To celebrate Bart & Sky's birthdays, we took the family to Myrtle Beach over the weekend. We went Saturday through Monday. The kids were way excited.



We stayed at this really cool hotel called Dunes Village Resort which had two indoor water parks. We went to the water park in our tower all three days. There was another park which we didn't even explore because it was in the other tower and none of us wanted to have to venture outside in our wet bathing suits. We had plenty to keep us busy, though. There were two big water slides, a lazy river, hot tubs, and a kiddie playland which had all sorts of sprinkling, spraying, and water-falling devices. I wasn't enthused about getting into a bathing suit in mid-winter, but I sucked it up (literally) and just had fun. I got Drake to go on the water slides and to go into the hot tub. He called the hot tub the "bubble bath" and liked to stand in front of the jets so his swim trunks ballooned out.



Our suite was oceanfront, so we woke up to a gorgeous (and blindingly bright) view of the sunrise. Sunday dawned with a weird fog that obscured the horizon so you couldn't tell where the gray sea ended and the gray sky began. It was beautiful. It was in the 50's Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday it ended up raining. We went out on the beach and we could see the line of rain moving down the beach toward us. It was pretty cold out there, so we didn't stay too long. Luckily we made it back to shelter just as the first raindrops started falling.





One thing we really wanted to take the kids to was Medieval Times. We bought tickets before we left. I signed us up for the birthday club, so we ended up getting free tickets for Skylar and Bart. We still spent a ton, but were able to save $60 or so.



I knew Sky and Bart would love Medieval Times, but Drake really enjoyed it, too. I think the show was a little long for him, but he really got into it. He and Bart bought wooden swords and Drake slept with his Sunday night and kept poking Bart with it. Skylar bought a princess headdress. I actually caught a flower that our knight threw. It was kind of cool because we were on the very top row, but he aimed and threw the flower right to me. It was even cooler because I actually caught it. I ended up giving it to Skylar. Lucy did not enjoy the show. She hadn't napped that day, and boy was she cranky. She didn't want to eat or drink really. George and I took turns with her in the lobby, letting her run all her bottled-up energy out.





We to had gone to Broadway at the Beach earlier that morning to do some shopping and dining. We visited this awesome candy shop and ate too many sweets.

Here's a photo summary of our shopping excursion.

Drake tries to figure out why his older siblings are wearing a coconut bra.

Drake finds a stray dog, we spy a cool restaurant with a pirate ship on the front, and I feel a surge of pride for America the Beautiful when I see all these flags flying.

We get a little crazy at the Hard Rock Cafe.
(Drake is pretending to be a saber tooth tiger).

Lucy is hyper.

And Skylar meets the man of her dreams....

Yep. It was a pretty swell vacation.