Myrtle Beach Vacation, 2013: Day 3

Day 3 of our beach vacation is coming to a close. The kids have conked out after another crazy, busy day, so I’ll see if I can gather my thoughts and remember everything we did.

We slept in until around 7:30 today, and after breakfast I headed down to the beach alone to set up for the day. As I mentioned before, this time we set up the canopy, which worked out nicely. Patty had already gone down to the beach earlier and grabbed a primo spot for us right above the high tide line, which was a good thing as the beach was filling up fast with families and sunbathers. Mariah helped the kids change into their bathing suits, slathered them down in sun screen, and followed shortly afterwards.

The kids spent some time playing in the sand and running around in the surf, but we did not venture out far today since the tide was in and the waves were a bit stronger than yesterday.

After jumping waves we went back up to the canopy and played in the sand for a long time.  First we made a dinosaur skeleton using some molds that Nani had given us, then Emma made sand “cookies” using a little play set that came with a rolling pin, cookie cutters, a spatula, and some little plates. Emma and Ben’s favorite part was sprinkling fine white sand out of a little shaker as a topping for the cookies.

While I played in the sand with the kids, Jena, Sam, Ryan, Megan and Michael played out in the waves, catching some on boogie boards and getting clobbered by others.

Back on the beach, we finished up with the cookies and I started to bury Ben and Emma's feet in the sand. They got a real kick out of wiggling their toes free while I would frantically try to repair the rupture in the sand before they could escape.  After doing this for a while, the kids decided it would be fun to bury me in the sand up to my neck. With Mariah’s supervision, they managed to work very carefully and did a nice job of covering me up without smashing me with a shovel or putting a load of sand up my nose, for which I was very grateful. Ben and Emma had a great time reversing roles and covering me up and then repairing all of the little cracks in the sand that I made when I moved around or wiggled my toes.

Despite being buried, I was in no hurry to get up as it gave me a good excuse to lay back, relax, and rest for a bit. :) I eventually broke free and spent some time alone in the ocean rinsing off and bodysurfing on a few waves. Mariah took the kids back to the house for lunch while I stayed down on the beach for a bit. We wanted to keep the canopy up in case anyone else wanted to use it.

After the kids were fed and theoretically down for a nap, Mariah and I switched places and I had some lunch at the house while she spent some time relaxing in the sand. The kids weren’t having much luck sleeping, despite the busy morning, so we watched Tangled on the iPad to take a break.

Next, it was into the pool. As always, the kids were like little fish swimming all over the pool in their vests.

I took a break from the pool after a bit and headed back to the beach to pack up the remaining gear, only to find that Zac, who had been out there for a while, had already beaten me to it. We carried the canopy and other beach stuff back back to the house, and then I took a short walk on the beach.

Once I returned it was dinner time, so everyone dried off and headed inside for some delicious barbecue that Zac had been cooking in the oven all day long. After dinner, we decided to walk down to the pier for ice cream. The kids walked most of the way, but started getting tired, so we carried them the last quarter mile or so. The pier was packed with quite a crowd as there was some live music and performers playing that night, but the wait was worth it and the ice cream was delicious.

By the time we finished up and started back, it was past 9, so the kids were exhausted. As we walked, people were setting off fireworks on the beach and it was scaring Ben, and especially Emma, badly. Both were so tired that they were in tears and I was feeling the deja vu strongly from the exact same thing happening on previous beach trips (you think I would learn my lesson about late night ice cream excursions in firework prone areas!). Mariah was a real champ though, and calmed the kids down and turned it into a game where we would count the fireworks each time we heard them, and then Ben and Emma could yell out the number as loud as they could. It took some work, but she soon had them giggling again and running and racing down the sidewalk as we headed back to the house. I swear I don’t know what I would do without her.

We finally arrived back at the beach house (round trip it was probably 1.5 miles), and you would think it would be straight to bed for the kids right? Nope! Mariah realized that they were in dire need of a bath, so we plopped both of them in the giant jacuzzi tub in our room and scrubbed them clean in near record time. The lack of bath toys probably helped keep things moving compared to our usual bath routine.

So, that was day three. Once again it’s past midnight as I’m working on this and wondering if I’m crazy for still doing this blog. Maybe one day I’ll have an answer for that, but for now I’m going to sleep!