Myrtle Beach State Park, Surfside Beach, River City Cafe, and the Aquarium

Busy is the one word that I think accurately describes today. We headed out a little after 8 this morning to hit the Myrtle Beach State Park. We took a walk out on the pier, and then we walked the beach. We thought we would get a little video shot of Caden putting his feet in the water. I was paying close enough attention to realize that a larger than I thought wave was coming up, so he ended up getting a little wet. He wasn't too happy with Mama. Here are some pics from the trip.



After that we headed back to the house to say goodbye to Tony, Maren, and Esther. They had a flight out of Myrtle Beach International Airport at noon. We then took one last trip to Surfside Beach with Andrew, Nicole, and Maddie. The waves were pretty rough. Ryan attempted to ride the boogie board. Caden, believe it or not, still hated the water. This time we got a video of him. Don't forget to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to stop the music if you would like to hear the video. Here it is:



We then hit River City Cafe to have a quick bite to eat. Well...it wasn't quick, but it was pretty tasty. Ryan and I both ordered grouper sandwiches. We then took some family shots by the water. Caden made him self right at home, and he propped his foot up just like he always does.


After lunch Ryan, Caden, and I headed to Ripley's Aquarium. Caden was sleeping for quite a bit of it, but after he woke up he seemed to enjoy it. I was so irritated because I forgot to charge the battery in the camera last night. So we only got a few pics in the beginning before the battery died. Ryan got a few on his phone, but the lighting wasn't very good.

This is a picture of a saw fish that swam over us as we walked through the tunnel. Pretty cool!

Right now I am sitting with Caden at the dining room table at the house. Ryan is taking an hour nap, I will then take an hour nap, we will eat dinner, and then we will hit the road!

Pawleys Island and walking the beach

We found a place called Pawleys Island (no, there is not an apostrophe in the name) on the Internet, so the Josephs and Ames families decided to hit the shops there. We found a few good things. We had lunch at a pretty good place. I think it was called the High Hammock. I got a blue crab salad and Ryan got a flounder sandwich. We figure we should eat as much seafood as we can while we are here. Here is a pic of Caden wearing his new bib we bought today, and also a cute pic of the Josephs fam.



I was able to find the scrapbook store that was there. I was very disappointed. They had some cute sheets of paper, but they mostly had cut outs of the names of the area beaches. Things I can create using my Cricut. I bought Nicole a piece of paper that has jelly fish on it since she and Andrew both were stung the other day. That was really the find I had.

The highlight of the day for me was walking on the beach tonight to find shells. Caden was a happy camper this time at the beach; he didn't have to go in the water. Well, just his feet. I got an awesome shot of both Daddy and Caden's foot. I love it. I think I will print it in black and white.


We also saw a dead eel on the beach. Pam would have loved it. As we continued walking I tried to mentally keep track of where it was. I was freaking out that the tide was going to bring it back out to the water and then push it onto my leg. Yuck! Here it is:


We plan to have a pretty filled day tomorrow. We are going to hit Myrtle Beach State Park around 8 to put our feet in the Myrtle Beach. Since we are this close we figure we should put our feet in. Then we are going to head back to see the Zabels off around 10ish. Then we will hit the Surfside Beach here until lunch time, eat at a little restaurant across the state from our house, and then head to the Ripley's Aquarium after lunch. We will be heading home after dinner so we can drive through the night again for Caden. I will see if I can get a blog update in before we leave.

I will leave you will a cute video clip of Caden. In order to hear it without the music playing, you need to scroll down all the way to the bottom of the page and pause the music. Caden thought it was pretty funny when I ran at him after Ryan had put him in his pajamas. I always love it when he laughs.

Myrtle Beach, Scrapping at the Beach, the Beach

Today we decided to go a little back in time and headed down to downtown Myrtle Beach. There were a lot of old hotels and some shopping. It was incredibly hot. The most exciting part was when we passed an arcade that had the biggest crane game I have ever seen. Ryan took a pic to show:


After we walked for awhile we headed home for lunch. As soon as the kiddos were asleep Nicole and I ventured out to find Scrapping at the Beach. After Nicole made a U-Turn in front of a cop (no, she didn't get pulled over...whew!), we found the shop. Is it weird that I start to get a little giddy when I enter a new scrapbook store? Especially privately owned ones. It was a pretty small store, but they had some decent paper. I also bought three transparency scrap sheets that were cute. Here are some pics of a couple of sheets of paper and two of the transparencies I got.




I know we didn't go to the aquarium yet, but we plan to go tomorrow or Friday. I was planning ahead. These purchases should make for a few pretty easy and cute layouts.

Of course after we got back to the house we had to go to the beach. You would think at this point Caden would be getting used to the water...nope. You will notice he is still not liking it.

Here he is mad that Ryan let the water splash him.

He doesn't mind sitting in the sand though. Especially with Mads.

Yum...sand!

I also tried to get Caden's footprints in the sand. This was the best I could get. If you look carefully you can see the two prints above his name.



Ryan, Tony, and Andrew threw a football around for awhile. It was hard to get decent pics since they were out a decent ways.



For dinner then Ryan grilled some chicken and basted it with his own barbecue sauce. Yum!

We worked on cleaning the house a little tonight, too. Since there is sand everywhere, we have noticed there are fleas. That really grosses me out, but I keep reminding myself they are sand fleas. That somehow doesn't make me feel any better. I will be washing EVERYTHING Friday before we leave. We don't need to bring any friends home with us.

I will leave you with a pic that Stephanie took of Ryan. Hil...ar...ious!

More beach time, Civil War museum, no scrapbook store

This morning we hit the beach with the little man. Ryan was pretty creative with the shells. Here is his masterpiece:


Caden is also still pretty unsure about the water. Ryan isn't giving up:




He did a little better yesterday. He discovered that sand doesn't taste that bad! These are some pics from after I posted.

Caden and Mads spending some quality time together.

Look at those lips!

Here is also a picture of a man rocking some cut off shorts. Also notice the beverage he is carrying in the brown bag. Classy...


We went back to the Broadway Shops to find a scrapbook store that was listed as being there. It wasn't. I didn't get too discouraged because we had the address for another one. I even called to make sure they were there. It was a let down though, because they really didn't have much. I was looking for some cool paper, or stickers that had to do with Myrtle Beach. Nothing. I left without buying anything. When we got home Stephanie told me that the store from the Broadway Shops moved, and she found it. I plan to hit that store tomorrow. She said they have some unique papers, so I'm pumped!

We also found a South Carolina Civil War museum, so Ryan and I took Caden there. Here are a couple pics:




It was a free museum. There were some interesting items there. Caden seemed to like the guns, as you can see from his expression.

We also stopped at a Flea Market. We didn't get anything there. It was pretty junky and smelled like a porta potty.

It was a pretty filled day! Stay tuned for exciting scrapbook news tomorrow...I hope.

Broadway Shops, Planet Hollywood, and Surfside Beach Pier

I'm happy to report that the headache went away. I guess the ibuprofen and sleep helped. We decided to head to the Broadway Shops today. It is a cute little shopping center in Myrtle Beach. Andrew was very excited to go because there is the only KISS coffeehouse there. And since he is basically a KISS freak, it was exactly his cup of tea... or coffee. Ryan got into it too. Here is a pic of him with his latte.


After the coffeehouse we walked around the shops. I found a cute book for Caden in one of the shops, and he decided he need to "read" it right away.



Alex and Caden also posed as Ben and Jerry. Ice cream never looked so cute!




Ryan and Caden also enjoyed taking in the view of some very hungry fish. I know there are a lot of ducks, but if you look closely you will see the fish as well.





Then we decided we were pretty hungry. Since there are so many of us, and so many different restaurants were there, we decided to break for lunch. Ryan, Caden, and I went to Planet Hollywood. The food was okay, but our waitress was very nice. Here is Caden posing my the Power Ranger costumes. I figured Danny would enjoy this shot since he used to be obsessed with the show.



We then headed back to the house for afternoon naps. Ryan, Caden, and I took a walk down to the pier. Here's a pic:


We will be eating here at the house tonight and just relaxing. Tomorrow we plan to hit the beach again since the weather should be nice.

Bye!

Beach time

Today was a pretty rainy and stormy day, but we lucked out this morning. It was sunny and hot this morning, so we headed to the beach. Caden got pretty upset with me when I put him down next to me on the sand so that the water would hit us. As soon as he felt the water he started to cry. It took a little while before he would go back. There was a spot in the sand farther away from the ocean where there was some water. Most of the time the kids played there. Here are some pics:

Here is Caden still a little unsure about the sand.

Tony and Esther chillin'

Gabe and Alex

Mads busy at work digging.

The rest of the afternoon was somewhat lazy since it was rainy and a Sunday. Many things are closed today, so we hung out at the house. I spent most of the time on the front porch watching a storm and laughing as people ran to their cars.

For dinner we headed to a seafood buffet that had over 130 different items. I attempted to try a little of everything. I even tried an oyster again. Still don't like them. I ate some crab legs, of course, but then Caden got pretty fussy. I walked around the restaurant quite a few times with him. They had "real" mermaids at the front of the restaurant, so Caden and I watched them a bit. It was two girls in bikini tops and a costume mermaid tail. They didn't do too much. Seemed like a pretty easy job to me.

I didn't take pics of the place because I realized I could just put the link to the website that shows it. Here it is:http://www.seasiderentalsonline.com/bre/properties/Portobello-III-0012/

I will have to take some pics of the view from the back balcony.

I am currently sitting on the bed in our room. Caden is sleeping, which is good since he didn't really nap that much today. I plan to take some Ibuprofen for a headache that I have, and then hit the sack. I am hoping I feel better tomorrow. The headache hit me after dinner, and my head is just throbbing. Yuck!

Night!