Myrtle Beach in December?

Travis took 2 weeks of leave right after Thanksgiving. I figured it would all be just leave at home, which is AWESOME....but we ended up going down to Myrtle Beach for 2 nights and 3 days. You can get amazing deals on hotels there, especially off season, and we got a 2 bedroom, full kitchen room, right on the beach, with a balcony facing the beach. There was an indoor and outdoor pool and lazy river, and we had a blast. The hotel is the funnest part for our kids usually anyway, so we didn't have to even spend extra money on other activities to do there. On the way down we did stop at an aquarium (Fort Fisher). We asked them though, about reciprocal memberships even though they weren't on our list as one we could get in free to, and I think the gentlemen was being extra nice and said he give us 2 adults and 2 kids. Taryn was already free, so we paid for 2 kids and that was all. And this aquarium was amazing. They had all kinds of amazing things and the habitats were big and spacious and made you feel like you are in the amazon.

This crocodile swam right up to us and stayed there (maybe he was hungry?) for us to get a good look at him.

Taryn was fascinated by everything.

This aquarium was HUGE, and we timed it perfectly to be there when they had divers go in there. One was cleaning and the other had a microphone to tell you all kinds of things about animals and answer questions. We loved it.

They also have this albino alligator. These are extremely rare and can't survive out in the wild. For one thing they can't camouflage, and for another they are more sensitive to UV rays.

The route from the aquarium to Myrtle Beach included 20 minute Ferry ride.

The lazy river at the hotel. We made sure to get good use of this and the pool.

Oops...out of order... Someone had a full day. I sure couldn't fall asleep like that...

The sunrise from our balcony.

The view from out on the beach

More view while collecting seashells

Our hotel. Did I mention it was about 60 degrees outside. In December. It couldn't have turned out better for us, really.

And luckily the battery on the camera died so I can't overload this post with any more pictures.

Remember November...

Cute T I don't know why I thought this was funny. It was like she fell asleep from sitting and just folded over. When I woke her to go to Noah's piano, she popped right back up into sitting position.

Best buddies Taryn and Gwen. It's so fun watching little babes grow together.

Noah trying to teach a thing or two to his sister. I LOVE having a baby around with older kids. Babies bring out the best and sweetest in everyone.

One of the dozens of 3 dimensional creations of Ammon. This kid really amazed me sometimes.

Thanksgiving with the Richeys.

Noah playing chess with himself after 3 people played with him and everyone needed a break.

I think it's funny that the girls are playing with dinosaurs. Yep that's about what we have for them. Dinosaurs and cars. Noah turned TEN on Nov 26th. I don't know how this has happened. He had apple crisp for his cake.

His buddy Elijah came over to celebrate with us.

The trouble begins the moment the tree goes us. The bottom of our tree has been bare since the 2nd day.

cuteness

Lockheed Martin

This was kind of a new and cool experience for Trav. In November he got to pick up a jet fresh from the factory and fly it back to the base.

I still think it's so unreal that my husband does something like this for a living.

Grandparents are awesome

We were so happy to get kind of a last minute visit from Trav's parents for the past 10 days. It was a such a treat when we had expected not to see them for awhile. We fit in all kinds of fun things and the time went way too fast. The coolest thing that I did this time around, was to give each kid one day out of school by themselves and that was their day to be just with Grandma and Grandpa. That really just meant Noah and Kaden, since Ammon was the star student that week and could not bear to miss a day. He got his time with Grandma when I took all the rest of the kids to piano one day.

Kaden had his bonding time with Grandpa by helping bag pine needles in the back yard.

Two of the most amazing people I know shown above...and three of the most amazing people I know below =)