We woke up early Monday, as families with little kids seem to do. Jennifer and her kids made a run to the store for some of their favorite foods, and I tried to go back to sleep after my rough night of waking up twice with Sawyer.
We milled around and ate breakfast, and the kids spent a good bit of the morning fighting over toys and battling over who was in charge. Sawyer bit Elliott twice, including once on the nose hard enough to leave a bad bruise. I was beginning to worry we might end up in the E.R. before the vacation was over, with someone getting bloodied up.
But things turned around a little when we went to the beach. My mom packed up her stuff and hit the road late morning, so we packed up the kids and the new beach wagon full of stuff and hit the sand.
It was low tide, so the waves were much smaller and the sand stretched forever. The kids could walk out further into the water without getting knocked down, and of course, this is what the boys wanted to do. I left my cameras at home because I knew they would only want to play.
We took turns going out into the water with the boys and tried to keep Annie in the shallow part. She really wanted to be out as deep as they were. The boys tried kickboarding, but they couldn't quite get the hang of it and the boards were a little too wide. We made a sandcastle and picked up shells.
I had set up our umbrella, but we had another family set up inches away from us (even though the beach was WIDE open). The kids weren't really into letting us sit anyhow.
We packed up after a couple hours and headed home for lunch and naps. Jennifer took Elliott back to the beach alone so they could play without having to watch for Annie. We played inside and on the deck for most of the afternoon, and then Jennifer cooked dinner. We enjoyed little hamburgers (Elliott's request), fries, corn and baked beans. After dinner, we decided to walk to the Cherry Grove pier.
We watched the surfers trying to catch a wave, saw a few people who'd caught fish and walked to the end of the pier.
Jennifer's not a fan of being out over the water, but Sawyer and I walked to the "tippy-top" of the pier and took some pictures.
We'd promised the kids ice cream, but they chose push-ups and ice cream sandwiches from the cooler at the fishing shop. Instead of ice cream, I bought Jenn and myself strawberry daiquiris in to-go cups at the bar.
We got the kiddos to bed, decided on plans for the next day and went to bed early.
Day 6 (Tuesday)
We decided that the beach might be better later in the day when there were some tidal pools, so we chose to do miniature golf this morning. It was already hot even though it was like 10:30. We went to the closest one, The Black Pearl, a course built around a pirate ship.
I stupidly thought I'd be able to play, but quickly gave it up for trying to keep the boys on track. Annie was less interested in golf and mostly wanted to get after the ducks. Luckily, we only paid for 2 admissions. The guys working were very nice to cut us a break.
Elliott was good at putt-putt on his own (he even hit a hole in one!), but Sawyer was pretty wild. He holds the club upside-down or hockey style and routinely hit the ball out of bounds. Other times, he'd hit it and it would roll all the way back to the start. Needless to say, we didn't bother keeping score.
I think Sawyer thought if you didn't get the ball in the hole on the first try, you got to start over. I kept rushing them through because another family was stuck behind us.
After a quick but sweaty 18 holes, we retreated to the air-conditioned arcade attached to the course. We cashed in a couple fives for handfuls of quarters and played as many 25 cents games as we could handle. I love that this arcade has games for small kids. Sawyer always wants to play skeeball but can't roll it hard enough. This one was doable for him.
With trails of pink tickets, we picked out treasures at the prize desk like orange bouncy balls and Dum-Dums.
After lunch, Sawyer and I ran to CVS for a few things. He was so sleepy in the car that I drove around awhile so he'd take a nap. I parked under the house and read while he slept for an hourish. Jennifer and her kids hit the beach, and we joined them when he woke up. It was much easier to keep them entertained in the tidal pools, especially Annie.
I would walk out with the boys so they could chop and kick the waves. They thought it was hilarious.
We played for a couple hours and then left the beach, and we got cleaned up to return to Calabash for a seafood dinner. Most of the restaurants were packed, but we lucked out and found one where we could be seated immediately. The kids were incredibly well behaved, and our food was super fast. The kids tried shrimp, fish and other fried seafood.
After dinner, we were going to walk along the docks and see the shrimp boats. Elliott was making Jennifer a little nervous by climbing on things, so they waited for us in the car. Sawyer and I took a quick stroll and paused for a few pictures. Oddly enough, the woman who photographed us had a Sawyer herself!
A quick stop at the Christmas/souvenir store, where Sawyer and I picked out shells for the kids, and we headed home to board games and bed.
Day 7 (Wednesday)
The kids and I hung out at the house while Jennifer ran to the store for breakfast and snacks for their trip back to Rock Hill. We watched lots of Sesame Street, and the kids perfected their dance moves.
Jennifer packed up most of their stuff and took Elliott back to the beach for a quick splash before they hit the road. We tried for pictures and had lots of hugs goodbye.
It was blisteringly hot, so I told Sawyer we'd wait awhile before going to the beach. I cleaned, did laundry and packed as much as I could. I spent a good 45 minutes trying to fix blinds that I found broken (not sure if we did it or not) and just about the time I was tired of cleaning, the skies turned black and the bottom dropped out.
We made it to a chilly, wet, deserted beach an hour or so later. Sawyer enjoyed "swimming" in the tidal pool, but I was freezing.
We cleaned up at home and washed off all the toys, chairs, wagon and floats. We took showers and ate leftovers to clean out the fridge. I had given Sawyer his choice for our last night: We could play mini golf again or we could try the O.D. Pavilion and ride the Ferris wheel.
He chose that "one big wheel." The night was cool after the storm, and we lucked out to find a space right beside the amusement park. It was actually not too crowded, but we walked around the whole place to kill some time. The tickets were expensive, but you got a break if you bought a "family pack" so I calculated how many we'd need for the rides we wanted.
Sawyer rode a kiddie motorcycle and a vintage car, and then we walked back over to the ocean side. I was trying to wait until it got a bit darker to ride the Ferris wheel. Some of my fondest memories of trips to the beach as a kid are from the real Pavilion in Myrtle Beach, which has been torn down. All the colorful lights, the ocean breeze and the blaring music just exude summertime for me. This was the closest I could come to re-creating that for Sawyer.
We walked out on the beach for a few minutes and then had to use the restroom. Inside, I realized the ride tickets were no longer in my pocket. I was panicked! I did not want to explain why I could not replace $20 of tickets to a 3-year-old who wanted to ride "that one big wheel." I said a little prayer as we washed our hands, and we bolted back to retrace our steps. Miraculously, my little page of purple tickets was lying at the edge of the beach. Had we dropped them anywhere else, I'm sure they would've been long gone.
We rode the swings and then the Ferris wheel and then I ponied up an extra $1.50 to use the last ticket so Sawyer could ride the helicopters.
We stopped for a chocolate dipped cone on the way home and fell into bed tired but happy and sad knowing we'd be leaving the next morning.
Check out part 3 for our last day and our annual "portraits on the beach" session.
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