Myrtle Beach 2011

On July 15th, we woke up early and hit the road for vacation. That day we drove from Olathe to Augusta, GA. We checked out the Arch,

Took a wrong turn and passed the AB Brewery

Maddox enjoyed going over big bridges

We got into Augusta late, around 10. We were happy to be out of the car

Maddox enjoyed his big bed

Sage wanted to join the action

On Saturday, we went to breakfast and then finished the drive to Pawley's Island. We checked into our house around 4:30 and headed to the beach. Neither one of the kids had any interest in standing on the sand or in the water.

To warm Maddox up to sand, we took some up to the deck of the house and let him play there.

Sage joined in on the fun, mainly to try to eat shells

We kept trying to get Maddox to try out the sand and he was not interested. Finally, I had to just put him down and not pick him back up. He quickly realized that it was fine and started to play. Here he is with Uncle Ryan, digging a hole.

The next day we met the Krieg's for lunch. Theresa and Sage hung out.

Sage finally warmed up to the sand

and the water

Maddox was getting more brave too. He would run in the water then run away from the waves

I tried to ride a kick board. It seemed like it would be somewhat easy, since all the kids around us were doing it. It wasn't easy at all. At least I didn't fall on my face.

In the evenings, Maddox really liked playing games on Chris' iPad

One day, Ryan and Kristin buried me in the sand. Maddox did not like this, he quickly dug me out.

Hey Single Ladies...

Sage liked climbing around on the furniture in the living room

Maddox and I showed off our cool hats

One night, we went to a show at the Carolina Opry. Maddox LOVED it. He had the best time and talked about it the rest of the trip. We like the clogging dance group the best. He tries to imitate them. Sage liked it too.

This was our first year with a beach front house. We are usually on the second or third row so this was great, especially with kids that needed to go back and forth more frequently. Five years ago Elizabeth, Steve and Jennifer had a conversastion about the big beautiful yellow house (on the right) that they watched being built. Jennifer's dream since that house was built was to stay in it at least one time. During that conversation, Steve said, "We'll stay there in five years." (In five years he would be done paying for college tuition). One problem, big yellow doesn't rent anymore. So we happily settled for the (6 bedroom) "shack" next to it. 

The night before Elizabeth went back home, we all got dressed up in Navy Blue and White and took some family pictures.

Guess who didn't get the memo about the dress code. Poor Nanny!

Nanny and some of her Grandkids and Great Grandkids

The Kriegs got in on the picture fun!

By far, the sexiest were of:

Paul looking for the weight room and

Ryan relaxing on the beach

The next day, it was back to fun in the sun. Nanny ventured to the end of the deck

Maddox had fun playing with the hose

Maddox was really interested in "diggers" little crustacheans that get washed on shore then dig into the sand

Toward the end of the week, Maddox and Sage got brave and let us take them past the waves into the calmer part of the ocean.

We had another round of family pics

Maddox played with the hose some more

On the 23rd, we got up early in the morning and headed home. We initially planned on driving straight through but after the long trip down, decided we should stop in St. Louis. It was a good plan, we were exhausted.