Bolling With 5: Myrtle Beach Bound (July 2015)

We are covering A LOT of ground at Myrtle Beach. This is the longest trip we have ever taken HERE and overall, minus our Disney World trip. I keep waking up thinking, "Do we really have 7 more days left? Do we really have 6 more days left?" I'm so thankful (even though my heart is dying inside for our puppies) because we can take our time and enjoy it ALL (each other, restaurants, the beach, shopping, and so much more). We go NON-STOP, basically from the moment we wake up (about 8:00 am) to almost midnight. Our kids are troopers. I started this post the other day, so SINCE then, we have done A LOT more, but see what we did the FIRST half of our trip so far... We The kids and Darren have caught fish. It's truly Darren's favorite thing to do on the beach.

Usually, Darren catches little fish and crabs while the kids build a home for them.

As you can see, this is a very serious task!

I got the kids started on this "aquarium" and then relaxed while they continued building. I kept telling them, "If you build it, they will come!" Hahah.

Now and again, they would take breaks, and go swimming. I refrained because someone had to be on the look out for sharks. My heart was pounding, often, envisioning what I would do if I saw one.

Riding waves!!!

Seashell fun! My little beach walrus.

We found some neat seashells too. I liked this one because it reminded me of a butterfly.

CRAB CATCHING

We have a TON of traditions that we MUST fulfill, EVERY TIME we come to Myrtle Beach, or our trip just doesn't feel right. Catching crabs is another favorite of ours. We drive down to a little area where we know they reside. The kids catch them, put them in a bucket, AND then we take them to the beach to release them. Haha.

We hunted for shark teeth in this endless bed of seashells because our friend, Brett, said he found mounds of them in a similar area. We found ONE. The woman I photographed below, whom we don't know, but she said she looked for hours and had only found 3.

POOL FUN - Give a boy a ball, any size boy, and they will let you sun bathe for hours. Darren made some friends while playing a made up game, in the pool, with Ty. The entire male population came and joined. In the below video, only three were playing because the other boys/guys got "out". They were waiting on the next round.

My spot!

GAMES AND FUN - another tradition of ours is to go to "Ultimate California Pizza and Games". We eat and then we give each kid between $25-$35 worth of tokens on a card. They play their hearts out (so does Darren) and then buy cool prizes with their earnings.

Lilah and I did the photo booth at the Ultimate California Pizza and Games restaurant. I love the way it turned out.

Quiet time. It's nice getting up before the day begins and relaxing out on the deck. I can't promise this has happened every morning, but when it does, I am thankful for the time.

SHOPPING! I am so glad our family enjoys shopping together. Darren is such a fun hubby. He actually enjoys the shopping as much as I do. The kids are slowly figuring out that they may as well enjoy it too because there is NO escaping it. Ty and Jax enjoyed a visit to the kids Under Armor store and Lilah chose that beautiful cross bracelet as a Tanger Outlet souvenir, out of EVERYTHING offered (and there was a Claire's store too).

We are always trying to capture some cute shots of the kids, hence the reason I insist on color coordinating our outfits when I pack. I couldn't choose which photos I liked best, so I put my top 7 below. A few of them were snapped with my camera and a few with my cell phone. You'll be able to tell a difference quickly.