Pawley's Island Trip

On Tuesday, I picked Bella up from school at noon, and we grabbed a bite to eat at Subway before meeting up at Pap Pap and Jamma's to load up our beach gear and head to Pawley's Island, SC to meet up with the Lyday clan for a fun filled beach week.  We arrived around 5ish, just in time for happy hour on the beach.  While the adults enjoyed wine/beer, the kiddos did some wave jumping/castle building before we headed up for a yummy homemade dinner of pasta and meatballs.  The kids were out by 9 and the adults played a game of Set (super fun) while drinking more wine.  Great way to start a vaca at the beach.

Wednesday.  Bella woke up at 5:30 with the sunset, but I made her wait until we heard Pap Pap (6:30 a.m.) before she could get up.  After breakfast, we headed to the beach where we stayed most of the day doing a little bit of everything.  The house is right on the beach, with a private outdoor shower under the deck of the house, so the kids were free to go back and forth as they pleased all day.  There was also a dock across the path in front of the house where we could fish and check the crab trap.  All crabs were only examined, discussed and then set free, none were harmed during our visit.  After dinner, we had movie night.  Bella and I had put together a little popcorn bucket for each kiddo full of movie treats for this occasion.  The movie was Despicable Me, and the treats were devoured entirely.  During the movie, the grown-ups played Bananagrams in which I was quickly challenged for most of my words.  The fun part was watching Katie look up each word only to discover that they were in fact real words.  I play a lot of Scrabble :)  I ended this night sitting on the back deck, looking at the stars and listening to the ocean.  Perfect.

Thursday.  Mixed in with a lot of back in forth beach time was a lot of board game playing.  Apples to Apples, Uno, Sorry, Risk, Checkers, Chess, and Jenga just to name a few.  Jamma made gin & tonics for happy hour, and we had a delicious shrimp dinner paired with fresh veggies from Pap Pap's garden.  We all watched Kung Fu Panda together, before calling it a night.  Another great day was had by all.

Friday.  Today was our last day at the beach so it was time to soak up as much as possible.  Bella and I headed out early, around 9 a.m., to do some wave jumping and cartwheel practice.  After about my 10th cartwheel, I stopped for a second and happened to look down by my feet.  I found a sand dollar about the size of the palm of my hand.  It was also unbroken.  Bella ran to show Jamma what we found because sand dollars are her favorite, and it sent everyone shooting out of the house to search for stuff on the beach.  We found beautiful conch shells with the creatures inside that we inspected and put back in the ocean.  Lots of starfish and several types of crabs.  Bill and Ben saw a tiny shark some folks had caught, and all of us watched schools of tiny fish swim around in tiny tide pools while we searched.  I felt like part of the Nature Channel, and Bella was loving every minute of sea creature discovery.  After a great last day at the beach, we all got cleaned up and decided to go out to dinner for pizza.  The pizza was delicious, and it was nice to get out of the house for a little bit.  The movie for this evening was Madagascar, and while the boys and Bella watched the movie, the ladies read on their Nooks.  Katie, Jamma and myself all have one :)  I did a quick star gaze before calling it a night, and tried to soak up listening to the waves while I fell asleep one last time <3


Saturday.  We were all up by 7, and packed and with the house clean by 8.  Pretty good for 9 people if you ask me.  We were on our way home by 8:30, and back in Mint Hill at 1.  Vince was certainly happy to have his girls home after a long week of dealing with roof repair, but that's for another post.  I will catch up on all the other fun stuff later today.

For now, I'm off to finish Jenny's t-skirt and Bella's flower girl dress before I head back to Hattiesburg, MS on Tuesday to relieve my Mom for a bit.  It's been a crazy 3 months to say the least.  Now, I'm off to sew, and more to come later.

xoxoxox