Just one more thing...

I had to post a few pics of the beautiful view at the beach! When we would sit down at the dining room table and look out through the balcony door, we would see this...we kept saying that we felt like we were on a cruise ship, because you could see no land...only water...

Standing on our balcony...

Beauty...

Gorgeous...

Myrtle Beach, part 2 (Apr 10-12=Days 6-8)

Day 6-Meltdown morning for Abby! She just was not happy! And here's a beautiful shot of me-only 14 weeks pregnant and look at me already...nice...

Abby's meltdown actually started on the beach-rolling around in the sand...
She got better by the afternoon, when we clothed the kids in Nana's handmade gorgeous outfits and headed to the aquarium. The outfits were very fun and turned out to be the perfect thing for keeping up with all nine kids on our outing! This is Zoie (age 9) with her baby bro, Jacobi (8 mos) and cousin Will (age 3).
Abby playing at the aquarium with Silvia climbing beside her...
Our little family posing at the Aquarium...
WHOA! This shark swam just above my head in the underwater walk-through...
Abby and her dad! She was getting tired...

A classic moment in front of the waterfall outside the Aquarium...Do you think the little ones were exhausted yet?

We went to Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville for lunch because we heard they had a balloon man and it was CLOSE! We are all such good parents, and we realized it when we saw the tv screens loaded with drunken people in the streets, dancing to "Margaritaville" and "It's Five O'clock Somewhere" and even MORE when it was time for the huge bottle of "lemonade" (tequila) to come down from the ceiling and into the huge blender to make a "smoothie" (Hurricane mixed drink)...and even MORE when they walked us to our table, past a table with an almost topless hula dance lamp centerpiece!

BUT, the balloon man DID show up and all the kids got their balloon hats and animals and flowers, which they LOVED...

Our last full day...Abby at the lazy river...

Abby was all tuckered out after a long day of playing in the pool...and a long week of non-stop fun!

Overall, it was a fabulous time of swimming, playing, card games, food and fun!

What can you do?

A couple of weeks ago, my sister-in-law, Amber and I took our girls to see my sister, Sarah, participate in Special Olympics! It was very cloudy and threatened rain the whole time, but we perservered and had some fun! Sarah (who has Down Syndrome and just turned 25) got to throw the tennis ball and walk in both the 50 meter walk and the 100 meter walk. She got "third first place" ;o) in all three and had a BLAST! It's actually an amazing accomplishment for her to go as fast as she did, considering the fact that she has had about 8 or so hip surgeries and 3 or 4 foot surgeries in her lifetime! I didn't get very many good pics, but here's one of her waving to me from the start line for the 50 meter walkand one of her about to cross the finish line in that same race! (She's of course, the short one in the green shirt and Clemson hat-she LOVES Clemson! And beside her is her VERY energetic, big-haired, volunteer friend, who helped her along-she was great!) I love Sarah so much! She's the best!

Consequently, Abby had a blast herself! There were balloons and huge puddles of clear water in all the grassy areas. And once she jumped in the biggest one one time, I figured, "What the heck?!" and let her keep jumping. People around me were laughing mostly, but of course there were the token few, mostly older women, who gave me those sour, disapproving looks. I mean, for real! What else am I gonna do?;0) It was hilarious and of course, when I pulled out the camera and she saw it, she immediately gave me that perfect "CHEESE!" and here's what we got!

We didn't stay the whole time, because grumpiness was becoming more prevalent (mostly with Amber and I, who had forgotten to bring camp chairs, so we were walking and standing the whole time, chasing Abby and HOLDING Myah-also no stroller-What were we THINKING?), but it was a fun, exhausting morning that we will never forget! Sometimes you just have to laugh, huh?

Crescent Keyes in North Myrtle Beach! (Apr 5-9=Days 1-5)

We just got back from a FABULOUS trip to Myrtle Beach with Josh's family! (It's only an hour away from us in case anyone ever wants to break their trip to the beach at our house in Florence!) We stayed in a condo at Crescent Keyes in North Myrtle and it was so fantastic! 12th floor corner unit with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths, a balcony and an AWESOME view right on the beach! Indoor pool, outdoor pools, hot tubs and a lazy river! I have to split the trip into different posts, because it's just way too much to do at once! So here we go! Josh's parents and sister, Alison's family (including Alison, Ryan and their 4 sons) came in from Greenville just in time for the first session of General Conference (a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake City we have twice a year where we get to hear all of our church leaders speak to us.) This was a special conference, because as many of you know, our prophet, President Gordon B. Hinckley, passed away a few months ago and we were able to sustain a new prophet, President Thomas S. Monson during this Conference. It was a very special opportunity and I am so glad that we took the time away from packing and getting ready for the beach to watch this session as a family and stand together to sustain our beloved prophet!

So then we drove for a little over an hour in the pouring rain to Myrtle Beach! It was still very cloudy and a little chilly by the time we got there, but most of us headed out the front door of the building that evening and went to the ocean!

Sunday, we set up the laptop with speakers and watched the rest of Conference, and even though we walked on the beach, I don't think anyone went swimming--or maybe they did. I'm not sure! But we definitely went the next day to the indoor pool. It was really too cold in the outdoor pools, even though some went on the lazy river! Here's a pic of Abby jumping to Dad in the pool!

Josh's brother, Jake, and his wife, Nadia joined us that day and that night, we went to Fuddrucker's for dinner and to the famous Painter's Ice Cream for dessert, where we consequently went almost every day after that until we left (Chocolate Almond-Numnum!)! Here's Noah and Abby in the car on the way to dinner!

I don't know why I don't have any pictures from Apr 8, but on the 9th, Abby and I headed to the ocean by ourselves for a little while, before everyone else joined us! It was so fun to spend time together-she LOVES the sand and shells! And she is, of course, a crazy funny kid, as you can see!

We spent most of that day at the beach and in the hot tub. (Not me, though! The water was WAY too hot for my pregnant self!) Abby enjoyed it, though and so did her buddy cousins, Will and Sam (Alison and Ryan's two youngest-Will is 9 mos older than Abby and Sam is 9 mos younger!)

Okay, so that's it for Days 1-5. Days 6-8 were definitely less low-key! Jake and Nadia had left, but Josh's sister Heidi and her family (including Heidi, Aarron, their 3 girls and 1 baby boy!) came for the rest of the week...it was a GREAT time!.....