Hilton Head Island: Day Two

This morning we woke up and headed straight to the beach. It was a beautiful day and the water was unbelievably warm. The one thing I've noticed about Hilton Head is that the ocean is very calm. It is bittersweet for me because although I love the waves and boogie boarding, the lack of waves is much better on my nerves since Mason wants to be in the water every.single.minute. Seriously. We couldn't even get him to eat a sandwich without running back into the water between bites. Crazy kid.

The girls had fun playing in the sand today. I was surprised Nika played in it as much as she did, given her aversion to the stuff a few weeks back. And Payton ... she pretty much sat there for a really.long.time. filling her buckets up with sand. She was loving it.
Did I mention Nika had an aversion to sand a few weeks back? Haha.
By mid-day, the girls were exhausted. So exhausted that they both fell asleep ... one in a beach chair and the other on Daddy.Later in the day, we went for a walk past the horse stables that are right there in the community we stayed in. The first horse we saw was this big 'ole Clydesdale.

Big 'ole Clydesdale as in like seven foot tall at the shoulder ...
He was huge. And super friendly. He kept coming up to us at the fence and sticking his nose in our faces. Here he is a little closer up ...And then all of a sudden he got down on his front knees and just laid down. Seriously ... do horses usually just lay down for the heck of it?

I mean, I guess he had an itch?

Ohh yeahh, feels good ...

*thrash thrash, kick kick*

Where is my back scratcher when I need him?

Moving on down the trail ... we came across a gator, who happened to be lounging near a sign that warned us not to harass the alligators. Does photographing a gator count as harassment? Oops.
As I moved closer to him, my brother-in-law reminded me that the smaller gators can move quicker. Crap. I snapped and ran. Fast.
Around the corner, the stables continued. I'm not really sure why the Clydesdale was alone ... would he not have gotten along with all these guys?
This is the trail right outside the stables. Mason was riding his scooter like a bat outta hell heck. This picture also shows what pretty much the entire community looks like ... tons of trees with peat moss hanging everywhere. You really would never know you were at the beach, since it is so woodsy. Not sure how I feel about that, but I guess you get the best of both worlds.
As we were walking home, we came across these two guys. Once again I guess I was harassing them by photographing them. However, just as I snapped this shot, both of the gators wigged out and flipped in the water. I screamed. And ran. Fast.And on the final stretch, my sister and brother-in-law walked together. Everybody all together ... awww!