Myrtle Beach Family Vacation

Whoa, hold the phone! What's this?  Is this a blog post??  Well indeed it is.  I have a few tricks up my sleeve that I'll be sharing in no time but for now just a little post about our (not so) recent family vacation to Myrtle Beach over Labor Day weekend.

I'll be honest, every time we go to Myrtle Beach we say we're never going back.  And every year...we go back.   It's just so dang convenient, cheap, and the kids absolutely love it!!   Oh, and you can book it last minute for mom's like me who plan trips on a whim.  (I was just reminiscing of our trip two years ago.  Look how little James was!!)

Our last beach vacation this year was back in May.  May felt like a REALLY long time ago and given it was cold still the boys didn't really get to enjoy the beach like I wanted them to.  So two weeks before labor day weekend I decided to call our old faithful Dunes Village Resort to see if they had anything available.  Nothing Friday night which worked out perfect in hindsight because Hermine blew through on Friday, but we booked Saturday, Sunday and Monday night.

We always stay at Dunes for several reasons:

One, there is SO much for the kids to do.

WATERSLIDES 

LAZY RIVERS 

A PLAY GROUND 

GAMES (chess anyone?)

And all RIGHT on the beach!!

Another big selling point for us is the Oceanfront rooms with balcony's.  Nothing beats sitting on the balcony and hearing the ocean at night with a cocktail in hand after we put the kids to bed.

And all the rooms have separate bedrooms and kitchens.  We usually go out to dinner a couple nights and then stay out later on the beach one night and eat in.  But its really nice to have the kitchen for breakfast and lunches and the separate bedrooms are absolutely necessary considering the kids go to bed at 8:30/9pm and we'd like to stay up later.

And lastly, its a 3.5 hr drive from us and only a couple hundred dollars a night, this works perfect for our needs with two small kids right now.

With that said we were on the road Saturday morning by 8:30am and on the Water Slides by 12:30pm.  This was the first family vacation to the beach where both boys were old enough to enjoy it.  They could both ride the waterslides, they're both obsessed with the beach and neither of them were going to melt into a puddle of tears if they didn't get a nap by a certain time.  I feel like we've made it!!  Time for another baby right!? ;)

Hunters favorite part was the ice cream truck, James's favorite part was the water slides, and mommy and daddy's favorite part was nap time on the beach with a cocktail and snacks.

Speaking of snacks...have you tried these new Chobani Greek yogurt dips yet?  If not go get em!!  They were delicious.  We tried both the Chili Lime favor and the Sweet Onion flavor and both were amazing.  A good change of pace from french onion chip dip or hummus.  We had them with corn chips and pretzels just out of convenience at the beach but they would be great with cut up veggies too.  I found them in our grocery fridge section where they keep the pimento cheese and hummus.




Now that we've had a wonderful beach trip to end the summer I think I'm ready for fall. (I think) Sad to see summer go, but ready for some apple picking, college football and trick or treating!!

SNOMG2016

I've left the house once since thursday (5 days, 1 time).  Surprisingly, not really feeling all that much cabin fever, its kind of been a nice relaxing break but I have to think back what the heck have we been doing for the past 5 days.  

Thursday with the rest of Charlotte we went out to dinner, grab a few necessities from the grocery store and hunkered down in the house waiting for the snow and friday morning when we woke up it DID NOT disappoint.

This was our driveway...a sheet of ice.


The rest was totally instagram worthy

It's amazing how much changes in a year.  Last year when Hunter was 3 he had no interest in playing in the snow.  Everytime we went out to see it he said he it was too cold and he wanted to go inside.  This year was complete opposite.  The excitement on his face when he saw all the snow Monday morning was one of those mom moments i'll keep in my head and heart forever. 

And even though I've seen snow a million times (growing up in NY), his excitement was contagious, I was like a kid in a candy store right there with him.  

So Friday was just snow day bliss.  We dressed in our long johns and slippers...

made blueberry pancakes

which led to apple muffins thanks to the recipe on the pancake mix

read books with friends

cleaned up the house

played nice as brothers

and didn't play nice as brothers

But while James was down for his long winter nap Hunter and I went out and played.  Snowballs, sledding he would have stayed out there all day if I let him! 

And guess what...Saturday we woke up and did it again.  Except instead of pancakes we had oatmeal - which led to me seeing the oatmeal cooking recipe on the tub - i see a trend here. hmmm

By Saturday at 10am we were all 4 out playing in the snow again. As expected James lasted about two minutes and whined to go inside.  Snow playing, lunch, naps, and little of this for Mom and Dad was really blissful.  It's not often we get to look out our back porch and stare at snow.  There's just something so beautiful about snow. (2 inches of snow that is).

Saturday night our friends (who are neighbors) came over with their kiddos.  We turned the fireplace on in the basement, the glow off the snow came in through the windows down there. It sort of felt like we were away in the mountains minus the hot tub in the snow that we were really wishing we had.

6 adults, 5 kids, pizza, cocktails, popcorn, movies, and dance parties...It was the most fun evening and I'm really mad at myself for not saving off any of my videos or pics from snapchat.  Maybe you caught it live on my snapchat ID -  lunsfordkm?  

Sunday we paid the price of keeping the kids up past their bedtime with a sick 4  year old.  Hunter V woke up with a 104 fever and here we are today on Tuesday with the same fever.

It seems to be going down a little bit so hoping this is the end. If not, off to the Dr. we go tomorrow.  

Hope ya'll out there are surviving your snow and school outages.  My parents up in Virginia got 40 inches!! Insane! xoxo

Family and Football: A fun three day weekend!

Whew – Does it feel like Monday to anyone else besides me?  Us "bankers" in the Lunsford house had a three day weekend thanks to Martin Luther King Jr.    We jam packed our weekend with a lot of fun and a little bit of rest. 

We started our Saturday with playdates and The Little gym.  Then home for naps while I worked on the laundry and prepped some appetizers to enjoy during the Panthers game on Sunday.   I’ve been taking his greek dip EVERYWHERE we go lately.  It’s literally the easiest thing ever, all you have to do is chop and layer.  

  Tub of traditional humus

    Tub of Tatziki

   Cucumber, Tomato, and Green Onions

Mediterranean Feta, and Black olives (I only put black olives on half since I feel like a lot of people don't like olives)

 I also put together some anti-pasta skewers.  I got the idea from snoopnattynat when she posted this on her instagram.   They also ended being delicious and a hit.  I’m going to have to remember these for our xmas party next year.   It’s not shown in the picture but right before I served them I drizzled deli oil over them. 

 Saturday night Grami came to babysit and Hunter and I snuck away for a date night with my brother and sister-in-law.   Some noshing, followed by a nice dinner, made complete with a bucket of "juice" from Howl at the Moon (which i hadn't been to in like 10 years). 

 Sunday we were up and at em again and headed to Big Daddy’s (my father in laws) house BUT...Not before watching our first snow fall.  Hunter V has been DYING to see snow so he was super excited.  And well..monkey see, monkey do so James Penn was equally excited as his big brother.  They sat here at my bathroom window and watched it for a good 15 minutes while I got ready.  So sweet! 

 Big Daddy lives on Lake Norman so we enjoyed a cozy day, with family, friends, football and a great view! 

 The cousins on Hunter's side.  Aren't they cute! 

 We stayed the night and headed home first thing Monday and after two big nights for us old folks Monday we spent relaxing and getting ready for the week! 

Only three more work days and its another weekend!!!  Woohoo!