On May 31 my family packed up and went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was Jake and my Dad's first time, Mollie and my Mom's second time, and my third time :) Our flight left at 7:00ish on Friday morning so we had to be up at 4:30am. No bueno. So we hopped on the plane and headed for Atlanta.
After a short layover in Atlanta we connected our flight into Charleston. Grandpa Smith picked us up. It was a 2 hour drive back into Myrtle Beach. By the time we got there we were all ornery and ready to be settled in. Ty and Jen brought Cedric and Gabe over. SO good to see them! And Cedric and Gabe had a great time wrestling Jake :)
Saturday we went to the beach. We tanned, burned, and had a good time. We were all so excited to be in the ocean!! We pretty much just boogie-boarded all day :)
Ty and Jen came over in the evening for FHE and they brought a very good-looking guy named Mike. They met him while he was serving his mission in Nicaragua. Ty and Jen went there last year for vacation. Anywho, Cedric taught us a cute little lesson on testimonies and then we had our own little testimony meeting. It was so powerful! I LOVE my family! We went for a fun little stroll on the beach while the dessert settled. It was so beautiful! We also took a family pic. Mike took one with us and then he took one for us. I put them both :)
MB Magic
I'm going to live here one day!
On Monday we went shopping in the morning and then the gang went and rode a barge on the Intracoastal Waterway (click the link to read about it). We saw turtles, eagles, and all sorts of things. The water was DISGUSTING but Tyson still went swimming. Even Cedric jumped in for a little bit. We fished a little and Cedric caught a baby catfish on Uncle Blaine's line. It was super fun!
Before Tyson jumped in Mollie and I noticed some prime zits on his back and we were all over it trying to pop everything that looked ready! Jenny was quite disgusted :)
Cedric was SO excited when he caught his fish! However, he really didn't want to touch it. Gabe didn't want anything to do with it! :)
Oh! And on our way back into the dock we saw...an elephant! Of all things, right? I guess these people have animals and they train them for movies and jazz. They have a tiger and we found out that it's the same tiger from Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Pretty cool.
On Tuesday the boys (Dad and Jake) went golfing and the rest of us met Tyson and the boys at the beach. We all went up to the pier and rented nets to go crabbing. You have the nets and put raw chicken in them, lower the nets until they are on the floor of the ocean and pull them up every 5 minutes or so to see of you caught anything. The crabbing was fun, but we all enjoyed just being together on the pier. And yes, we did get rained on...
We had been there for a couple of hours or so. Mollie had like 3 crabs slip through the holes in her net. We were all pretty bummed. I pulled in my net for the last time and there was a good-sized female blue crab in the net! I was so excited! Well, the park ranger people in charge came and snatched it right out of my net and walked away from me to show it to everyone else on the pier. I was thinking like, "Um, give me back my crab woman!" She showed everyone and then started to let all of the little kids hold it. I finally got to hold it, along with Smallz and Cedric after everyone was done and then I got to release it. Pretty nifty! Call me "the Crab Slayer!"
After my crab some kid caught a blowfish. It was pretty cool. It even bit the park lady. Then we went to the Nature Center that was in the park (the beach is a state park). It was really nifty! They had turtles, crabs, fish, snakes, and all sorts of stuff. They even let us hold some of the snakes! Gabe and Smallz were pretty entertained with the chalkboard on the wall. :)
The Triumphant Golfer
On Wednesday the boys went golfing again and we went to Broadway on the Pier. It's not a vacation in Myrtle Beach if you don't go to Broadway at least once. We were going to go inside the upside down house, but everyone and their dog was there so we just walked around the pier. We rode some rides, did some shopping, and had a little fun in the shops :)
We found these rasta hats and HAD to put them on the boys! Don't they look adorable!
Mollie and I found these epic glasses in a store called The Stupid Factory. Yeah, it's pretty much our new favorite store! :) Don't we look sexy?!
We met up with the boys at a restaurant called Señor Frogs. It's pretty crazy! Well, they were having karaoke night and Jen told Mollie she'd give her $10 if she went up and sang. After 3 times of chickening out Smallz finally put her name on the list to sing Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry. I did video it, but unfortunately, I was singing along with her and you only hear me most of the time...NOT GOOD! But Mollie rocked it and Cedric was a great back-up dancer! I'm so proud of my baby sis!
Thursday was our last full day in Myrtle Beach. Jake, Smallz, Dad and I went laser-tagging for a couple of hours and we met everyone at the beach when we finished. Tyson teaches surfing lessons during the summer and came out and taught us. Jake probably did the best of the 3 of us. He got up on his first try. Mollie did pretty good too. By the time it was my turn the waves weren't all that great...and neither was I. I spent more time chasing the board back to shore :) I guess there are just some things that aren't meant to be...
Ooh! Thursday was also Jennie's birthday so we all got together and had a sushi night! It was yummy! Ty and Jen went and saw a movie for her birthday and the boys stayed with us for the night :) Friday was bittersweet because we had to leave Myrtle Beach. On our way to Charleston we stopped at Huntington Beach State Park. There, we saw ruins of an old Spanish-style "castle" called Atalaya. It was huge! Here are some of the pics (click the link for more info).
We finally made it to Charleston and settled into our motel. The guys wanted to nap, but the women wanted to look around a bit. We went and walked around an older part of Charleston. You know, huge houses and old cobblestone streets. There were some monuments to the war and the real cannons that were used in the raid on Fort Sumpter. We saw an old cemetery and a house that belonged to a signer of the Declaration of Independence! It was so neat! We found a small place on the side of town to eat with live entertainment and really yummy food! It was a great family dinner :)
On Saturday we left early to catch a ferry to Fort Sumpter. I pretty much hate history except for the Revolutionary and Civil war periods so I was STOKED! The two flags in the upper right corner were the actual flags flown in the Civil War.
After Fort Sumpter we went and saw the Angel Oak Tree. Or, in the words of Jake and myself, "Big Freaking Tree!" Seriously, this thing was GINORMOUS!
After the tree we were all beat. We headed off to the airport and said our goodbyes. It was a long flight home. That's all I can say about that.
All-in-all, it was an AMAZING vacation! I love my family! And I LOVE S.C. :)
LOVED the post and pictures. I was so jealous looking at the pictures. Love you..I will need to,come up and steal a bunch of your pictures.
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