Beach Vacation

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent a few days down in North Myrtle Beach last week. We left Wednesday after Mason got out of school and came back Sunday morning. My parents are there every spring and fall for a week each time, and they always get a large condo with plenty of room for all of us.

The drive down was somewhat of a harrowing experience. I've quickly learned traveling with two small kids is not for the faint of heart. Mason was recently potty trained and this was the first trip we've made sans pull-ups. I was a little nervous because he still has a fear of public restrooms. About halfway down, I new he had to go, but he kept saying no when I tried getting him to the bathroom.

At one point, we had to pullover in a church parking lot to calm the screaming baby. It turned out she pooped and had a blowout. We took the opportunity to try to get Mason to pee in the grass, but still no luck. As soon as he got back in the car, he was doing the pee-pee dance in his seat, so I knew he was in dire straits. We stopped at one of those Myrtle Beach welcome centers and we both tried for several minutes to get him in the bathroom. I even bough some M&Ms from the vending machine for bribery... still no luck. Finally I took him kicking and screaming into the largest stall, pulled down his pants and waited. When he just couldn't hold it anymore, it happened. He peed all over himself, all over the floor, and worst of all, all over me.

You know the trip is pretty rough when three out of four people in the car needs a change of clothes before you get to the destination.

Once we got close to the beach, we started seeing the smoke from the wildfires that were all over the news last week. At first we thought it wasn't too big a deal, but when we woke up smelling BBQ in the middle of the night and couldn't even see the ocean from right across the street due to all the smoke in the air, we knew it must be bad. The fires were across the waterway and not in our immediate area, but we saw the smoke all weekend. Ash and burnt debris washed up on the beach shore for several days and the smell was in the air the whole time. It was such a blessing that only homes and property were lost, not any lives.

Since that day was my birthday, Mom and Dad had pizza and birthday cake waiting for us when we got to the condo. Mason and I blew out the candles together since his birthday was on the 6th.

Mom and Dad were busy doing their Shag Club thing, so we were on our own most of the time. Each day we spent doing the same thing... outlet shopping in the morning, beach in the afternoon. On the second night there, we put Lauren to bed and my Mom and Dad handled Mason's bedtime for us while Dave and I went out for a birthday dinner. We didn't go anywhere too special... just Olive Garden, but it was a wonderful meal. We split a dinner so we would have room for wine, dessert, and coffee (which we usually don't get). We haven't had a date night since before Lauren was born and even then, it was a rare treat.

Mason loved playing at the beach this year. He had fun building sand castles, chasing after birds, but most of all, playing in the waves. I thought the water was pretty cold, but he didn't seem to mind. Last year he was rather scared of the waves, but not this year. Lauren loved playing in the sand too. At one point I accidentally let her fall face-first into the sand and she ended up swallowing some (as evidenced by her poop the next day) but she seemed no worse for the wear. Just like Mason before her, she seemed to really like nursing and sleeping out by the water.

The trip back home Sunday morning started off pretty good. Lauren slept and Mason sat nicely watching his DVD. I knew the potty issue would come up again and it did. We stopped at a rest area, but we couldn't get Mason to go in of course. He really needed to go, so I suggested we just pull his pants down outside in the grass and wait. He did go, and I think it was a little less tramautic this time. We drove for little while longer and then he asked to go pee in the grass again. So we pulled off the road and this time, he did it with no problems at all. I think he liked "watering the flowers". We're definitely going to remember that trick on our next trip.

I think both kids had a great time. Dave and I did too. Thanks to Mama and Daddy for having us join them. We'll meet you down there again in September!