Sunday, August 22, 2010

Beach-cation

Myrtle Beach, South Carolina...

The girls getting ready for their first trip down to "the big water"
We are home, back in Richmond after a wonderful week in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I believe I had mentioned before that this was my first trip to MB (Myrtle Beach), but that Brad's Family has been beaching it there for 30+ years. I believe Brad's Mom said that their first trip was when Brad was 2, so that would make it exactly 30 years. Pretty cool huh? I love traditions like that. We had thought that our "spot" would be the Outer Banks, specifically Corolla, and it likely still will be, but MB was a pleasant surprise. I wasn't too keen on the idea early on, from what I had heard, if you love Corolla you likely won't like MB, but turns out, it was very kid friendly, at least where we stayed, and we had a great time with Brad's Family, it was our first "Family-Vacation" and was the longest stretch of time we have all spent together in the 8 years Brad and I have been an "us".
Olivia running from the waves

Family Vacations mean a lot to me, I love the memories we create and the bonding that happens when you all live together for a week. I love the time the girls get with their Grandparents and their Cousins, not to mention their "Aunt Stan" or "Stannon" (what Olivia calls Stan) and Shannon (she doesn't have her own nickname just yet). We have been fortunate to have a weekend with my Mom's side of the family and then this week with Brad's Family. My Parents spent this weekend in Stratton, Vermont with my Dad's side of the family for a Family Reunion, I was sad to miss it, but we couldn't be in two places at once. It sure has been a busy summer. I should also mention that I missed Kear's Bachelorette Weekend in Atlantic City, which I feel terrible about, but again, can't be in two places at once.

Olivia & Brad
Avery and her PawPaw, they were buddies all week long.
We stayed at Ocean Lakes Campground, which is near Surfside Beach (for those of you familiar with the MB area). We stayed in a 4 bedroom house. Avery bunked in with us and Olivia had her own room, the plan was originally for Olivia to bunk in with us, BUT Avery's room was super close to the Family Room area and we thought she would never sleep with all that commotion, so we switched things up when we got there.  It worked out well, besides the fact that Avery would pop up the minute she woke up and see us sleeping there and instantly want to get out of her Pack n Play...whereas at home, we can let her fuss it out for a few minutes and usually buy ourselves an extra hour or so...she was up most days around 5:30am, some days a little earlier and a few mornings as late as 6:15am or 6:30am.

Sunrise....
And yet again, Sunrise
Avery up and at'em, it was still so dark I had to use the Flash
Sunrise again and again...
Avery bright eyed and bushy tailed on our walk...

 The mornings with Avery, outside of one morning when she screamed her little face off, were actually beautiful. We walked on the beach every morning for at least an hour, I listened to my iPOD mixes, everything from Foxy Brown to the Zac Brown Band, it was very relaxing, I could very much get used to waking up to a walk on the beach with my little Coppertone Baby. The tricky part was walking in the dark, since the sun didn't usually rise until well after 6am and she was up and rearing to go around 5:15am some mornings, but we did our best.

Golf cars were our mode of transportation while inside the Campground
Olivia and Mommy at the "Big Water"
Olivia coined the phrase "Beach-cation" when we got back to Richmond yesterday, she asked me when we were going on our next "Beach-cation", I know she meant, when are we going back to the beach and when are we taking another vacation, but it worked out just perfectly...and lucky for us, the answer is, very, very soon. We will be headed North this time, leaving on Thursday September 2nd for a week in Northfield, with a quick day trip to the Beach with the Walker Family. I can't imagine if I had to tell her "next summer" that just would have crushed my, her dreams.

Avery throwing a fit
Brad & Olivia at the Pool
As for how well I did maintaining my healthy eating...I thought I did pretty well, UNTIL I got in the car to head home yesterday. I think it was the depression of leaving the beach that did it. Sonic for Breakfast, Zaxby's for Lunch and then Don Pepe for Dinner...oh goodness. So all that hard work to avoid the snacks at the beach went out the window, because 10lbs hopped their way back to my behind someway, somehow, so its back to basics for me, gotta drop those Beach Pounds before Labor Day weekend. (PS, I love Zaxby's, thanks for introducing us Megs)

Brad & Olivia hunting for seashells, reminds me of the Easter Egg hunts

She found a good one
Olivia was very nervous around the Ocean at first, but by the end of the week she was much more relaxed and even started asking to go down and play in the water, in fact, it was like pulling teeth to get her out of the water. And her progress in the pool was amazing, she went from holding onto us for dear life, to going  underwater and playing on her own most of the time. It was great to watch her fears ease, we hope she makes some serious progress in her next round of swimming lessons that will start for her on September 11th.

Easily Avery's favorite and most used word is "nack" which means "Snack"...

Bina giving the girls a NACK
Avery kicking back to enjoy her NACK


3 comments:

oneof4dms said...

Great pics of the girls! Glad you all had a nice vacation!

Kearstin said...

We missed you too but it sounded like you had a blast! So glad you guys enjoyed yourselves :)

Jeni said...

Great photos and re-cap Leigh. I'm so jealous of your beach-cation!