Beach trip part 1

We left July 29th to head to my cousin's beach house in Garden City (or Murrell's Inlet), SC.  It is an amazing house and we had a blast.  The trip up was rough, we hit a lot of bad weather and an accident or cop pull over that made the trip long.  And Zoey spent a lot of then end crying.  But we made it and met up with good friends from Huntingon, the Bisker/Pattersons (asimplesix.blogspot.com).  My cousin, her daughter, and a friend also came to hang out for a few days and then we went to their house in Kingstree, SC (where my mom grew up) on August 2nd after lunch and then drove home on the 4th.  It was a long, but wonderful adventure.  We really enjoyed ourselves, but were reminded why we usually do not travel with kids.  Zoey had a rough time.  She is not a beach babe and did not sleep well in the pack in play.  The included a night (the 1st or really the 2nd) when she was up from 12-4ish.  And almost every morning was a 6 or 6:30 wake up.  I had to take a nap at my cousins, which is pretty rare for me in my busy life.  But this was vacation.  So other than sleep problems, we enjoyed the sun, sand, surf, and olympics.  Below is the July portion of our trip.

The first morning we hit the beach in clothes.   Sam loved the beach and always begged to get back out there, but we did have to balance Zoey's hatred that slowly melted into dislike and the chance of too much sun exposure.

Zoey tried the waves, but they were just too much.

Nick took Sam out to jump waves once we all got into bathing suits.  Sam was really brave, wanting to go pretty deep and not freaking out when she was forced under a couple of times, even one that rolled her over.

Zoey enjoyed chasing the birds.

No cooperation for a sister photo.

Sam got a solo shot.

Zoey did like digging and dumping and collecting the sand tools.

Sam liked digging too.

A great sunset reflection.

A close up of Zoey playing with the bucket.  She kept ending up with sand on her face and often in her mouth.

Sam did really well for her first time boogie boarding.

Zoey spent a lot of time crying.  She was super tired and clingy.  It was rough, but she did have some fun.  And I carried her a lot.

Nick tried to surf but the waves were too small and way too close.

I will put up the rest of the trip soon and then we will be in the back to school mode.  Yikes!