Week 4
Every year, for as long as I can remember
my family would spend at least 1 week at the beach.
Being 1500 miles away from my family,
and a baby cousin due in September,
we didn't make it to the annual beach trip.
Our oldest had been BEGGING to go to the beach
for MONTHS!
The weeks ticked off the calendar
and we never made it to a beach in Texas.
So I promised (which I NEVER do)
that I would take him to the beach when
we went back to NC.
We had 2 different options of where to stay,
thankfully.
So after waiting on others to be
"ready"
or
"available"
I got tired of waiting
and decided to bite the bullet
load up my kids
and take them to the beach by myself!
We went to my grandmother's camper
at Myrtle Beach.
She has a place down at a large campground
down there.
I was comfortable doing this,
because I had been there before,
it was small enough for me not to
worry about where the kids were
but big enough that we were
not literally tripping over each other.
I made the decision Wednesday morning
and we were packed and loaded by 10am!
We stopped for lunch and then got back on the road.
We arrived at our destination about 3 1/2 hours after we started.
The hardest part of the entire trip...
getting everything turned on!
Mainly the hot water/propane!
I had to get help with that one.
But the rest was smooth sailing.
We did very well!
I think I surprised myself and everyone else
with how well we managed...
by ourselves.
I would have happily stayed longer,
but we had an ortho appt,
for a broken arm,
to get back to.
I also had a coughing asthma kid on my hands,
who hadn't recovered from the fur from the previous weekend
and here I was putting him in another environment
that the same fur was in...
and was getting a little worried.
We got him to the doctor back in NC
and found out he had walking pneumonia!
My broken boy developed a cough too
and wound up with the same thing!
But we had a great time at the beach while
we were there!
I did let the kids get their toes wet.
The idea what to get JUST their toes wet...
but 4 kids at the beach
you all know how well that worked out...
Our first trip down to the beach they listened
and did well staying dry...
buy it wasn't from lack of trying to get wet!
We didn't stay long the first day,
too much other stuff to do to get set up,
but I HAD to let them get their toes sandy!
Mr. T took a bath in a toddler sized tub to
get said dirt out from between said toes...
Since we were solo in a camper,
I splurged on dinner
and let them get those
cute kid looking
"Kid Cuisine" things...
NONE of the kids liked them!
(No complaints here!)
The next day we hit the Ripley's Aquarium
we had a great time
but unfortunately the pictures didn't turn out that well.
So here's some of the "better" ones,
you'll get the idea...
Look mom!!!
Um, exactly HOW thick is this glass?
Didn't I hear a news story recently about
an aquarium breaking and sending
sharks out onto the floor??
I absolutely LOVED the colors of
this exhibit!
Beautiful!!!
We got to see a two different feeds in two different exhibits,
where one of the
aquarium workers got into the tank with the
fish.
Ack!
One even posed with us!
J playing with the horseshoe crabs.
The kids really enjoyed seeing the divers in the
tanks with the fish!
We got to pet rays too!
It was a nice little excursion while on our
mini-beach vacation.
Later that day,
we hit the beach again
for another quick visit.
This is more of what our living quarters looked like.
We didn't mind the closeness
and quaintness,
actually made it a LOT easier on me
since I was by myself.
The next day we hit the beach for a little longer.
And the kids got a little wetter this time.
Oh well...
(this was totally NOT posed!)
And this is what daddy calls
"a sugar cookie".
In the military,
one of the ways they "smoked" the recruits
was to have them put on clean uniforms,
then make them go jump in some body of water
then into a sand pit and roll around.
Then go shower and change into another clean uniform.
Daddy remembers these "sugar cookies" well,
and Mr. T has given new meaning to the phrase here!
The long and uncomfortable walk back!
Hahah!!
After shuttling them each into the shower/bath,
praying we would have enough hot water,
I figured they could have dinner & a movie.
Thank goodness for laptops!
And no "TV dinners" tonight,
mommy actually cooked some stuff
using the toaster oven, miniature gas stove
and microwave.
But we did learn
that you cannot run the microwave and the toaster
at the same time.
Took me a couple of times of tripping the breaker
to figure that one out though.
Our final day there,
we hopped in the 2 seater golf cart
and headed to the little diner
on the pier.
I left the littles in their jammies.
Then we walked down the longest pier on the east coast.
We even did a couple of loads of laundry in the stackable unit my
grandmother has in there.
But the dryer didn't work,
so we had to hoof it down to the campground laundry mat
to dry our clothes,
while we played on the little playground across the street.
At the end of the little trip,
I am thankful I didn't wait until someone else could go with us.
We might not have made it.
It also did a lot for my confidence on handling these
four monkeys on a little vacation,
by myself!
They did great!
I did great!
We did great!
Here are a couple short videos I shot of our adventures.
#1 sets up the BEST stiff arm move on #2.
Mr. T is already living up to the "pesky little brother" title!
Haha!
Enjoy!
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