Our Week and Their Week

When Emily decided to stay home from vacation and play All Stars, Mike was originally going to stay with her.  After talking with the family and thinking about things that would be happening at each location, we decided it would be better for me to stay with Emily and Mike to go with my family and Ryan and Lydia to Myrtle Beach.  I know that seems weird, but that is the way we decided to handle things.

While it was sad that we were separated for the week, all of us really had great weeks!!  The following are pictures with captions so that you know how we all spent our week . . . .

Our first day was a bit emotional for me.  My family had never been apart for a whole week.  Plus knowing that Emily was missing out on time with her cousins made me sad.  And I love and missed the pow wows that my brother and I have when we are on vacation.  We did have a good week despite this though.  Our first day we had softball practice.  After practice, we got together with my good friend Holly and her daughter Emily.  Emily and Emily were both part of the all star team.  We went swimming at Swift Run pool.  I have blogged about Swift Run before.  Swimming with Emily took Emily's mind off the fact that her brother and sister were headed to the beach.  Softball practice did that too. :)  Jumping off the diving boards--an all day activity.

Thanks to my great friend, Dana, Emily and I got to go to a butterfly farm.  Neither of us had ever been to one and we really enjoyed it.  Dana worked at one over the summer so we went to work to see her and her daughter, Katie, who went to work with her.  The butterflies would land on your head and shoulders and hands.  It was really neat. 

 The photo opps were endless!!!

 Katie and Emily checking out the butterflies

Emily and Katie had several private rides on the cow train.  This place is a business that is open throughout the summer, but is mainly a pumpkin patch and corn maze in the fall.  Their summer business is not as much, but the owners live right there so it is not a huge deal for them to not be busy.  We have visited and blogged about Back Home on the Farm before.

Meanwhile, we received pictures from Myrtle Beach, showing us what a great time everyone was having.  So glad they all had such a wonderful time!!

Emily and I decided to go see the Dori movie that was out in the theater at that time.  Typically, we don't do movies unless they are dollar movies or ones we can watch at home.  Too expensive!!  It's very different with two verses five.  It was fun.

Our reason for not going to Myrtle Beach.  Softball!!!  Emily's All Star team came in 3rd.  Not great, but not terrible.  :)

 We have a tradition that we visit Krispy Kream every time we go to Myrtle Beach.  We watch them making donuts and we each eat one warm donuts before leaving.  It is fun!!  Many pictures have been taken in this building.  This one was sad to get.  So glad they all got to go!

We did a lot of dog walking while our family was gone.  It was a nice thing to stay back and not have to find a place for the dog to stay.  Loki liked that we were home with him.

Another tradition we have is going to Bass Pro Shops with Daddy.  Mike loves to shop and dream shop more than any man I know!!  It is crazy!!  :)  We go to Bass Pro Shops and spend probably 2 hours in there each week we are in Myrtle Beach.  This year was no different.  We have lots of pictures over the years of the kids on boats and four wheelers.  Look back through this blog and you will see them in Myrtle Beach blogs.

More softball with softball friends.  This is Emily Sponagule.  Same one we went to swift run with.  She was on Emily's regular season team as well as on All Stars with her.  They are sharing some french fries.  :)

 Mike sent pictures of Lydia's beach artwork.  Loved seeing this one as well as the one that said "Love you mom!"

 Got some pictures of Ryan and Adella fighting the waves.  They are in there somewhere.  :)

Another beach tradition, that dates back to when my brother and I went to the beach as kids, is putt putt.  There are so many putt putt courses in Myrtle Beach.  We love them!  I received this one late in the evening and knew they had, had some dinner and were doing the mini golf thing.

Lydia found her name!  Lydia never finds her name anywhere!  Ryan and Emily are ALWAYS found.  This picture was sent to me with great enthusiasm behind it!

 I am not completely sure what Lydia is doing in this picture.  This is at Broadway at the Beach and apparently some weird Facebook parody.  Funny.

I never realized how many traditions we had at the beach until I started doing this blog.  :)  These are both pictures of Lydia at Broadway at the Beach.  Mike took the kids out one day to spend the day out.  Just them, and let my parents and my brother and  his family have some time without them.  This was the day they went to Bass Pro Shops too I think, but not sure.  These two pics were taken at Broadway at the Beach.  Too funny!!!  Missed going there this year!

This one was the hardest to receive.  At the end of their day by themselves, Mike took the kids to the Cherry Grove Pier.  This is another tradition of ours.  We go every year.  It is beautiful there!!  When he sent this, he didn't even need to tell me where he was--I just knew.  They were at the pier.  :)

We had another fun adventure that week due to my awesome friend, Dana!  Dana and her daughter Katie had a pass to go to Shenandoah Caverns.  I have been to caverns before, but I have never taken my children. I hate that!  I never really think about it, but again it is one of those things--with 5 members of your family, it can get costly.  So it's not something I am pushed to do.  This pass she had allowed two adults and two kids.  It was perfect!  Prior to touring the caverns, we had to wait for our tour.  We went upstairs to the place they had various old parade stuff.  This bear was on a parade float at one point.  There was another museum we went to that had stuff from all the past Rose Bowl parades.  These bears were from a Macy's parade I think.

 This is Dana's daughter, Katie along with Emily when we first entered the caverns.

The area behind Emily's head is the original opening of the caverns.  The place the two boys who founded them (who have since passed away and their family sold the caverns) accidentally by climbing down in to them.  The boys came down and played in those caverns for two years before ever telling anyone they had found it.  They were around 11 or 12.

 The two of us down in the caverns.

  We really liked this part of the caverns.  :)

This is what they call their elephant.  It is also the closest stalagtite and stalagmite in the whole caverns.  His trunk and the stalagmite below it.  I thought it was neat.

 After the tour of the caverns, we went to the museum that had the Rose Bowl Parade floats.  This was really neat!  Of course the roses were no longer on them, but you could see bits of the flowers and the stuff the flowers were stuck into.  The colors were not vibrant like they are on the floats in the parade, but the size of everything was huge!!  This is Emily with a turtle that was a small part of a large float.  She has a thing for turtles.

 As you can see this was a VERY large woman that was once on a float.  Her arms extended out the way Katie and Emily have their arms.  I couldn't get back far enough to get the whole thing.  HUGE!

 This was part of a float that had been removed and was sitting on the floor.  We felt like we were in London.

 This was my favorite float.  I am not sure if you can read the "fun facts" sign or not.  This is what it says . . . "The ducks first appeared in the 1991 Rose Parade."  "They appeared as hockey players in Philadelphia's Thanksgiving Parade."  "The flowers in the treetops of the float were originally used to decorate for John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Ball."  Love that fact!  I know you can't see the flowers well--and they were really not that pretty, but dried and very cool to see.  It was a fun day.  However, we rode home in a pretty scary flood.  Thank you Dana for making our day and our week so fun!!

More traditions.  Again, one that dates back a long way.  My mom taught my brother and me how to make drip castles and she made them as a kid herself.  They are really fun and look really elaborate!  This is my mom, my brother Paul, Lydia, Ryan, my nieces Adella and Penny--all building the drip castle.  We make one every year!

Love these!!

Two more pictures were texted to me during the week.  They are two of my favorite.  The first one is of Lydia and Penny.  Was too funny how they had the same bathing suit.  They really liked that they shared this common bond.  :)

I think Lydia looks so grown up here.  :)

This one is the cousin picture.  We also take a cousin picture or pictures every year.  This years was missing one cousin.  Still love it though!!

Since Emily and I were not able to go on vacation with everyone, my brother invited us to meet them in Richmond to spend the night and swim at their community pool.  It has several pools and diving boards, etc.  This was really good for Emily and me.  Made us think we spent a little vacation with them after all.  While we hated having to stay back, we are glad we did. Being asked to be on the All Star team doesn't happen all the time!  Plus, made for an even number of cousins at the beach.  I am sure things went smoother.  :)

 

Thank you to Mike, Aunt Allison and Uncle Paul for sending me pictures of your fun beach week!!!