Monday, 07 September 2009, 09:27 PM

We had a great 3 days at the beach this long weekend. I spent the Labor Day long weekend with four of my friends from my Kindergarten class down at Myrtle Beach. There was Olivia (with her parents Pam and Jim), Mason (with his Dad, Bob), Sydney (with Mum Jennifer and younger sister Vivian), and Zoe H (with Beth and Ronnie, and little sister Morgan). So that's 7 kids and 10 grownups. We had so much fun!

Friday

I got picked up from school just after 12 on Friday (Ms Reilly said it was ok) and we left Raleigh just after lunch. We arrived late afternoon (it's a 3.5-4 hour drive depending on traffic), and checked in to our rooms. We brought our Wii so that mean our room was party central (which was fine with me!). So the people that were already here came to our room, had drinks and us kids played Wii. Our room was on the 10th floor of the Sands Resort Hotel in Myrtle Beach, so we had a great view down the beach. Later on, we all headed out for dinner at one of the local restaurants. Bob and Mason arrived after dinner though. We came back to our room and watched a bit of Monsters Inc while the grownups chatted on the balcony. Our first of 3 late nights!

Saturday

Saturday morning after breakfast, we set up on the beach. We rented two umbrellas each with a pair of deck chairs from the lifeguard. We had a lot of fun playing in the sand as well as in the water. I brought all my sand toys - buckets and shovels - so that was fun. Daddy and I played in the ocean - he picked me up and we waded into the deeper water. The waves were pretty rough be we still managed to stay upright. We were having fun jumping up over the waves as they came towards us. However one of them got us and over we went. Daddy kept hold of me so I was fine (although a little bit shocked from going underwater for a second or two), but Daddy managed to lose the sunglasses he was wearing (silly Daddy!). I went back to playing on the sand with my friends (we were digging a sand castle).

There's a water park in the resort (just like the Embassy Suites we've stayed at before) and some of us went to it as soon as it opened at 12. However, we stayed at the beach more and checked out the water park later in the afternoon. The water park was fun (especially the slides) but it was pretty crowded and Daddy said the water was too cold. The lazy river was warmer though (it was in the sun), so I had fun with Daddy and Zoe H in there.

We stayed a short time longer at the water park (enough to have an ice cream) then headed back to the beach. Mummy and I went straight back, while Daddy went up to the room, got the car keys then went to the car to get his 2nd pair of sunglasses (he buys two at a time in case he loses or breaks a pair - imagine that!).

Later in the afternoon, Daddy stayed at the beach while Mummy and I (and others) went back to the pool area to play there. This is another pool, not the water park. That was fun too. Mummy managed to rescue a toddler than decided he wanted to simply walk into the lazy river. Probably saved his life!

On Saturday night, we all went to another local restaurant for dinner. We had a long table but us kids were around one half, and the grownups were on the other half. We were a bit rowdy (so the grownups say) but there weren't others around us so it was ok. After dinner, back at our room, Zoe H, my Daddy and I, went down the beach to look for crabs. We had brought three torches to try and find them, but it turn out we didn't see any at all. Still, we had fun looking for them. Mummy and Zoe's parents stayed up in our room on the balcony and watch us and our search.

Sunday

Sunday, we decided to stay at the beach all day since it was generally much nicer out there. It was a bit overcast but still nice enough to be out there. Mummy bought me a bocce set so we had fun playing that for a while. Also, Daddy remembered to pack my kite so he and I got to fly that too - that was really fun. I was a bit nervous that it might hit the ground but Daddy helped me make sure it stayed in the air. We had more fun digging in the sand and Daddy helped too - he was intent on digging to China, but we wanted to dig for Australia instead. So we dug two holes. We didn't get very far unfortunately.

Late in the afternoon the wind picked up and the waves got rougher, and then it started raining. The rain wasn't so bad, it was the sand being blown. So we got all our stuff together and ran inside as quickly as we could. Us kids put our goggles on so we wouldn't get sand in our eyes.

Tonight we all drove down to Broadway on the Beach, a large shopping/restaurant/fun area in Myrtle Beach. We put our names down at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant but there's a 60+ minute wait so we got to go on the rides they had there. There was a car ride, an airplane ride, a train, and a couple of other ones. We walked back to the restaurant and waited another half an hour. Once we got in, it was fun. Our table was around the cooking surface where the chef prepared our dinner right in front of us. It was really fun to watch.

After dinner we walked around Broadway looking at all the things. We came across a place where you can climb fake coconut trees to reach the top as quick as you can. You're attached to a rope so you can't fall. It turned out that us kids were all heavy enough to do it, so we all got to have a go. Zoe H went first and she managed to climb to the top and ring the buzzer. When it was my turn I almost got to the very top but didn't quite make it. Mummy & Daddy was were very proud of me for trying and getting that far. I was pretty pleased with myself too.

When we got back home, us five big kids (not Vivian and Morgan - they had to go to bed) went down on the beach again with Daddy, Bob and Jim, to look for more crabs. We didn't find any but it was still fun. Another late night though.

Monday

Today is checkout day. We packed up the car and headed out. Sydney and her family went home directly, but the Mason's, Olivia's and my family stayed to go to the Aquarium. Zoe H can with us too even though the rest of her family went home too. Zoe H rode in our car which was lots of fun. The Aquarium was really fun - they have a walkway that goes under the water so you get to see the fish and sharks on either side of you and overhead. Really cool. We had lunch there too, then off we drove home. We saw there was pretty bad traffic ahead of us (thanks to Daddy's iPhone and Google Maps) so we detoured away from I-40 to avoid it.

A great weekend was had by all!