Summer Beach Trip... um, in the fall...

We're back!

We actually pulled in the driveway Saturday evening, but I'm kind of on a blog hiatus right now. I want to blog. It's just that there are way too many other things that need to be done first/instead. I was actually super impressed with myself. I got us all unpacked and organized (mostly) Saturday night. Brad thought I was a little loony, I think, for rushing the process. But I know us. Life was going to resume on Monday, and I was going to lose Brad (as a helper). So I took total advantage of the fact that he could watch Noah while I did laundry, put things away, and piled up the suitcases to go back in the attic.

But even though things are all washed and back to normal, I still have a lot that needs to be done around here. And it's a little hard when I'm glued to the computer screen (also hard to be an effective parent when glued to said screen).

So anyways...

The beach.

Our view.

 Before I get to ANY of the details of the trip, I need to give a major shout-out to my parents. We were able to stay in a beautiful 4-bedroom/4-bathroom condo, complete with dining room, oceanfront balcony, granite countertops... pretty lavish stuff... right up my mother's alley. We stayed there for free. In fact, the only thing we paid for was a few grocery items and any "extras" we did (like Putt-Putt). Everything else, totally free. They're awesome. There's no way we'd be able to go at all without them (other than Kiawah, of course, which my dad lets us use, but it's been rented out lately).

We got down there Sunday evening. Noah did really well traveling, even though he was totally squished. Unfortunately, he didn't sleep as long as we'd hoped, and he was bored. So we stopped by Target in Florence to pick up a car charger for Brad's laptop. We had gotten Noah a DVD of Curious George episodes. Brad set up his laptop in the car for Noah to watch the rest of the way. It lasted exactly 2 hours. He was an angel. Thank you, Curious George.

This was Noah's first actual beach trip. He's been to Kiawah, but that was this past January when it was freeeeezing, so needless to say, there was no playing in the sand that time.
Brad and I were so eager to see what he'd do. It's actually kind of fun that we waited this long to introduce him to it. He's old enough to actually have a real reaction.

He was fascinated.
Noah has this compulsive need to sort things... food, toys, whatever.

Y'all, he tried to organize the beach.
He literally would grab a hand full of sand, look at it, then decide where it needed to go (to his right or to his left). I'm not sure what his qualifications are for how it gets sorted, but I don't guess that's for us to know. :)
And then he did what just about every baby does... ate it.
It seemed that the more we protested, the tastier it looked (things don't change much as we grow, huh?).

Apart from the oh-so-yummy sand, he really enjoyed having free reign to crawl to his little heart's content. He wore his little chubby self out.

As for the ocean, he gave it a try. He thought it was funny that it chased him as he crawled away. But actually being in it was a different story. He tolerated it, but I think the feel of it pulling him towards the sea freaked him out a little. Not to mention that quicksand effect.

(please ignore my pastiness... and the bruise on my leg.)

So he was happy to stick with the sand and seashells. He liked tasting those too. You'd think we never fed the kid.
It worked out well for Madison that we got to come. Her best friend always comes with her to the beach. It's a tradition. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to go this time. Madison was devastated, and while there was a lot of texting going on throughout the trip between the two, Madison was still able to have a blast with us. We took her along with us to every fun thing we did.
Noah also loves his Aunt Madison. She's his buddy. She's so good with him, and it's fun to watch them interact.

The place we stayed at had an indoor pool just for little guys. It was about a foot deep and had water spouts, water falls, and little fountains. It was big hit for Noah.

Noah made a friend while he was there. His name was Asher. Little Asher has DS. He was the cutest little guy. He's two years old, about the same size as Noah, and is also still learning how to walk. They were pretty cute together.

Swimming always wears you out...

Everyone knows that you can't go to Myrtle Beach without playing Putt-Putt. So we took Madison to the BEST Putt-Putt course around. It's located across the street from where the Pavilion used to be (ahem... which is now a useless piece of grassy land just sitting there serving no purpose...), and it's awesome. It's multi-leveled, complete with waterfalls and pipes and crazy hills. Even Noah stayed entertained, but that's probably due to the fact that he doesn't walk yet, so we had to push his stroller through all kinds of rough terrain. And take the elevator a few times. His daddy is also super happy about the fact that Noah really liked the golf club. He dragged it along with him the entire time.

One "extra" that we thankfully didn't have to pay for was golf. Myrtle Beach is a major golf city, and since my stepdad and hubby both love playing (and this was a birthday trip for my stepdad as well), they got to go twice. Brad really needed this trip. He needed a chance to get away and not think about life for awhile. The first day they went, Brad rushed out without any sunblock or a hat, so he came back with a mild burn. It wasn't too bad, but the issue with Brad's sunburns isn't neccesarily the pain. It's the itch. He's actually allergic to the sun, so when he gets burned, he also gets sun poisoning every time. He actually went to the ER once for it. He says it's like it itches underneath his skin. It gives me chills thinking about it. Fortunately, it wasn't that bad. And he definitely remembered the sunblock the second time around.

Also great at Myrtle Beach... the shopping!!

My little sister is the queen of bargain hunting. She got it from her grandma who was somehow able to shop at Walmart and walk around looking like she only shopped at Talbots. It's amazing.

Anyway, our favorite shops are found at Barefoot Landing (the Christmas store!!) and the Tanger Outlet mall.

my husband and his sense of humor.

Noah's not so keen on the whole Halloween idea either. :)

my mom with her girls (and Noah)... yes, I know. we all were blessed with some fantastic booties. lol.

I'm a big sucker for girly things like china and crystal. I don't own that much of it, but I love it. They have a Lenox outlet down there, and I loooove going in there every time. It gets harder and harder to walk out empty handed. Turns out, everything in the store was 50% off the original *outlet* price. And what just about killed me was walking out without this set:

I know you can't really see it, but the detail matches my china, Opal Innocence...

...and yes, we actually do eat off of them occasionally. I'm not about to have pretty china and not use it.

The reason for this particular pattern? Opal is my birthstone, the pattern matched my wedding gown, and it's just

so darn pretty. Elegant and understated. Ok, I'll stop rambling on about my china now.

And look how cute these little guys are!!...

Anyway, when it all comes down to it, I suppose it's more important to pay our mortgage than to have cute little porcelain owls on the table.

We did, however, buy Noah his first set of shoes. They're so cute. We went by the Stride Rite outlet and had his feet measured. Originally, we'd had them measured at a Rack Room, but we figured she got it wrong. The lady there said he was a 5 or 5 1/2. The lady at Stride Rite was aMAZing. She measured him and told us that he was a 6, to be safe, a 6 1/2, and he has a wide foot. So she suggested we get a 6 1/2 extra wide. The problem is that his little feet are so chubby at the top that it smashes his chub and hurts him. Poor baby. He has since worn his new sneakers and seems to like them.

Oh, and did I mention, we got two pair for $20. At Stride Rite. How awesome is that.

We had already checked the weather forecast and knew it was scheduled to rain on Thursday. So we planned to go to the aquarium. I'd like for our little family trips to have something educational in them (and fun. no reason to make learning a drag). Noah LOVED it. They had a little area where you could pet the sting rays. They were so cute! Noah didn't really want to touch them, but we walked down to where you could see them swimming under water. They would swim right up to the window, and Noah would giggle hysterically. It was the cutest thing. Nothing else in that place made him laugh like that. So we bought him a stuffed sting ray. It was only like $7, and he likes it a lot. I guess it was more for our memories than his. Totally worth it. :)

They had some of the most incredible creatures. The piranhas were the creepiest. They didn't move. Those things freak me out more than sharks.

See that white thing on the bottom right corner? Yeah. Apparently, he was the loser of the crowd.

Or someone forgot to feed them. Either way, even a piranha can't trust piranhas. Freaky stuff.

(doesn't it look like a scene from The Little Mermaid?)

Noah's favorites.

a sea dragon.

We also went out for mine and Art's birthdays. His is 3 days after mine, so we went to an old Myrtle Beach favorite... the Flamingo Grill. That place has been in business for like 30+ years (my dad was shocked to hear it was still open). Their food is always amazing. I got salmon oscar (grilled salmon with crabmeat, asparagus, snow peas, and garlic mashed potatoes... SO good).

All in all, it was a perfect trip. My only complaint: nobody had changing stations. Where are all of these moms changing their babies at?? Poor kid had to get changed in the car a few times. Other than that, it was incredible. Can't wait till next year.

Phew! That took me 3 days to finish! Still catching up on the reading, but I hope everyone had a great week!