North Carolina Vacation 2017

The day after the last day of school, we got in the car and drove to Myrtle Beach for my family's annual vacation! The drive really wasn't too bad, I think we only stopped twice for gas/bathroom breaks. As the boys get older, traveling gets so much easier!

I am naming this vacation the vacation of fidget spinners. I don't know if they have become popular anywhere else, but in our area they are all the rage with the kids. All the touristy places around us had them in stock (we have only seen them online so far). Throughout the course of the week, we ended up buying 4 or 5 of them! James' favorite was this one that had led lights that turn on when you spin it.

Fishing in the canal in the backyard of the rental house. We didn't catch anything this year, but Anthony did harvest some oysters to cook and eat. He spent 3 hours shucking them and even though everyone was teasing him, he didn't care at all. He just kept on shucking and then cooked them up for himself (no one else was willing to try them).

Playing kerplunk with Grandma:

The way the bedrooms worked out this year, each family had their own room. We had a room with a queen bed and set of bunkbeds for the boys. Rett had the bottom bunk and in the morning we would usually find him like this:

We took a trip to the mall and saw Boss Baby. The boys liked it, especially because they convinced me to get popcorn and candy.

After the movie, we walked to the other end of the mall to check out Bass Pro Shop. We spent most of our time at the aquarium and the ATV section.

Almost every evening we walked down to the beach to play in the water. James liked to play in the waves with his cousin Savino and Rett would play in the pools created by the low tide. They had a blast looking for crabs and small fish.

This guy was cracking everyone up this year! He is so stinkin' cute!

We always bring game to play and this year my sister brought a game called exploding kittens. Part of the game is that if you forget whose turn it is and you ask, you have to wear the cone of shame. I got up to do something for Rett and when I came back, my mom was wearing the cone. Hilarious!

Showing me the fidget spinner collection:

My brothers built this sand castle and moat one evening on the beach and James was having fun playing in it.

Anthony brought his fishing pole and caught a baby black tip shark. It was funny how the other kids were scared of it, but James and Rett were arguing over who got to hold it first. Anthony's kids, I tell you!

They let the shark go in the little water first so that they could watch him swim. Then they caught him again and put him back in the ocean.

My mom bought a pirate hat with dreads, so everyone took turns wearing it. Daniel looked pretty cool with it on!

This year I really wanted to do an escape room, I've never done one before but I thought it would be so fun with everyone. I found a groupon for one, so we took a morning and did a pirate/shipwreck themed escape room. It was waaaaaay harder than I imagined and we all kind felt dumb doing it. The clues just didn't seem to make sense and when the employees came in to help you out, we felt like an idiot for not getting it. Of course, having 5 adults and 3 kids all trying to figure things out at the same time, with one of the kids (guess who) whining about being hungry the entire time makes it hard to think :) If you guessed Rett, you win. That kid is always hungry. I am convinced that he is going to be a wrestler or a football player, or some kind of power-based athlete. He is in the 90th percentile for weight and height!

We made it out with a few minutes to spare! It was fun to see everyone's personality and leadership styles come out. 

After the escape room we drove over to a tourist area in Myrtle Beach for some lunch and exploring.

And we overspent on kids rides, of course.

But how can you say no to this face????

The boys always wanted eggs for almost every meal, so here they are chowing down.

We like to checkout lighthouses wherever we visit, and I saw that this one was close to a ferry you can drive your car onto to ride. James has always wanted to do that, so we thought it would be a great way to spend the day.

The lighthouse had a strange rule that only kids 7 and older could go inside, so we prepped James the day before that juuuust this once he could pretend to be 7. He took it very seriously.

They weren't allowed to climb inside the lighthouse, just look so James and Anthony ended up being not very impressed. The one close to us both boys can climb up like it is nothing!

Then it was time for the ferry!

Driving on:

Looking at the ocean and waiting for the horn to signal that we can get out of the car:

James was worried that the horn would be too loud so he plugged his ears just in case.

There were two different decks you can go on if you want to get out of your car, so we had to check out both.

We passed another ferry on the way to where we came from!

On the drive home we saw a sign for U-pick strawberries and we couldn't resist. We ended up with two buckets full of strawberries and for the rest of the vacation I felt this obligation to try to eat them all.

Another day we drove to tour a retired battleship! The boys were so excited that we got to go on it and explore every nook and cranny.

Pretending to man the guns:

Rett was crying because he said the metal was too hot:

Exploring the inside of the ship was so interesting. And a little claustrophobic. This was one of the engine rooms:

I thought this was fun, the drinking fountains were called the "scuttlebutt" and people would gather and talk around them while getting a drink and that is why we have the phrase, "What's the scuttlebutt?"

The medical area had this very sketchy looking operating table and operating room. I asked James if he wanted to get on the table so I could take a picture and he said, "Nope, too creepy".

There were approximately a billion stairs up and down different areas inside and outside the battleship and towards the end of the few hours we spent there, Rett would just lay down on the ladders and not walk up. When we told him to keep going, he would cry, 'I can't!!! I'm too stucky!". We were all pretty tired too, so from then on when were tired we would joke and say someone had to carry us because we were "too stucky" :)

Torpedoes!

After we saw everything inside the battleship, we went back to the top and I sat down in the shade with stucky-boy while Anthony took James to explore the upper decks.

Playing at an arcade near the vacation house:

We attempted laser tag, but for some reason the guns weren't working so we ended up getting a refund. Rett took it very seriously though!

The game Daniel was playing had a gun for a second player, so Rett thought he was playing too :)

The arcade also had a little bouncy house for younger kids. Anthony and I were so tired and ready to go home, but these guys could have kept going for hours. I need some of that energy!

The boys loved having stairs in the vacation house. I'm kind of glad we don't have stairs at home. I'm pretty sure someone would have had a visit to the hospital by now.


On the way home, I was able to get a video of Rett singing the "Everything is Awesome" song from the Lego Movie. I had to be sneaky because he gets mad if he catches us watching him sing, but his little voice is so cute!!!