Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

Our family trip this year was to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  It was an 11 hour drive from our house.  We'd never been to the Carolinas so it seemed like a good idea.  We went over memorial weekend and the kids missed a few days of school.  We found a great place to stay that had an ocean front view.  It was beautiful!  

Here is a list that Blake made of things we should bring on our trip.  My favorite was his list of what to bring home.

After we unloaded all of our luggage, we went and found some Mexican food for our first dinner there.

Sunday morning we walked along the beach before we headed to church.  Cal couldn't help himself and got totally wet.

Mac and cheese and peas with a great view.

The kids loved trying to catch tiny fish.  They made some friends that are from Columbus Ohio, and would play together multiple times throughout our stay.

There were a lot of jellyfish in the water and washed up on shore.

Nearby they sold a mix of Italian ice and ice cream.  It was delicious. 

Downtime at the condo

It was VERY hot all week.  We took a break from the pools and beach to go mini golf.  At this course they were doing some renovations so only 9 holes were open, but they said we could golf the 9 holes as many times as we wanted.  Cal and I stuck together while everyone else played a bunch of rounds.

After golf, we had to go have ice cream for our dinner so we could cool off.

A couple rounds of Codenames before bed.

The lazy river was fun!  At one point all seven of us were connected in a line of tubes.

I tried to be a fun mom and give everyone a little money to play at the arcades.  It kind of backfired as all of the arcades cost too much money and a lot of crying occurred afterward.  The kids have always wanted to try and win a stuffed animal from the claw machine.  On the first try, Janie randomly moved the controller and pushed the button, not sure of how to play.  Yet she still won what we think is a stuffed pumpkin and she appropriately named it "Myrtle."  The boys cried when they did not get one.

We made a stop on our way home to try some boiled peanuts.  Nobody really liked them.

Weeks after we got home from our trip Cal kept saying something and it took me awhile to figure out what it was.  He kept saying "I want to go to South Carolina again someday."

May 2019

The kids love swimming at the rec center!  Especially Cal.

Eric helped everyone get a little baseball practice in one Saturday morning in the basement.

Naked juice at the Rec center park.

Cal and I read books and then jumped on the trampoline together while Chet was at preschool.  Lots of giggling from this boy!

At a park while Blake had baseball practice.

I splurged and took Chet and Cal to an indoor play place for the day in Avon.  We stayed as long as they were happy.

Blake got his braces off!  Round one is done.

Chet had a preschool ice cream field trip at Malley's.  

I saw on tv that the Wheel of Fortune Wheelmobile was coming to Cleveland.  Jenny Ludlow and Elaine Guthrie went with me.  There were three hour long sessions on a Saturday aftenoon.  We got in line and filled out a form about ourselves and stuck it in to a raffle box.  There were maybe 500 people there?  Maybe more.  They randomly picked 5 names from the raffle at a time and those five people went on stage to play a quick mock game of Wheel of Fortune.  They called my name!  We all screamed as I ran up.  They took my picture and I waited for the previous group to finish.  I went on stage and introduced myself.  The audience made significant noise when I told them I was a mother of 5 kids ages 2, 4, 6, 9, and 10.  I guessed a couple letters and solved the puzzle!  The Amazon River.  I won a little back pack and a pin.  Elaine was called to go up on the third session of the day.  She also solved her puzzle.  It was such a fun experience with two very fun friends.

Happy Mothers Day 2019

Here is Chet on his last day of preschool.  He had such a great year.

Chet did great at his preschool graduation.  I accidentally grabbed him Ty's shoes so they were a little big.

Playground World--Anything to wear these two out.

Blake has integrity!  His homeroom teacher chose Blake to give this monthly award to.  The attribute of the month was integrity.  Eric and I attended the assembly but kept it a secret as he did not know his name would be called.  I am always so proud of Blake!

**Find & add paper from what his teacher wrote about him.