The Beach!!

We just returned from our trip to visit Ben's Grandparents (Grandma and Big Poppa Powell as Owen calls them) in North Myrtle Beach, SC. It was quite an adventure and we had a GREAT time.

I had been a bit apprehensive about traveling with 2 children (we flew to Raleigh and then drove 3 1/2 hours to the beach), but we managed with only a couple incidents here and there. The trip to the beach went very smoothly until we got some bad directions from the car rental place and discovered after 30 miles that we were going the wrong way on the interstate (yes, we should have realized that we were headed west and the beach is on the east coast, but we were just so happy to have made it to the car without losing any luggage or children!) That set us back an hour, but Owen and Sydney were troopers.

We had beautiful weather our first day there and got to spend a good portion of the day on the beach. Owen loved it. I loved watching him play. He would just stare at the waves and squeal or scream, then jump, stomp, and run all around. He made a couple of sandcastles, looked for a few seashells, but mostly wanted to be in the water.

The second day it rained ALL day long, but we were able to spend some good time with Grandma and Big Poppa Powell. Owen had a blast searching for ghosts in Big Poppa Powell's "cave" (his bedroom), and playing ice cream man with Poppy (making catfish flavored ice cream for Big Poppa, by request). We went out for seafood that night and Owen requested "oysters and crab", which he ate up. The rain has moved on by the next day, but it was much chillier - the high was only around 70 degrees. That didn't stop Owen though. We still spent a good chunk of time on the beach, and he spent most of that time in the water again. I had to try and lure him out a couple times when his lips were turning a slightly alarming shade of purplish-blue.

We managed to head the right direction on the way home, and again had only a couple minor problems (one involving having to throw away my favorite of Sydney's outfits due to a massive blow-out...at least she didn't do that on the plane!). Sydney was awake pretty much the whole flight home and screamed bloody murder on the way down, but only for a few minutes. Luckily our fellow passengers were nice and we didn't get any dirty looks.

Overall we had a wonderful time. Thanks to Rick and Rhonda for all their help with our luggage, and with the kids while we were there. A great big thanks to Grandma and Granddad Powell for the delicious meals, the cozy accommodations, and the very happy memories!

Here are a few of my favorite pics, followed by a slide show with all 70 or so of them.