The BEACH! :)

YEA! We got to see the beach today, yesterday it was too dark but today WOOHOO! OCEAN HERE WE COME! First thing after a quick breakfast (C loves climbing up and sitting on the stool at the bar to eat) we showed her the view from our balcony (seen below) and then headed out and watched the waves for a just a little while. (The first couple of pics are her first views of the ocean without snow...last year we were in Maine and there was snow and we were in snow suits so it was quite different for her) BEAUTIFUL! I LOVE THE OCEAN! The waves are a little bigger than normal b/c of the storms I guess so it's even louder and more beautiful than ever. However, the storms did wash up a TON of shells...the beach is literally lined with about a 5 foot wide band of shells all along the coast. Then as we stood and let the waves cover our feet there were tons of shells in the water too, not the best, just annoying b/c they kept getting in our sandals but this evening they had disappeared a good deal so hopefully the tide is taking them back out.

So let me start from the beginning then we'll come back around to the beach stories & pics..she didn't sleep so well last night, just up off and on from like 2:30-5am...never fully awake but just enough to keep me awake so I sat out in the living room with the balcony door open and listened to the crashing waves. Ahhh...I could live here. I love that sound! She did much better for her nap so I think she's settling in. We asked her this morning why she kept waking up and this was her reply..."Welllllll, I had a dream and there was thunder outside and thunder and my dream." :)

(this is a shot of her giving a little attitude to let me know she was all done with picture taking and she just wanted to play in the sand :)

We started off the day by going to BEACH CHURCH-Myrtle Beach Community Church. :) How fun is that for a church name? It was a great service, reminded us of Willow Creek. C even liked it, she was sitting with us coloring and flipping through her Bible. It was a good way to start the morning.

After church we sat through one of those time share presentations to get a free round of golf for D and free tickets to the aquarium that we'll enjoy later in the week. :) SOOO excited to see that and D is so excited to golf. We stopped on the way in at some information center and while C & I were in the potty D had been talked into this presentation. :) lol It wasn't too bad, C did great, and they knew from the beginning that we were so not interested in spending $25,000 on a time share. :) Then finally we were off to the beach!! C's favorite thing to do was throw sand balls...much like snowballs but they don't pack as well. She dug and played in the sand for a good hour, then we all headed to the pool for an hour and played and swam and then took a nice long nap. :) Tonight we went back to the beach for more fun in the sand and C picked up some seashells. She sang a little song as she gathered shells and then buried them. :) It went like this, "Seashells seashells seashells seashells" :) Every now and then while she was picking up the shells she'd just pause and stare at the waves. :)

She LOVES it to say the least. :) I bought her a beach chair several months ago and she sat in it for like 30 seconds then sat in the sand the rest of the time. Isn't that funny? I hate sitting in the sand. She's so fun to watch - she's all about the playing without a care in the world-certainly not noticing all of the sand getting in her suit. I love it.

On a side note, some of you know that literally every time we go on vacation the past few years I've been sick with allergies...well, I've been taking alavert for a few weeks to prepare for this vacation and so far so ... mostly good. :) I started taking two a day today b/c I was starting to get all congested this evening and that seems to have helped so YEA! Hopefully I won't be miserable on this vaca!

On a second side note, I literally brought 5 swimsuits for C just b/c I thought it'd be nice to have more than one so she won't have to put on a wet suit...umm, yeah. Our girl has apparently grown a lot this summer since Spring when I bought them and yeah, only 1 fits well...then we have 1 that Dayana gave us that fits but it fits weird.

Last pics...she loves her bath. :)