What a Day!!

What a day! All I wanted to do was to try to collect some sand dollars while visiting here at Myrtle Beach. Yesterday we went looking to try to find Hogs Inlet. In our journey we found a great little park in Cherry Grove where locals come to "go crabbin." We were taught how, with a cheap pack of chicken necks, a crab weight and a fishing net, you can catch your dinner. Think we might try that next year. Can use crab pots too, but this seems like it is more family involvement. :) While we were there, the kids got to see all these great fiddler crabs too--hundreds of them! I wanted to get better pictures of them, but if I got closer they would go into their holes--better than "ghost crab" hunting any day!

Anyway, after leaving this park, we continued on our journey and found a public walkway to Hogs Inlet. It is part of Cherry Grove, but about 2 miles from where we are staying. It is incredible! The water comes up in between 2 pieces of land. When the tide is low, you can actually walk across to the other side. The best part, there are tide pools EVERYWHERE and it is perfect for the kids to play! No worry about current or waves, etc.

So, this morning I announce I am going there to dig for sand dollars. Immediately Emily announces she is coming with me. She is DEFINITELY our swimming child! Ryan says no he wants to hang with Daddy and Lydia thinks about it for a minute and decides to come with me.

The girls spend a long time playing in one of the tide pools before Lydia announces she needs to poop. This is not good and not possible! Since we are two miles from our place, Mike has driven us down and has instructed us to call him when were ready to come back. I DID NOT want to go all the way back just to turn around and besides, I didn't think she would make it. I know this will gross some people out--particularly my mother--I quickly emptied my cup of tea and helped her move her bathing suit to the side all the while trying to conceal her from the population. Luckily this was not a populated area! I then found a trash can and disaster seemed to have passed us by.

"Let's go over here and let Mommy dig for Sand Dollars" I said to the girls. They picked up a sand toy a piece and followed me across the sand to the area where the water comes "inlet." In walking there we walked through another tide pool where we spooked a Stingray who was trapped in the tide pool and laying in the sand. I wanted a picture, but when I took my camera back to get a picture I couldn't find him again.

I was digging for a little while Lydia and Emily were playing in the shallow water, found a few sea shells (small ones) when Lydia gets stung by a jellyfish! Couldn't believe it!! It was a baby jellyfish, but it hurt her! We rubbed it with sand, scratched it, spit on it, everything. Finally the pain began to stop, but that was the end of my sand dollar digging. We went back over to our original tide pool where we made some friends, Cannon (7) and Reggie-Caroline (almost 5) from South Carolina. After they played with the girls in the sand and tide pool for a while they drove us back to our place in their Polaris and swam in our pool for a while. Very cool! Daddy was jealous!! :)

The Beach

The Beach. I honestly don't think there is a better place to be on earth. A lot of people I know would disagree with me and say the mountains are better. I walk out of my front door, at home, everyday to see the Massanutten Mountain range and don't ever even notice them. I do, however notice the smell of the salt water, the feel of the ocean breeze, the squish of the sand between your toes, and the relaxing sound of the waves as they break on the shore. I would live at the beach if I thought I could make a living while still coming to the beach on a regular basis. I even love watching all the people play in the surf, walk along collecting shells, taking family walks, and reading in their sand chairs while sitting right in the most shallow part of the surf--keeping themselves cool while getting completely lost in their book. My mom used to do that. Well, she still does that, but I don't get to be with her as often now, so I am not able to notice.

Mike, the kids and I are in Myrtle Beach this week. I have been coming to Myrtle Beach (North Myrtle) since I was about 8 years old. May have been longer--I can't remember not coming, but I think 8 is about right. My parents would bring my brother and me every year. My parents brother and I have come by ourselves, with family friends, and as we got older, mom and dad would let each of us bring a friend. My parents are pretty cool that way! My mom taught us how to build drip castles in the sand (no one else EVER knows how to make those!) and how to fish on the pier. My dad would take us putt-putting and out for ice cream. We would go to dinner most nights, but as I got older mom and dad would let us stay in the condo and order a pizza for us while they would go out. At the time I thought it was something special for us, but now know it was something special for all involved :).

We are staying in a different area in Myrtle Beach this year. It is called Cherry Grove. It is the northern most tip of Myrtle Beach and is just a few miles from the North Carolina border. It is a little smaller and a little less busy in Cherry Grove which has been quite refreshing. During our stay I have been noticing a lot of cottages and not so many high rises. This has been creating some breathtaking views from our high rise condo!

As we drove down Highway 17 (the main drag through Myrtle Beach) today I was saddened by all the changes that have taken place over the years. Where the Jungle Golf putt-putt was, is now a CVS (I always got a hole in 1 there). Where we used to ride the Water Boggan water slides over and over again for our 1 hour paid time slot is now a bank (the Water Boggan was so great! There were no steps, you climbed a ramp to get to the top of the slides. Though much younger and thinner , I don't remember it being a big deal to do. My dad would take us and sometimes I think he had more fun than we did. :) During the days of us driving the "submarine" we would get in that car and our exposed legs and backs would literally melt on to the vinyl seats :). To this day, that car is the reason why I will never own anything but upholstery in my vehicles!) Ole King Cole's Ice Cream, which was better known for its water, is now another random putt-putt place. But I the saddest change has to be Outriggers. Outriggers is a family restaurant where we would eat each year on our first and last night in town. We noticed they closed down a couple of years ago. We can only assume the owner passed away (he was an old man 20 years ago), but we were surprised no one else took it on because you never went by it in the summer months that people were not waiting outside. Since we were here last year, it has been torn down and a Bargain Beachwear has been built in its place :(.

Now, to finally bring me to the conclusion of my story . . . in the midst of all these changes, there is one thing that has stayed the same. There is a fishing pier in Cherry Grove that has not been ruined by all the hurricanes. I have been fishing on this pier as a kid, as a teenager, as a young adult and as a parent with my children. It is called Cherry Grove Pier and we are staying at the Prince Resort at the Cherry Grove Pier. I have been to this pier 100 times, but have never stayed here. The resort is only 3 or 4 years old, but there were cottages and houses here for years.

Even though I do get excited to think about what the future holds for my family and me and love the idea of creating traditions with my children, I think I will always be a sucker for memories!

Memories

I continue to wonder what makes kids close to their parents and hope that Mike and I are doing a good job creating a good relationship with our children so when that crucial moment happens that they can either come to us or go to their friends, that they come to us.

My family did not camp when I was a kid. Once my brother and I moved out, our parents purchased a nice used motor home to see how they liked the camping/traveling thing. They loved it and have since graduated to a new, much nicer model RV. Mike has so many fond memories of camping with his grandparents when he was little. It is such an important thing that our kids have these same great memories.

This past weekend we went camping with my parents and my brother and his family. We all met up at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Luray. We had camped at the Jellystone Park in Natural Bridge, but not in Luray. It was such a great campground!! It had so many great things to do that there was really no time for the "sitting around the campfire" type of camping that we enjoy :).

They had these great jumping pillows. They were these huge plastic/canvas pillows that had air constantly being pumped into them. You could jump on them just like you would a trampoline. We all loved it!! Particularly Mike! The early teenage kids kept asking him to come back over and jump with them because he would jump so high and it would cause them to jump higher and higher. As my brother described it, he looked like a rock star with all the kids hovering around him :). Lydia did not like it if there were a lot of people jumping at the same time she was--particularly big people (mainly Mike :)). She did not feel secure while jumping so she would wait until there were just a few people jumping and then she would have a great time. Emily jumped and jumped and when we were not at the jumping pillows, she would ask to go to the jumping pillows. Ryan liked it a lot, but he preferred riding his bike. We allowed him to ride just down from our campers and over in front of the pool by himself. Needless to say, he thought he was something else and spent most of the weekend doing just that. My niece, Adella, was kind of hit or miss. She liked it, but only if she was jumping with someone else, but she too felt a little uneasy if lots of people were jumping around her.



As most campgrounds do, this campground also had a playground. We usually spend a lot of time at the campground playgrounds, but there were so many other fun things to do here that we only spent a short time there.
If you purchased a wristband you were able to have access to several activities without paying extra. We took full advantage. Mike and Ryan purchased a wristband and Lydia and Emily were free on everything that they were able to participate in (according to their age they were not able to go on the water slide at all). I did not purchase a wristband because I had to stay with Lydia and Emily when they were not able to ride. The paddle boats were part of our "free entertainment." Mike, Ryan and Lydia started on the paddle boats and Emily was a little scared. Once she saw them paddling and having such a great time, she decided to join in. She had to sit in the back though because the front was full :).

The water slide was included in the wristband price as well. Ryan went down the first day, but he was not able to touch the bottom of the pool at the bottom of the water slide and did not want to go again the
next day so I don't have a picture of him.

Lydia, Emily and I went on a wagon ride that Boo Boo and Cindy were hosting. Just prior to us getting on the wagon, they took Boo Boo away on a golf cart. We can only assume he was getting ready to pass out since it was 92 degrees and he was wearing a fur suit :). It took us around the campground so we were able to pass our campers where Grammy and Aunt Allison were sitting outside and waived to us.

The pool was really great! They had two kiddie pools and a regular pool. We stayed in the bigger kiddie pool. It started at 2 feet deep and gradually went to 4 feet. Everyone was able to touch in the majority of the pool. Plus, there was this great mushroom waterfall in the middle of the pool that everyone just loved.

S'mores were a big hit with Adella as well as Ryan and Emily. Lydia passed out before we could get the marshmallows out. It was a big day for everyone!

On our last morning there, we hit the pool and the jumping pillows one more time before packing up and heading home. It was a great weekend!!
The following movies are of the putt-putt game that was also included in the wristband price. We don't have any golfers on our hands at this point I don't think. :). Also, a movie of Ryan riding his bike past the pool and a movie of the jumping pillows. This will give you a better idea of how cool they were. Oh, BTW, you are not seeing things . . . yes, Ryan has a Mohawk! We will be shaving it off by the end of the week!

A Close Getaway

We live about 45 minutes from a place called Chris Greene Lake. It is a beautiful lake that is surrounded by

(Ryan and Lynnea making "sand angels")

trees and hills and is mainly for fishing and boating. In addition to the boating and fishing area, they have a beach area for the kids to play and parents to relax. Not only is this place absolutely














beautiful, but it is located
behind the Charlottesville Airport. As a result, every so often you get to see a commercial airline fly very low over you while you are swimming in the lake. It is very cool! I have known about and been to Chris Green Lake for many years, but my kids have not been too much. This past Saturday, the kids and I invited my friend Kara and her daughters




Lynnea and Olivia to join us on our trip to Chris Greene Lake. We packed lunches and spent the entire afternoon there. It was amazing weather and the water was so nice! The kids all had such a great time! They did get a little tired since no one had naps, but when we ate dinner at the Wood Grill, they were the best kids you have ever seen. We starved them to behave :)

Ryan jumped off the dock a few times and they played in the sand and on the playground a little bit, but mostly swam in the lake. It is a beautiful place!

(Me with Olivia)

Monster Truckin

Thanks to one of our great neighbors, we had free tickets to the Monster Truck Show in Fishersville Friday night. We are not big Monster Truck fans, but I thought Ryan would really enjoy going. Mike had to work so going as a family was not an option.

We were given 4 tickets, but felt Lydia and Emily would not enjoy it as a result of the noise. Once we arrived and heard that it was not as

noisy as I thought it would be. I think they would

have been fine. They ended up staying with my

parents and my friend Rabia and her daughter,

Frances (she is Ryan's age) went with us. Her little boy, Henry, tagged along too. He sat on Rabia's lap and hung with us (wanting to sleep towards the end) really well the entire time. Plus, his admission was free :). Ryan and Frances really enjoyed the trucks! They both knew who Gravedigger was and I really pushed him liking Virginia Giant. This same great neighbor gave us a poster of Virginia Giant that I gave him the next day. VERY EXCITED!

Henry's "ear plugs" :)

We found that these shows have a lot of down time. The trucks themselves do not run that much. There is a lot of "entertainment skits" that are done between heats. Megasaurus was part of the entertainment. It was a "transformer" that "ate" a car. Ryan LOVED it!!

We did not get back to my parents house until 11:30 and did not get home and in the bed until 12:30, but it was fun and Ryan was pretty excited to get his Gravedigger pennant.

Summer Vacation

Ryan has been coming with me to my center this summer since he has been out of school. Our school age kids go on fieldtrips the entire summer. They go to the pool at least once a week, they go to the park pretty often and they often go to the free movies that our local movie theater hosts. In addition to these regulars, they have special things happen at least once a week as well. They have been to see a play, to a great Kids Workshop at Home Depot, have had a police officer come to talk to the kids about good and bad strangers and allowed the kids to see the police car, they have gone to Wood Grill for lunch (all 48 kids), an educational trip to Martin's Grocery Store and celebrated "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chick-Fil-A. I have posted a few pictures of Ryan having fun on his fieldtrips this summer. I will continue to post pictures for the remainder of the summer. He has been having such a great time!!