerily similar to my boss), along with his family and the rest of the coaches...


I really really love my double stroller, which also functions as a quadruple stroller...


A future USC Cheerleader and pitcher! Their mama will love that comment! :)



Here are our pictures from last year's parade. Here's to making this an annual tradition!

Lake Day

We have spent our fair share of time at the lake this summer! These pictures are from a few weeks ago and I'm just getting around to posting them! Thanks to Hollis for snapping the pictures...I'm usually on the other side of the lens but I didn't have my camera with me so she took some with her phone camera.

Hollis and I are childhood friends...we were even in preschool together! She is now dating mine and Graem's good friend Mike. We are very happy for them and I have enjoyed getting to know Hollis better now that we are all grown up! :)

Anyway, we spent the day at the lake with Hollis & Mike & our other friend Blaise. Roper was such a brave little booger and rode on the float with me!



And this picture was at the end of the day...on our way back to the dock. No nap = sleepy boy. I know it is hard to see in this picture, but he was falling asleep on the float!!








We went back out on the lake on Father's Day with my parents and Graem's parents. Again, no camera {sorry} but we convinced Mason to get on the float and he loved it just as much as Roper! At one point we had me, Mason and my mother all on the float...and not to be outdone, Roper also rode with his mama and Bebe. Fun times!

Fortunes

Last weekend we had chinese take out for supper one night...the boys' favorite part is the fortune cookie at the end. Their fortunes always amuse me because they usually just don't apply to children!

I was pondering about whether or not to share their fortunes on the blog, when Google Images returned this image...I guess that settles it!


Roper's fortune...keep in mind he is not yet 2 years old...

You will soon be reunited with an old friend.

Mason's fortune...

Investigate new possibilities with friends. Now is the time!