We hopped on our Harley's, strapped the babies to our backs, and headed out to Myrtle Beach for BIKE WEEK!
Ha...kidding. It WAS bike week, and we DID go to Myrtle, but only because some wonderful friends gave us the HUGE blessing of letting us crash at their beautiful beach house for a few days.
It was a gorgeous three days and we just relished in the family time together.
Surprisingly, our "throw-himself-face-first-in-the-ocean" boy decided that he did not want to swim in the ocean. In fact, he declared it "scary". It had only been about 6 weeks since he was screaming when we took him OUT of the waves! Oh well, the sand was plenty fun enough and Jonathan and I took turns dipping in the ocean ourselves.
Annalee discovered not only that she still loved the sand, but also that she loved tasting it at every opportunity she had. Shells were particularly good finds to pop in her mouth...
See? Ha! Sandy and sweet.
Relaxing with his
Glamorous.
The littlest digger.
We brought some food with us so that we could have some quick (cheap!) meals and not interrupt our relaxing too much! Annalee has a berry obsession. No joke. We've been picking twice now (strawberries, but she will eat any berry), and I've gotten them from the produce stand, the grocery store, anywhere I can find them that they looked decent. We brought fresh picked to the beach, and they were (of course) the best!
Ahhh memories. Connor's very first trip to the arcade. We spent $4 on tokens and it was the perfect little amount to play some games. We taught him Whac-a-mole...
...he got that one, no problem! Ha! We played my favorite, Skee Ball, but a lot of Connor's balls came bouncing back at us or jumped into other lanes...thankfully the arcade was fairly empty when we went! :)
Duh...bike week. He rode the motorcycle, twice.
We won enough tickets to pick a little prize, but then some nice man that did not care for plastic toys (what? haha) gave us a huge pile of tickets and Connor picked two special things! No matter that one was broken before bedtime...just look at these happy guys!
After the arcade, we went for a treat. Could this night get any better? Connor had a
"Where's MINE, Mom!?"
I shared with Annalee. Blue Bell ice cream...ahhh. Homemade vanilla and peach! I think we loved it equally. Although, Annalee was a little more verbal about her love...
This picture was specially taken for our friends who gave us this great trip! Bike week shirts! :)
Look at my cute starfish...and puppy. Those are some big starfish!
We zipped ourselves right out to the beach each morning. The salty air, cool breeze, refreshing ocean and squishy sand...just loved it!
Buried aliiiiiive!
Annalee got brave and let the waves tickle her for a bit...it was definitely not too warm!
Sandy faced, squishable sweetness.
We did head to the pool a little bit, too! Annalee liked standing and cruising in the shallow part on her own.
Connor liked to shoot the water sprayers...they were tough!
There we go! Big muscles.
Water break.
Can't resist pruny feet.
Snack break. Notice that piece of the arcade toy he was still holding onto...
Okay. We really wanted to get some fresh fish for dinner. MB is pretty commercialized (if you haven't been) and includes a number of restaurants that are (1) very popular/looooong wait times, (2) pretty pricey, and (3) extremely varied in reviews. We knew a couple places that came highly recommended, but were scared that we would have kids melting down if we had to wait forever and didn't want to miss out on other fun things we could fit into our night. So, during nap time, I did some research online and we decided to drive about 25 minutes inland to Conway, SC. There was a place called Ocean Fish Market where you could purchase fresh fish daily, or you could get your traditional, Southern, lightly battered fish, fries, and hushpuppies. That is what we were looking for, folks. We showered and got the kids ready and busted a move out there because it closed at 6:30 for the night.
This was not a dine-in place, but I had read that it was on "the river" and you could eat on picnic tables under big oak trees...sounded good to us! We had just a little trouble finding it, tucked in among back roads, and when we arrived at 6:25, Jonathan ran in to see what was still available. Argh...they were out for the day, but the guy told Jonathan to go through town because "they might still be open at Shelley's. We drove through all the cute little streets of this quaint, historic looking town, and just about gave up when we spotted it. Jonathan ran in again and we got the very last orders of the day! Phew, so worth it. He actually got to talk with the owner (both fish markets are owned by the same family, for over 80 years) and she suggested that we go back down to our original location for a good place to sit outside and eat.
Above us. How can you not love the huge oaks and spanish moss?
Sweet girl had the best seat in the house.
Yeah, they need to learn to turn their "open" sign off...we turned away about 3 more cars that pulled up while we were eating...poor guys.
Our perfect dinner!
Fish faces!
There was a river walk right near the market, so we decided to get a little walking in and enjoy the sights.
Mr. independent. I didn't mention that, though he didn't not want to swim in the ocean, he wanted to swim BY HIMSELF in the pool!
This pic is for Steph and Adam! We couldn't tell if this place was actually up and running or not...but thought you could take it over if you wanted a little warmer weather! :)
Sweet. Doesn't she look delighted? Haha.
The next morning we got the jogger out and went down to the beach for some kite flying! PS...this is not the type of beach you really want to take your stroller on, or jog on in your sneakers...the sand just does not pack down very much. Just in case you were thinking about it! We tried both anyway.
This big guy was beyond excited to fly his Cars kite all by himself!
Oh man, I love these three so much!
The girls.
Ha! It was hot on our last day. Relaxing in the jogger.
Then, Connor got to have his OWN club when we played mini-golf!
Jonathan and I handed off the heavy little baby girl and took some of our swings one-handed. I got 3 (THREE!) hole-in-ones, but in the end, he beat me anyway (surprise surprise). Connor loved getting his ball into the hole at each green, no matter whether he hit it in with the club or just tossed it in by hand. :)
Family selfie at the 18th... :)
We had a piece of leftover bread, so we fed the ducks and geese on our way out. Not sure you are supposed to do that, but it was pretty obvious that these birds are fed often, they would walk straight up to you!
We are so thankful for having these few days of family time together, we didn't want to leave! Thank you to our awesome friends for making it happen, we love you guys!
