Myrtle Beach!

This March we headed down south to "sunny" and "warm" Myrtle Beach. We went with some friends who have a boy Seth's age and a girl Maddy's age - a perfect match :D. We have been looking forward to this trip for a loooonnnnggg time.

Here we are ... ready to DRIVE!  

Our incredibly handsome chouffeur! 

 We took two days to make the drive ... which amounted to approximately seven hours of driving each day. The kids did fabulous - better than we expected. We took out the front passenger seat, and I joined the kids in the back so that I could read stories, hand out snacks and toys, and keep Kiera "soothered". We made a few stops so that the kids could get some energy out ... and they took full advantage:

 We stopped at about 10 PM the first night. We went to the first hotel we saw - their computer was done, but she was pretty sure she had a room with two double beds available. Sounded sketchy. We travelled to the next hotel - only smoking rooms available. Um, no thanks! We traveled on to the next hotel - computers were down and she wasn't taking any chances. Our next stop was successful - there was a double bed room available. Yay! We unloaded the kids (woke two of them up) and crowded into the lobby ... where we were informed that that we were only allowed to have four people in a room. We debated leaving someone in the van for the night .... but instead packed everyone up and kept driving. 
15 minutes down the road we found an Econolodge that had a room and was willing to let us sleep with ALL our kids. We all crashed into bed and fell asleep (all except for Kiera who was in my bed with me and felt the need to roll and kick for a while!)
After a tasty breakfast we headed out the next morning and made it to Myrtle Beach at around 5:30. Maddy was thrilled. She had been quite upset the night before when she discovered we were sleeping at a hotel that was not in Myrtle Beach - she even refused to come out of the van for a while. 
When we finally did make it, she kept saying (over and over), "I can't believe it. We are in Myrtle Beach. I just can't believe it!"

Perhaps you noticed my quotation marks around the words sunny and warm at the beginning of this post??? That is because Myrtle Beach was cloudy and cool. Warmer than home ... but NOT hot, but any standards. We braved the beach, but even in coats and mudpants, it was cold.  

 I love the ocean! Such an amazing part of God's creation!

The cold weather did not dampen the kids' enthusiasm at all... they were so excited about the pool, that they weren't too concerned about the weather! We spent a lot of time swimming.
  

 We also visited the Ripley's Aquarium. We went there two years ago, as well, and enjoyed it so much that we had to return. (Well, that and the fact that it was too cold and rainy to do beachy type things). Unfortunately, when we arrived at the aquarium it was discovered that our van had a very flat tire ... so Greg got to go off and fix that while we enjoyed some fishy creatures.

 The last day we were there dawned warm and sunny - made it very hard to leave (especially since the forecast for the following few days showed more of the same). We made the most of it and headed out to dig in shorts and t-shirts.

 After Myrtle Beach we headed to Williamsburg for the weekend. We had a spot booked at a wonderful looking resort ... but once again the rain prevented us from enjoying all the fun activities (tennis, trails, playgrounds). However, our condo was wonderful - it was large (it was actually two separate places) and there was a "secret room" for the kids to play in (an old hot tub room). They dubbed it their helicopter room since there was a fan on the ceiling. They spent a lot of time playing there. Greg also took Seth and his buddy to the racketball room to play soccer a few times. 
While we were there we visited the Living Museum of Virginia. More animals to see and learn about!

All in all, it was a wonderful trip. The kids had so much fun. They got along with their friends so well, and had lots of fun playing and swimming We played lots of games and read lots of stories. We ran into a little trouble on the way home with our brakes, so it was a long drive home, but once again the kids did great. We can't wait until our next vacation!