Every year, a few times a year, we try to make it to our house in Myrtle Beach, SC. Now that the boys are both in Jr High, it's hard for them to miss school. (Cayden could care less about missing school, but it literally gives Taylor panic attacks!) This year we decided to just bite the bullet and take them during Labor Day week. Hurricane Irene had just passed and we wanted to make sure the house was okay.
Our home is in a community called Ocean Lakes, and the "tourist" crowd really dies out on Labor Day. We love to go when it isn't as crowded on the beach and the roads!
We rent our home year round, so if anyone is interested in spending some fun family time in Myrtle Beach, here's the
link.
Anyway, the house is built on stilts. The driveway is under the house. In this pic, we are loading the golf cart to go to the beach. Our house is about one block from the beach. Inside Ocean Lakes, you drive golf carts around. It's super fun for the kids to "drag" the main road at night. However, I found that some of those southern girls are quite forward....
This is a scene you never want to see on a beach!! The lifeguard whistled and waved for everyone to get out of the ocean. A big school of fish was swimming by. When that happens, sharks are sure to be there too. We didn't see any sharks, but there were three dolphins swimming along side.
The first few days, the ocean was rough because Hurricane Katina was heading east up the Atlantic. I wouldn't let the kids go out too far because there was a little bit of a rip current.
Hannah always complains before we go to the beach that she doesn't like to go because she gets so sandy. Well, the reason she is always full of sand is because she is like a fish playing in the surf. She will stay in there for more than an hour at a time, riding the waves and jumping over them. She's crazy!
Cayden will play in the ocean for a while, but he is mostly always found on the beach digging some sort of hole, castle, or fort. He dug for hours every day! Then, he would complain that his back hurt. Ummm, ya think! :) He's so cute!
We played a lot of Bocce Ball while we were there this year. The kids are pretty good with it and of course, Jason is always up for some good competition!
I always sit in the surf in a chair and watch the waves, or the kids if they're in the waves. It is so relaxing! I love the sound of the ocean and to just stare out and marvel at how beautiful our Earth is. It's a time of self reflection and gratitude for me.
Anyone who knows me well knows that I am allergic to the sun! It's so unfair. I have skin that never burns, just browns, browns, browns. But, if I'm in the sun for more than one day in a row, I break out in a sun rash. It is a terribly itchy, red welt rash that ruins the rest of my days in the sun. If the sun shines on the rash, it burns, stings, and itches! I hate it.
We'll rather than miss out on the sun and beach, I find solutions! This year the rash was worst on my chest and shoulders, so I came up with my own little tent. I may look a little dorky, but it keeps me on the beach.
I put this pic that Hannah took of me and Jason in this post to show off how HOT my husband is! He'd be super embarrassed if he knew it was on here, but I can't resist showing him off!
Hannah's favorite beach sport this year was, what we like to call, Beach Pong. She got the hang of it pretty quickly and wanted to play it with Jason every day. It was really cute!
We decided to take the kids to a college football game on Saturday. We drove to Chapel Hill, NC, to watch the NC Tar Heels play. They aren't as know for their football as they are for their basketball, but it was a fun experience for the kids to see the college campus and experience the beautiful drive there. NC won the game, but they didn't look good doing it! Yikes.
Of course, we had to have stadium hotdogs...
We had a blast. This was the first time we've gone to the beach house without guests. I worried that we'd get bored with each other, but we loved it. The kids are already asking when we are going back!
