Myrtle Beach Bash 2016

When I put Jones to bed last nite, I asked him what he was thankful for. He said, "I thankful we got to go on that camping trip." For some reason, he's called our beach weekend a "camping trip" since early last week. There was absolutely no camping involved, but, just like Jones, I'm thankful or our time away, too.

This whole weekend came to be in a weak moment that happened about this time last year. I got a call from Hilton Grand Vacations, saying they'd give us three nites at the beach in exchange for a two hour timeshare pitch. Typically, we'd have said, "No," but this time last year, we knew Allstate training would keep Jeremy away from Pawleys Island in 2015, so we saw the timeshare trip as a chance to have a family vacation without having to actually pay for a family vacation. 

Win-win, right?

Finally, the time came. We left Thursday right around nap time and checked into the Myrtle Beach Embassy Suites a little before bedtime. The weekend really, truly could not have gone any better. Though there were some, the fits were few and easily curtailed; the boys loved all the stuff they got to see (and ride!), AND, perhaps most excitingly, they shared a room and still slept well past their typical vacation wake-up time of 5:30 a.m. Hallelujah! Thank you, Jesus (no, seriously. Thank You, Jesus, because I prayed about this for MONTHS before our trip). 

Highlights of the trip include the boys' uncontainable excitement every time they saw the beach from our hotel room balcony and the way they'd always bust out of the elevator, sprinting down the long hall to our room. Then there was Freddie's chasing a squirrel around the bar at Drunken Jack's and calling  the hotel a "ho-o-teh-wa." Jones's sang, "Ice-y, cream-y ice cream. Cold and sweet!" as he dug into a cup of Cotton Candy at the Broadway at the Beach Ben & Jerry's and used my selfie stick as a "crane" that could open hotel room doors, and I'd overhear their sweet little conversations (some of them one-sided) after I'd put them in bed at nite. "Nite nite, JoJo ... you okay JoJo? ..."

I feel like it was the first vacation when the boys were more participatory than passive, and MAN was it fun. Lord willing, we'll be back at the beach in 39 days. 

Countdown starts now.

(When picking pictures to post on this blog, there were 82 I wanted to share. If you're not up to see all 82 with the run down that goes with them, I don't blame you. Instead, here's a quick-hit, two minute slideshow that sums things up pretty succinctly. I'll post all of them - with explanations and videos where appropriate below).

THURSDAY

Our plan was to leave right at nap time. The boys don't typically sleep very well in the car - maybe forty five minutes AT MOST - so I had them playing outside for the two hours before we planned to hit the highway. My hope was that it'd really wear them out, so that we could squeeze as much sleep out of them as possible.

They literally moved dirt from one side of the yard to another, and they thought it was the best possible use of their time, which I love, because, let's be honest: there are few things cuter than a little boy dipped in dirt.

After they played in the dirt, they ate lunch on their beloved picnic table. A bath was required before I would even consider sliding their "tiny hineys" into their carseats, and then we were off, and both boys were out before we were even in Asheville.

True to form, their naps lasted just under an hour, but surprisingly, even though they were exhausted and only slept a fraction of the time they were used to sleeping, they held up REALLY well, and our drive to Myrtle was about as peaceful as one with two toddlers can be.

"Mama! We're having fun, Mama ... See ya waiter, Mama. We diggin' on the sand, and we get the job done! ... Yeah. Makin' roads ... Got some dirt, Mama; now, let's get some mo', fast ... here I come!"

When we got about an hour out, we started passing many billboards for the Pirates Voyage Dinner Show that we had reservations for on Friday nite. Everytime, Jones and Freddie would point out the pictures and claim they were of "Sharkey" or "Bones" from that "Pink Whale" episode of "Jake" (they weren't).

When we got to the room, they pretty nearly lost their minds, upon seeing that they could see the beach from our balcony. They danced and ran and did loops around our room. They then got their suitcases and started wheeling them around with them. Because they'd eaten nothing but junk (and a lot of it) on our drive down, we ordered a room service "cheese sammy," which they happily ate on the balcony before running and jumping and bouncing all over the hotel furniture.

Then came bedtime, which, to be honest, I'd dreaded. They just do NOT have a good track record when sleeping in the same room, and though this room was bigger than both of their bedrooms combined, I still wasn't hopeful they'd get as good a nite's sleep as they'd need.

Turns out, my fears were unfounded. A few minutes after I put them down, I heard chatter. I snuck into their room, expecting to catch a conversation. Instead, I heard my younger son saying to his presumably sleeping brother, "You okay, JoJo? Nite nite, Jojo." You can hear the "Nite nite" at the very beginning of this video. The rest is just Freddie talking to himself, since Jones never answered him. It probably gives us a foretaste of what to expect once they're finally sharing a room, which, after as well as they did this weekend, may be sooner than I was expecting it'd be.

the Apache Pier, which I THINK is pictured
on the front of the postcard I sent us

FRIDAY
Around 4:30 Friday morning, I jolted awake. Something deep in me expected the boys to wake up - as they have had the tendency to do whenever we're out of town (particularly at the lake) - at the crack of dawn. Thankfully, I was able to get back to sleep - and even MORE thankfully, the boys didn't wake up until their normal 7-ish wake up time. I was beside myself with excitement - and gratitude.

Here's a sweet video of when I went in to get them up.




Friday, we were in a rush. The impetus for our trip was a timeshare sales pitch (that we agreed to only to get the free hotel room!), and we were booked for the "tour" at 9:15 on Friday morning, so we got up and got to breakfast pretty quickly. The boys continued to sit sans high chairs and actually handled it really well.

We were told the pitch would be 90 minutes. We were also told the boys could stay with us - in fact, "we WANT the whole family there," we were told. Well, as soon as we got there, the boys were put into a "Kids Club," which was a 10X12 room with some tables and a TV in it. This made me REALLY nervous - but the boys did fine, thankfully, even though the presentation went double the time we were told it would.

By the time we finally got them to accept our persistent "NO, we will NOT pay you $34,000 on the spot," it was nearly 12:30. Ugh. Almost nap time. On a whim, though, I plugged Broadway at the Beach into the GPS, and we were less than a mile away, so it made sense to go ahead and stop and give Jones a chance to ride the old Pavilion train he'd been talking about the entire two weeks, since I'd shown him the YouTube videos of it.

We got there and got our tickets. Then, the four of us walked to the train station where Ms. Betty, the "engineer," was waiting for us. Jones suddenly developed stage fright. He wanted NO part of what he'd been looking so forward to. Surprise, surprise.

Freddie, however, rode it without hesitation, and since parents ride for free, I went along, too. He then rode the racecars (twice), the merry go round, and the ferris wheel (which he called the "helicopper").

When we left, we fed the boys pancakes and bacon in the backseat (McDonald's All-Day Breakfast is their FAVORITE). At one point on our drive, Freddie said to me, "Hey, Mama! What's up?" It was hilarious. Finally, we got back to the hotel and put them down for their naps.

When they woke up, they played with the hotel phones - which will probably go down as a highlight of their trip - and then we all walked on the beach before heading to the Pirate's Voyage Dinner Show.

Jones handled the sand in his shoes
a LOT better than Freddie did.
Freddie HATED it.

The "Pirate Show" was only three miles from our very centrally-located hotel. We got there in time for the "pre-show," and the boys weren't all that interested in it. I prepared for a LONG nite, seeing how antsy they were in the pre-show. Freddie tried to steal Jones's pirate hat, so Jeremy went and bought him his own. But for the most part, they were both REALLY worn out, which did not bode well, I figured, for the rest of the show. To my surprise, though, they did pretty well. Jones got a little anxious at the end. He was freaked out by the giant "Davy Jones" puppet that popped out the water throughout the show - called him "the Blue Ghost" - but for the most part, he did just fine.

On the way out of the show, Freddie was holding Jeremy's hand and fell. He screamed all the way across the parking lot, wanting me to kiss it, but I didn't know that's what he wanted, so I didn't kiss it ... until he got in the car. I include that only because I never want to forget how Freddie INSISTS on kisses for his booboos. Whenever he gets hurt, he IMMEDIATELY walks over and waves whatever hurts in my face and says, "Kiss it! Kiss it!"

He was SOOOOO sleepy.

Not surprisingly, one of the best parts of the hotel stay was the elevator riding. They quickly figured out when to push the top button and when to push the bottom one. They also figured out that when we got to our floor, we allowed them to just run wide open to our room at the end of the hall, so as soon as the doors split open, they'd explode out of them and sprint to room 502, a number that, I'll be honest, kinda bothered me, because it's the Louisville area code, and I am no fan of ANYTHING Louisville. 

SATURDAY
The big item on Saturday's agenda was taking a Pirate Adventure in Murrells Inlet, so we did the same breakfast song and dance as we had done the day before (and would do the day after). We'd planned to be lazy that morning, because the timing of the cruise meant the boys would miss their naps, so we figured we'd just let them run around the room - playing with the phones, running in and out onto the balcony - so they wouldn't be too worn out. But then I got bored, so I suggested heading on down and seeing what we could get into along the way.

Here's a funny - but disgusting - story. While the boys were playing on the phones, I looked at Freddie and saw a strained face. "Are you stinky?" I asked. "I trying," he responded and continued doing his business.

I hate potty stories, but that one was pretty funny - and one I think he'll be pretty proud of in a few years.

Before we could leave, though, Jones had a mini-meltdown. It was about 10:45, so I said, "Okay. Nap time," and sure enough, the boys laid down for about an hour or so, which ended up being a perfect little preparation for the long afternoon ahead.

One of the funniest parts of our morning was when Jones started using my selfie stick as a "crane." He'd extend it out and then use it to close doors, like a pirate'd use a hook.




When we got to Murrells Inlet, we checked in for our cruise. They offered to paint the boys' faces, but of course, only Freddie took them up on it (and he wanted the "beard" wiped off almost as soon as it'd been put on). Boarding the boat, Jones got VERY nervous, but he got on, anyway, and ended up having a BALL. We all did, in fact.

It's a really fun trip that I HIGHLY recommend. I think they'll enjoy it even more when they're 4 and 5. They wanted to play with the water cannon and collect the treasure, but they were completely against the idea of sitting on the front of the ship with the other mates, who were all a couple of years older than them.

As a result, they stayed close to me and Jeremy on the back of the boat, but they still had a great time, and in spite of their schedule getting all out of whack, they could NOT have behaved better, which was a HUGE relief.

As soon as Jones pulled this out of his
treasure loot, he held it up and said,
"It's a SEA LION!" We'd seen a real, live
sea lion at the Pirates' Voyage Show,
so I was impressed that he remembered! 

After our cruise, we walked up the Marsh Walk (which is one of my favorite places at the beach, by the way) and ate a late lunch / early dinner at Drunken Jack's. The dining room doesn't open until 4, so since we got there at 3, we had to eat on the deck / bar, which ended up being fine. Hush puppies, creek shrimp, and sweet tea went down EASY for our two little sea dogs.

As we finished our lunch and were trying to leave, a squirrel came on the deck. Freddie, of course, started chasing it all over with Jones chasing Freddie, laughing all the way.

At one point, the waitress brought Freddie a french fry to try to feed the squirrel - I wasn't sure that was the best idea, but I let him try it, anyway, Thankfully, he never caught the squirrel, but he did have everyone on that deck laughing along as he tried.

We knew the boys would need an early bedtime after their big day, but we decided to stop again at Broadway at the Beach on our way to the hotel to give Jones one more chance to ride the train. That, AND Jeremy wanted some Ben & Jerry's ... 

As expected, Jones got right on board the train - the ferris wheel - AND the racecars, and he had a great time. He just needs some time to get used to new things, and then he does fine, so I'm really glad we went back. While we were there, he talked about coming back to ride again when we're at Pawleys next month. "That can probably be arranged," I told him.

When we got back to the hotel and got the boys ready for bed, Freddie said he wanted to cuckle JoJo. Since we were on vacation, I said, "Yes."

SUNDAY
On Sunday morning, we got up, got breakfast, and got on our way. All in all, it was an AMAZING vacation. The boys behaved WAY better than I thought they would. They slept well. They pitched a minimal number of fits. In short, they gave me the sense that we're about to turn the corner from baby to boyhood, and I.am.THRILLED!

(When we got home, I had this conversation with the boys: 

ME: Jones, what's your favorite thing we did at the beach?

JONES: We ride the pirate ship!

ME: What else?

FREDDIE: the train!)