Myrtle Beach 09 ~

Our family vacation to Myrtle Beach

Beach Trip . . . . . Diary

Friday: We arrived about 3pm and checked into our condo. It was raining that day, so we didn't hit the beach right away. Instead, we took the kids to California Pizza Kitchen and then to get haircuts. Dakoda had been asking for a Mohawk, so we agreed to let him try that for the summer before he starts Kindergarten in August. Hopefully it will be a short lived phase. :) After dinner we went to Walmart to get some food and drinks for our vacation.

Saturday: It was raining again, and only 83 degrees ... so instead of the beach, we went to Aligator Adventure to see the largest Aligator alive in captivity in the US. He sure was huge! We watched as the care takers fed him huge steaks inside of his cage. He snapped them up!! Afterwards, we checked out the large turtles and the fish and birds they had there. It was really cool. We had a great time. After Aligator Adventure we went shopping over at Market Commons (a new outside shopping center in Myrtle Beach), and took the kids to see a movie there. We saw "UP, in 3D". It was so cute! We all thought it was really funny and sweet. Even better, at the new theatre they had awesome leather rocking chair seats. This sure did make the movie so comfortable. For dinner that night we went to the Melting Pot. Yummy! Afterwards, we were tired from our busy day, and stuffed from dinner ... but that didn't stop us from checking out the pool and spas back at the resort. It was so much fun. There was a big waterfall that poured into the deep end of one of the pools. The kids loved playing underneath it. Dennis and I relaxed, got a drink and watched them spash around until bedtime.

Sunday: Finally ... Sunny and 85 degrees. Perfect for the beach. Off we went, to the beach for the first half of the day. For dinner we went to Margaritaville where they had lots of fun activities for the kids. They rode some rides, and also experienced the bungy trampoline for the first time. Their smiling faces said it all. At dinner they got to hold live parrots as we had a family photo taken. Later, we all got airbrushed tattoos and then went for ice cream at Coldstone creamery. It was a fun day!

Monday: It was sunny and 85 again ... so to the beach we went. The kids built sand castles as Dennis and I relaxed. He dozed off as I read my current book (ok, I'll admit it ... it's Tori Spellings book. I used to watch 90210 and thought it might be entertaining. It really was. Seems she really had to work hard to earn her own money and wasn't just handed money from her rich Daddy) .... but enough about that, back to our day. For Dinner that night we had pizza and then took the kids to Toys R us because they had a gift certificate from their b-days (Thanks Miss Kim). They each got some fun new beach toys and new totes to carry the shells we all were collecting each day while down there. That night we listened at the pool area as live musicians played and sang. It was awesome! Afterwards we met the singers. The lady who sang that night told me about her boyfriend suffering with cancer. It was sad to hear, but she was optimistic and had really positive energy. We wished her well after chatting for a while and called it a day.

Tuesday: Sunny and 90 degrees! Whoo Hoo. :) We went to the beach, then to Fudruckers to eat, then back to the pool for a couple of hours. We met a bunch of people that were also vacationing that week and talked as the kids played.

Wednesday: Sunny and 88 degrees. We met Adrienne and Halila at Myrtle Waves (we had 4 free passes, thank God) for the day. It was so much fun. The wave pool was really warm, and the water slides were a ton of fun ... so the kids said. I joined them on the kiddie slides (with way fewer stairs to climb), and hung out at the wavepool when they did the big huge slides. They loved all of them. Later, we went to the lazy river before heading back to our pool to join in the festivities going on there. It was Karaoke / dance contest night. Oh boy! Of course Dennis and I got up there. It was fun. We sang Total Eclipse of the Heart (One of our favorites). Joshua and Halila won the dance contest. It was the "chicken dance". They were adorable! Their prizes were free drinks. Joshua considered buying Mommy a margarita but opted for a cranberry juice instead. That was fine by me. :)

Thursday: Sunny, 88 degrees again. It was perfect weather! We went to the beach, and met Adrienne and Halila there for a while before all going to Damons for lunch. Later, we parted ways. They went home, and we went out for some more fun. It was Nascar Speedway day. The kids and us raced around the tracks like pros. It was really hot there though, being away from the beach a few miles. The guys all did rock climbing as I took photos. It was neat.

Friday: Sunny, 90 degrees . . . We had hoped it would be raining for our drive home - we were all sad to leave the beach, but grateful we got to go again this year. We will definately make it an annual family tradition as it's one of our favorite places to go. We could NOT WAIT to see Bella though!!! When we arrived at The Barking Lot to pick her up, she looked smaller than we remembered. She may not have eaten like normal while we were away, we are not sure. Poor puppy missed us too. She didn't know who to greet first as the lady let her out of the cage. She squiggled and wiggled all over the place. :) LOL ... when we got home she ran (zip, zip, zip) all around the house sniffing and wiggling in each room as if to say "yep, this is my house ... yippee skippy". She was elated to put it midly. She ran so fast, stopping only to nip our toes. YOUCH Bella! Ok, we can forgive her for that - afterall, she is our super pup.

It was the best family trip ever! The boys were exhausted, and so were we. Dennis had agreed to play poker Friday night with his guy friends ... but had to cancel as they were starting at 8:30 pm and he was ASLEEP at 8:30 pm. Saturday was Baseball in the early morning for him, so he surely needed his rest. Me, it was time to do the laundry and clean out he cooler. Oh fun.

The end.