Our Beach Week Part 1: Dolphins, Golf and Loads of Fun!

We spent a wonderful week at the beach with my family last week. When we "go to the beach", we go to Garden City Beach. It's a short drive from us and where Kevin and I spent our beach days growing up. It's nice to be able to make the same memories we remember making with our parents with our kids.

My parents rented Kevin's family's beach house which was really special. It's right on the inlet which is pretty much a requirement for our family because we love being out in the inlet and my dad likes to take his boat. It also has a nice boardwalk right in front of it to get to the beach. The location couldn't be better.

When we got down Saturday afternoon, the first thing the boys did was attempt to break into an old trunk in one of the bedrooms. When we were down after Christmas, K.C. was fascinated with this "treasure chest" and since he found out BeBe (my mom) rented the beach house, he's been planning to take his "tools" to get into the chest. While the boys didn't get the chest cracked, they did have a good time trying!

After we got the cars unloaded, we went out for a ride in the inlet. We love driving over to Murrells Inlet and just cruising around. I also love picking out my favorite homes (something Kevin and I would love to own one day). Riding on the boat always makes us hungry, so enter dinner time.

It's become sort of a tradition in our family to order in pizza from California Pizza Kitchen on our first night at the beach. Ironically, I was craving garlic bread as the first real food I ate after being sick for a few days. After dinner, we headed down to the beach. The boys loved splashing around in the pools left at low tide and Kevin liked exploring. He loves finding treasure in the form of special shells and conchs on the beach and I think his knack for this is (hopefully) rubbing off on me (I did find one or two of the more than ten conchs we found all by myself!).



We woke up to a gorgeous Sunday. Without a cloud in the sky, we headed out for the beach. We spent most of the day on the beach Sunday. The boys' had a great time boogie boarding (and having us pull them around, too). They were in heaven having my sister and one of her friends play with them, too. After a walk along the shore, we headed inside to hang out for a while.



On Sunday night, we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. K.C. (and I should include myself in this) is in love with the bread and butter they serve there. He always asks to go there when we're at the beach. After a delicious dinner, my dad and Kevin played Par 3 while my mom, the boys, girls and I went to play putt putt.


Monday was a rainy day, but we still had fun and made the most of it. Kevin, the boys, my sister and her friend and I rode across to a shell island for Kevin to catch some minnows to fish with and for us to just look around. As soon as we made it across, the bottom fell out. We toughed it out Survivor style for about ten minutes and then when the lightening started, I loaded up my little sweet boys and drove the boat home. Mr. I Want To Be On Survivor stayed. Can you spot him in the picture below? We all changed clothes as we were soaked and then waited for Kevin to wade down.

After this adventure, we hung out under the covered portion of the dock. Kevin had thrown a crab trap out, so the boys were really excited to see what was caught. See how fearless Kaden is?

Since it looked like the rain was there to stay, we got ready and went to Fudrucker's for lunch. Fudrucker's has quickly become a favorite stop at the beach. Kevin loves it and I think he's passed that love down to my parents who suggested we eat there another time later in the week.

After lunch, we went up to North Myrtle Beach. We went to the Bass Pro Shop for my dad and Kevin to look around. The boys love to see the big fish they have in an aquarium. I took the boys down to Books-A-Million to pick out a few new books. If there's one thing you should know about me it's that I LOVE books and I love that my kids love books. You should probably also know that I buy way too many. They each picked out a few books which we've enjoyed reading.

Before we left, we had to stop at the J.Crew Factory Store. My love for J.Crew is also something you need to know about me. I love it. Like capital L-O-V-E it. I left with three pencil skirts, a navy eyelet skirt, a silk top and an Artist Tee. If you haven't worn an Artist Tee from J.Crew, you're missing out. I love them. I wear them all the time. They are so soft!

For dinner Monday night, we picked up Mexican from my favorite Mexican restaurant ever. You should also know that Mexican is one of my favorite foods ever. After we ate, we went out on the beach and just ran around and had a great time. My sister decided she wanted to see if she could sprint faster than me which turned into having lots of races on the beach. I wish I could share the video of K.C. and my dad racing. I also decided I wanted to see if I could sprint faster than Kevin. I knew I couldn't (he's incredibly fast!), but I was surprised I was as far behind him as I was!


On Tuesday, Kevin wanted to go out in the ocean and fish for Spanish. Kaden isn't a big fan of riding the boat into the ocean, so he decided he'd go to the beach with BeBe while Kevin, K.C., my sister and I went out in the ocean. While we didn't have much luck with the Spanish, we did see some gorgeous dolphins. They swam around us for close to twenty minutes or so and even came up within two feet of the boat. I'm thankful that I had my camera with me because I was able to get tons of photos of them. We were all in awe!



Kevin's parents came down for the day on Tuesday. We enjoyed getting to spend time with them on the beach and went out to dinner before they left to go home. I'm so thankful our families really love spending time together! After California Dreaming, we took the boys to Sam's Corner which is a well-known arcade and short order grill across from the pier. They love to play the arcade games (and I love skee ball). After playing for a while and cashing in their tickets for rubber snacks and stickers that wouldn't stick, we called it a night!


What is your favorite thing to do at the beach?

Do you like to sit and read or get up and play when you're at the beach?

Are dolphins not the coolest?

Part 2 to come tomorrow!

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