We're Home

Our first family vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC was a beautiful, wonderful and memorable time!!

First and most importantly we thank God for blessing us with this trip and for keeping us safe and healthy throughout it all. We had perfect weather all week (in the 80's and sunny -- although really windy for some of the days) and wonderful friends who were able to join us there.

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Here's the re-cap:

Traveling is not something we are used to so the days down and back were taxing. Lots of crying, singing, fighting, food breaks, talking, whining, potty breaks, screaming, sightseeing, stretching breaks... and very little quiet or napping times. It was a L-O-N-G drive... But, we made it. It was all worth it when we stepped out of the car and breathed in our first breaths of fresh warm ocean air..... ahhhhh.....

This is South Wind -- the apartment complex we stayed in.

We had a balcony overlooking the ocean on the fourth floor. Below us were the pools and lazy river and just beyond that a short bridge to the sand.




The kids seemed to enjoy the beach for the most part. Evan loved driving trucks through sand and dodging the rolling waves coming ashore. He wasn't so sure about going into the ocean water (it was a bit on the chilly side) but by the end of the week Todd had him in to jump waves together and I think he might have (sort of kind of) liked it :-)


Chloe wasn't so fond of the beach. Good thing we had her favorite bubbles. She blew bubbles everywhere we went, everyday we were there. She wanted nothing to do with the ocean water. I think the coldness was a huge factor with that since she usually is a "water baby." That combined with her massive sleep deficit made for a less than enjoyable time on some days :-(


Even though the beach itself wasn't necessarily a huge hit, they both liked the pools a lot. We were definitely in the pools more than on the beach. (No pictures of these times since I was usually in the pool too.) It took Chloe a while to get used to the feeling of floating without being able to touch the bottom. She clung to us saying "I gotchoo... I gotchoo...." and she was really freaked out by Todd going under the water. She would cry and reach for him to make sure he was ok when he came up again... so cute. Evan started out nervously in the pools but by the end of the week he was swimming alone -- even without his floatie on -- never a swim lesson just a lot of encouragement and patience :-) What a big guy!

I got tons of gorgeous sky pictures that I'll have to post another day but here a few of the amazing views over the ocean. Oh, and there was a full moon the week we were there.



The apartment was always buzzing with people since we had our friends there too. The kids always had a playmate around and Todd and I loved having our best friends there to have late night talks and laughs.

Todd couldn't be present for this early morning photo... we all know about his tolerance for noise and "other people's kids" (hahahahaha)


Here are a few funny shots of our kids being their silly selves even when we were so out of our ordinary routine. Chloe is always making "nests" out of blankets and pillows!


And Evan is always making off-road trails for his monster trucks. (The boy was without mud and without his bike all week... so hard for him...) He bumped up the floor rug to make a mountain!


I have soooo many more fantastic pictures (and still more that our friends took) so I will probably post them randomly throughout the week as I get around to it. We got to experience the Ripley's Aquarium, a beautiful boardwalk-type place, and cool playground that I don't have time to share about tonight.... so I'll wrap up.

Here are a few of the "ride home" pictures.





The one and only hour of quiet on the entire drive (we drove 4 days total).

We are so very glad to be HOME.

Posted by Bree