Myrtle Beach Trip

This September we took a trip to Myrtle Beach with my in-laws. My brother-in-law Ike is friends with a family who owns a condo down there and they gave us a really good deal. We only had to pay the cleaning fee and when we split it amongst the three families, it was really cheap. So the kids and I headed down on Wednesday morning with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Em and Uncle Ike. Lucas and Uncle Leif had to work so they came down for the weekend. It was a FANTASTIC trip. Seriously probably the best vacation I have had in years. It was truly relaxing. Every time I have gone somewhere in the last five years it has been to visit family. I'm not saying I don't have fun visiting my family, I love them and love seeing them. But it is always filled with running from place to place and I usually wind up needing a vacation from my vacation. This time we didn't have to go anywhere. The beach was literally five minutes away and was gorgeous, the best beach I've ever been to. The weather was perfect not too hot but still warm enough for the beach. We hung out during the day, either went to the beach or the boardwalk. At night we would just enjoy spending time together talking or playing games. My in-laws are all really, really good with my kids. Ayla would get up in the morning and go crawl in bed with Grandma and Grandpa and they loved it as much as her. Leif is really good with Ayla as well. He plays with her all the time and is a constant source of entertainment for her. I think that Leif might have taken over the top spot of "favorite person" from Grandpa in Ayla's eyes. Uncle Ike and Aunt Em are expecting a baby so they were really into Caiden. I think they were practicing and they did a really good job with him. It was fun to watch them with Caiden. They would really get a kick out of him. It was very nice for me to have a week with all of these other adults around to help take care of my kids. Not that I don't love my kids and relish my time with them. I do, but it was nice to be able to share them with others who enjoyed them as much as me. To be honest it was also really nice to have a little time to myself. I actually was able to read two whole books in the time that we were there! While we were there Caiden mastered rolling over all the way and Ayla got her fair share of beach and swimming time. Here are some pictures of our fabulous vacation.

Ayla was Leif's little buddy and followed him around wherever he went. It was really cute! Leif seemed to enjoy it as well.

This pier was really cool. It went out pretty far into the ocean probably 1/4 mile, you can't really tell from the picture. People were set up all along it fishing. We watched one person reel in a fish and it was a little kid. It was also a little fish though.

Caiden was sleeping in his stroller otherwise we would have had him in our impromptu family photo.

The beach was just a little way away from our condo. It was a public beach right behind a series of hotels. Maybe it was because we went in September which is not the height of the tourist season or maybe it was the location of the particular section of the beach we went to, but it was perfect. We literally could drive right up to the beach and park. It was free, you could bring coolers, food, drinks, whatever you wanted onto the beach. There were hardly any tourists, I mean a few but it wasn't crowded at all. Best of all it was gorgeous, pristine sand, the water was warm and clear. In the mornings the water would actually be warmer than the air! We all loved it!

The brothers had a great time body surfing and wave jumping. They were out there for hours!

Even Em got into the wave jumping action. No bun in the oven is going to slow her down.

Aunt Em getting her snuggles in

Ayla and Grandpa had fun building a sand castle and flying a kite. I really think that Grandpa had more fun flying the kite than Ayla did.

Mommy and Caiden

" Mommy, look what I found!"

Uncle Ike and Aunt Em

 One morning Uncle Ike, Aunt Em, and Grandpa took Ayla to the beach while Grandma, Caiden and I went grocery shopping. Ayla had a great time. They came across this huge sandcastle and Ayla talked about it for days.

It was a really great trip. So great that I told Ike to be sure that he told his friends we wanted it next year. Coincidentally I found out later that the people who own the condo are actually the parents of a couple that are in our ward. I was telling my friend about the trip one day and telling her how great it was and she said that it was her in laws condo. Funny that I didn't even know. Good thing I was talking it up. She said that they are always looking to rent it out so hopefully we'll make this a yearly thing.