Myrtle Beach, South Carolina June 5-19

I'm not joking when I say there are probably over 50 pictures in this post - but it's for my journal keeping. We were there for 2 weeks - so I had plenty more than this. We had such a fun time. How can you not have fun at the beach? The first week was supposed to be a girl's week but my sister, Melinda, & I were the only sisters who went. My parents were also there & some cousins. Melinda & I shared a beach house that was really cute but way in the back - which was fine because you drive golf carts. But it stunk like a dead animal occassionally!! We thought it would be all relaxing but it was hard with us 2 & 4 kids under age 5. Kelly definitely had the vacation that week - not me.

The second week, Kelly flew in along with Russ, Suz, Boston & Phoenix. & Larissa, Brian, Gentri & Briliegh & Brain's mom & her friend. We shared a beach house with Russ's fam & Melinda's. & we couldn't beat the amazing view. We were only 2 houses back & loved it. Lige & Shelli joined us - but decided to get their own beach house - just a few rows behind us.

We were able to do lots. A few high lights were:

Ezra wrecking our golf cart into my parents truck four feet in front of him. He jumped on as fast as he could, didn't even sit down & just slammed his foot on the accelerator pedal. Melinda was gracious enough to leave the key on so it would go;) It slammed right into my parents truck, throwing Ezra off & got stuck under the hitch. Don't worry, I was sitting right on the back, not even paying attention until it started going & Adde was in the front. $800 worth of damages!!


We were able to visit a rice plantation. I LOVE history & visiting it. It was fun to see & spend that time with my sisters. We went to a darling little town on the drive back, Georgetown, & ate at a cute cafe & saw the cute streets. Please can I live there?

Ripley's Aquarium was a fav of my kids. They pretend in the pool now that there are sharks, stingrays, eels & all sorts of fish in it.

Lots of golf cart rides & ice cream. I'm pretty sure I gained 20 pounds with our GINORMOUS 2 scoops of yummy Edy's ice cream every night. Heaven.

Let's just say we ate fine. Lots of yummy & delicious foods. But that's the best part about trips, right?

My parents watched the kids one night so all us adults could go out. We drove like 10 hours, passing plenty of yummy looking restaurants, to go to ribsribsribs...pretty sure any of the other restaurants along the way would have been fine. But we were lucky enough to hang out at Nascar in the hot heat & humidity & pay overpriced tickets for one ride. But don't worry - Russ slipped the kid $5 to let us ride for a few extra minutes longer.


The kids at Vegas airport waiting, anxiously to get on. After all her excitement, Adde fell asleep before we took off & woke up after we landed. Ezra, on the other hand, was too excited too sleep & didn't fall asleep until 1 1/2 hours into the flight then he was out. They were great travelers & we got to meet Melinda & the twins at the Atlanta airport! Fantastic
Right as we got there, we dropped our bags, went grocery shopping & were off to the beach. The kids could hardly wait. Here's the buckets/cat in the hats???who knows where that came from

Adde was in heaven. She was such a beach bum & had no fear of that water.

Melinda with Ryder & Peyton

me & little Adde Jane

Seriously - I love this picture. This little girl body boarded the entire time we were at the beach. Literally hours. She would go out by herself if I was watching Ezra on the sand. She would kick out there, turn around & catch a wave & when she was in - she would go up on her belly like a seal. It was nice once Kelly was there because he would be out with her constantly & playing with her.

Our cute, but stinky first beach house.

Kids on porch of our first beach house.

Matt would catch the kids hermit crabs. They loved it & saved them in their buckets along with little minnows.

Kaitlyn & Adde finding more hermit crabs

Pretty excited for the second week for everyone to join us. Here's Phoenix chubbers. Oh how I love his fat & waddle walk

Can never get enough of this

Add & Ez with Lige, Liam & Remy in back

Ryder is my little sidekick. I loved it - he would find me in the room, come up & make sure we had a good snuggle. Who could not love those curly locks. I love the twins voices & loved being able to get to know them better. I'm sad to not live by them.

The reunion. Me & a fav. cousin, Mary Ellen. We have plenty of good stories.

Mary Ellen is a fabulous photographer - keeping our picture centered and all:)

We loved going back to the beach at dusk because hardly anyone was there & the waves were usually a lot bigger - perfect for more body boarding. Lige decided to bury the kids one evening.

So Larissa decided to bury the girls in mermaids. Don't worry - Ryder & Peyton had mermaid tails too.

Our date night

our besties: Lige & Shelli

Greg & Melinda (my sis)

Brian & Larissa (my sis)

Russ (my bro) & Suz

& Melinda's $20 flag.

at the rice plantation in Hopsewee, about 45 min. from Myrtle Beach. One of the slave's quarters.

Suz, me, Larissa, Gentri (love her face in this picture), mom, Sherry & Myrna. Melinda was thoughtfully taking our pic

the plantation home. People actually still live in it but allow tours. It's pretty awesome it was built sometime around 1670 & has never been altered or added on to except for modernizing it with electricity & water.

Lige & Shelli found out for a father's day gift that they are having another girl!!! Congrats!! So excited for them. Liam wasn't too thrilled about another sister. I felt so bad but it was kinda funny. Remy wasn't too interested - just happy to be alive.

Ripley's Aquarium. The kids getting attacked by a jelly fish

Love little Remy June...too cute

Lige & Adde

After the aquarium, we walked over to the Broadway & thought we would do some shopping until we melted from the humidity. We didn't last too long. Enough to get a picture with an awesome Scarlet Macaw though (thanks Go Diego Go)

a family picture, sweating in all our glory

Of course they had to have a little carnival there & of course my kids had to go on the rides. It was like $4 for one ride per child. What? The things we do for these sweet kiddles

Instead of something aquariumish (don't worry made that word up), Ezra picks a gun. He says it his pirate gun. Before that, he wanted a sword. What about a shark tooth, or stuffed flounder or what not? No, a gun. He walked around with the gun in his pants around Broadway. Pretty funny

Thanks to Adde, we have this amazing picture of Boston forever. She loves to get on my camera & take a million pictures of random things. One day I'll do a post of all the things she's taken of

Last day at the beach.

Adde was not happy we brought her out of the water to take a picture with all of us. I'd be mad too.

Austin was amazing at building the trench around the sand castle so the tide wouldn't take it away. He was yelling at all of us, including the little 2 yr olds to get over there and help. He was so freakin funny yelling - anyone. dig. dig. helpMy little buddies, Ryder (with the awesome pirate eye) & Peyton

Lige, Kelly & Russ floating with the kids

Remy & Adde sportin their matching suits

A view from our deck with some lovely people, Russ & Suz