After a fun day two relaxing around the resort, we had finally arrived at our day of celebration, Hunter’s tenth birthday! We were first awoken by Hunter at 3:30 am when he was knocking on the bathroom door, which startled Emily and I a bit because we weren’t expecting a knock. Hunter had a hard time getting back to sleep because the room that he was sleeping in was now adorned with decorations, including a table filled with presents that he would be opening, for today was his tenth birthday!
So far our week at Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort had been both relaxing and fun. We enjoying exploring the resort on our first day as well as playing games and enjoying the weather during day two. But today was clearly going to be all about Hunter as we got to celebrate his tenth year in one of his favorite places on the planet (at least the ones we have been too thus far). It is hard to believe that he has been with us for ten years as I can still remember when he was first born (which I luckily captured in a blog).
Since the day was all about Hunter, I headed down to the Tide Me Over restaurant to pick him up his new favorite breakfast, Chicken and Waffles, as well as food for the rest of the gang. It didn’t take long once I had returned for him to devour his meal, in bed as requested, because he knew that gift opening lie just on the other side. Because we wanted the gift opening to last throughout the day Hunter got to open a couple items in the morning and would save the rest for the afternoon.
The first gift he opened was his “ten” bucket. Emily had filled a bucket with some of Hunter’s favorite things which of course had a theme around “double,” being that Hunter just turned double digits. There were fun items like Double Stuffed Oreo Cookies, Double Chocolate Brownie Mix, and even the board game Double Ditto.
The second gift was a dual present that had a gift for Hunter as well as Sawyer. Because the two boys have been really into Nerf guns as well as Marvel movies, Emily found a Captain America shield that fires Nerf darts. The boys were beyond excited and tore into them immediately, turning our resort room into a war zone.
With a long list of Hunter’s favorite activities on our list of must dos today, we needed to get a jump on the day to accomplish them all. We got dressed and made our way into the resort for more of what we had done the previous days, games around the resort. I am not sure if it was because we were in the middle of March Madness, but Hunter really took a liking to shooting baskets at the basketball hoop, so we made that our first stop. After basketball we made the loop playing some shuffleboard, corn hole, getting drinks, and exploring. We finished the tour with a game of bocce ball (if you can call what we did playing a game).
Hunter was of course excited to open more presents, so we took a luggage cart ride back to the room so he could do just that. Hunter opened a few gifts which were: an Avengers Lego set from Grandma and PopPa, a Nerf gun from Grandma Jean and Papa Don, and various cards from his thoughtful relatives.
All of the playing and gift opening helped work up our hunger. Since we had eaten at the Tide Me Over the last couple days we were looking for a change. Emily did her magical research and found a burger place called Charbar that wasn’t too far away. This was our first visit to that location but it definitely didn’t disappoint. Hunter loved his burger and also got to enjoy a birthday chocolate milkshake.
After lunch we hit up another item on Hunter’s must-do list, mini-golf at the Pirates course right outside the resort. We were greeted by a friendly employee named Patrick who was working the check-in counter when we arrived. We joked about all of the Patricks in our family and had a nice conversation with him. We told him it was Hunter’s 10th birthday upon which he offered to pay for Hunter’s round. Patrick was a retired police officer and when Colonel told him that he was as well, he paid for Colonel’s round, too. It was the perfect day to be outside enjoying the weather and the mini golf course was super fun. The boys were silly throughout the round, using their fingers as mustaches and pretending they were pirates.
After our round of golf there was one remaining stop for the day before returning to the resort to open the remaining presents. Ever since we have been coming to Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort, we have always ventured across the bridge to the Shelter Cover shopping area. In the front of this shopping center is a huge statue of King Neptune in which his trident serves as a sun dial. We got our first photo of Hunter with King Neptune when we navigated the east coast of America on our road trip from Florida to Maine in 2008. We try to recreate the picture each time we visit so we can see how he stacks up against the mighty King Neptune. We snapped a few photos of Hunter and Sawyer with the King and headed back to the resort.
Hunter was beside himself excited to get back to the room to open the rest of his gifts, so we made our way back across the street to our room. Hunter opened his big present which was a laptop computer. The only gift that hadn’t yet arrived was an amazing photo book Emily created of Hunter’s first ten years on the planet, with a page for every remarkable facet of his personality. According to the tracking information, it would arrive at the resort tomorrow.
We finished the evening by ordering some of our favorite, Gusippe’s Pizza, and playing our traditional board games. We planned to go out to dinner, but the birthday boy called an audible and said he would rather order in. The boy likes his comforts. After dinner and brownie sundaes, it was back to our favorite board games, per the birthday boy! As always Hit or Miss got a bit competitive, but we managed to all stay friends. Hunter even got a few minutes before bed to start building one of his new Lego sets. What more could a boy ask for!
I could tell by looking at Hunter at the end of the evening that he had a pretty amazing day. We got to spend it at one of his favorite places in the world, Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort, got to do some of his favorite things like exploring and playing mini golf, and got some really amazing gifts from all of the wonderful people in his life. We are so proud of what he has become over these first ten years. He is a tremendous son who is loving and caring, he is an amazing brother who loves to play with his best pal, and he is a fantastic friend to all those in his life. Happy birthday buddy, we love you so much!
We were excited to have more fun adventures around the corner during our day four Hilton Head Island Spring Break vacation.
Disney’s Hilton Head Island Resort Day Three – Hunter’s Tenth Birthday Photos
