WARNING: pictures galore
I had one of the greatest weeks of my life. I have been a little too stressed out and I just had a week with almost no stress-- I say almost because I was still with 3 kids.
Mark's sister Rachel flew in to join us for the week. Her and I and the three kids drove to SC to spend the week in a condo on the beach. The drive was only a little over three hours but you would have thought it was 3 days if you saw our reaction when we arrived. We headed straight for the beach.
The kids got thoroughly drenched before we unpacked the car. After we unpacked and found our bathing suits we headed back to the beach.
The next morning we got to the beach early. The kids were angels the first day. They loved everything about the beach. Katie proved to be quite the daredevil having both Rachel and I take her as far out into the waves as we could.
The days quickly became a blur...
I would wake up (Marcus would wake me up) early to read alone (Marcus would watch a show) on the deck, listening to the waves. I even got to go for a run a couple of mornings. The kids and I would go on a walk to find shells and then come back to eat breakfast. Then we would pack up and head to the beach for the day. Our days were filled with playing in the water and the sand, flying kites, looking for shells and snacking. Katie and Addy loved the waves, Marcus was scared, he preferred to play in the water that would pool when the tide went out.
Katie made a friend
After a couple of days on the beach we decided to head into town to find somewhere to eat. We wanted some yummy fish tacos, authentic beach cuisine right? But they were nowhere to be found. After driving around for way too long we ended up at Blackfoot Landing (a boardwalk type area with shops and restaurants). Everyone was tired and hungry when we got there. Marcus had fallen asleep in the car and was not in a good mood when I woke him up, so I had to carry him.
I am trying to deal with all the whining and find a place to eat, we walk around the corner and stumble upon this...
Yes, real live tigers! And they were so close.
They also had baby tigers. The kids were in heaven. You could pay to hold the baby tigers, and there were some people holding them while we were there. Of course Katie started begging me to let her hold them.
We headed back to Blackfoot landing another night to get ice cream and see the tigers again. We stopped to feed the turtles on the way.
When we got to the tigers, the kids headed for the cubs. I had already told Katie that I was not going to pay for her to hold the tigers. But the more we looked the weaker I got. There was also a monkey there that people were getting to hold.
Finally I couldn't handle the cuteness of all the animals anymore (or my daughter's pleading eyes); I knew Marcus would never actually hold the tiger but I wanted to pet it, so I arranged for Addy and Katie to hold it. All of us went in and I held Marcus while Addy and Katie took a picture with the baby tiger. Then we were able to pet the tiger and the monkey. Addy and Katie got to take pictures with the monkey as well (but I didn't want to add $20 to my bill to have one).
(That night and the next day Katie was on a high, she spent a lot of time looking at the picture of her and the tiger. She spent even more time trying to draw the picture above-the picture is of her and Addy holding the tiger.)
Then we went for ice cream.
Our condo had an elevator. The kids fought over who go to push the buttons every time we got on it. One day Rachel took the kids and headed down, I followed them down a few mins later. I am standing in the the hallway and I hear Marcus screaming and Rachel panicking and the alarm button goes on. Finally, the elevator comes back up and Marcus falls in my arms crying. The kids had been fighting and Marcus stuck his had in the door and it shut on his hand. Rachel couldn't get it open and had pushed the panic button. Finally it had opened on its own, poor Marcus was so sad and scared. He was a little more careful on the elevator after that. A couple hours later the police showed up--a follow up call on the alarm button.
Our photo shoot on Rachel's camera.
We had run out of fruit snacks by the time Rachel got in the pictures
The last day at the beach the kids were tired and cranky. We headed down to the beach early to get in a few hours before we left for home. Rachel and I had heard rumors of shark teeth found in the sand and we wanted some. We grabbed our shovels and buckets and started digging. Marcus and Addy started whining and being little stinkers and driving us nuts. Finally, I gave them some juice boxes and sent them away. They started playing a little bit away from us and were finally happy, so I let them be. About a 1/2 hour later I noticed two black women go up to them and start talking to them. I quickly go to where they are to figure out why they are talking to my kids . . . I guess some women down the beach had stopped them as they were walking and told them there were "two little black kids by themselves down the beach, and did they know them and if they did not know them, would they go help them!" Seriously!!! We were no more than 50 ft away from them the whole time. And if these ladies were so worried about the kids why didn't they check on them, instead of sending the first black people they found? The funniest part about it was that when they asked the kids where their mom and dad was, Marcus and Addy said "at work" (cause Mark was) and when they asked them where they lived they pointed towards the condo. It was so funny, and the women were relieved to know that I was their mom, and that they were not stranded kids on the beach.
Anyway, we found our shark teeth and lots of great shells and finally forced ourselves to go home. At least we had Mark at home waiting for us.
