Myrtle Beach-Day 1

So far, we are having a wonderful time on our first family trip to Myrtle Beach. I was so excited to take the girls on vacation, but I was also nervous that the girls wouldn't do well with the 8 hour car ride or sleeping in a room that wasn't their own.

It turns out that my worries weren't necessary. The girls did amazingly well on the trip. The only tears we had were when the rain woke up Sophia and she was still tired. After a few wails, she quieted down and there wasn't another complaint from either girl for the rest of the trip. The rain was the worst part of the trip. I'm pretty sure we won't be that lucky on the way home, but who wants to leave the beach? :)

The rain was too loud, she said. :)

We didn't want Emma to miss two days of school, so we got a late start leaving Knoxville. We got to our hotel around 10 pm.  The girls weren't tired at all, and got their second wind. After unpacking and getting settled, they ended up getting to bed around 11, which is definitely the latest they've ever been up. Everyone slept in the next day and was ready to hit the beach.

I was the most excited about seeing the girls' reaction to the waves and I wasn't disappointed.  The way they approached the ocean is just the way they approach life itself.

Sophia is a true beach baby.  She scared the heck out of me because she had no fear of the water and wanted to dive right in. The beach isn't as relaxing as it used to be! ;) She spent her day digging in the sand, covering herself in sand, rolling in the sand...oh, the sand. I think we'll be finding sand for months after this. In between her sand play, she would run down to the shore and squeal with delight when the waves hit her.  She loved having me carry her in, but was so frustrated that I wouldn't let her down on her own.

Emma was a little timid of the waves at first, just barely letting it touch her toes. She was more content finding seashells and crab shells that had been shed. She worked very hard at walking down to the water to fill up her bucket and wash her shells. At the end of the day, she got a little more brave and went in the water with Andy.

After a delicious dinner at Carolina Roadhouse, we enjoyed the hotel's indoor water park and lazy river. Emma was feeling brave and decided to go down the water slide with Andy. Unfortunately, she forgot to close her mouth and ended up with a mouthful of water, which scared her. She was done with the slide after that, but I was so proud of her for trying!

The sweetest part of the day was watching my girls fall asleep. Emma is sleeping on the pull-out sofa and Sophia is sleeping in the pack-n-play right next to her. Andy and I were laying in our bed and we heard some whispering. We saw that Emma had moved all the way to one side of her bed so that she was laying next to Sophia and they were whispering to one another and touching hands through the pack-n-play. It was precious.  They're going to have a very hard time going back to sleeping in their own rooms.

We're looking forward to another fun-filled day!