It’s a snowy day here again, and I realized that I somehow never wrote about my birthday last month, so what better time to reminisce about the beach-themed day we enjoyed?
Just after midnight on my birthday, Michael surprised me by telling me that he was taking the entire day off of work, just to spend it together! Time is really the best gift you can give anybody, and I appreciate his time so much because of how incredibly busy he is. I was also pretty excited that I got to sleep in for an extra half an hour! Kaya and Michael had been planning some secret special activities, so I didn’t want to sleep too long and lose time.
Even the weather felt like a gift to me- it was just perfect for running, and because Michael wasn’t rushing off to work, I wasn’t on a time crunch and could run as long as I wanted. I felt good, so I just kept going, and I ended up with 7.5 miles. I think a long run was definitely the perfect way to start my birthday!
It was a good thing I ran for so long, because it gave Michael, Kaya, and Kaelyn time to put all this together:
I walked into “Irwin Beach”, where there were coloring pages decorating all the walls, streamers, beach-themed music, and Michael finishing making pancakes while wearing his Hawaiian swim trunks. They couldn’t take me to my favorite place in February, so they brought it to me!
They didn’t just make any pancakes, either… these are modeled after my very favorite “Nutella S’mores” pancakes that I have when we go out for breakfast down in Myrtle Beach.
Just imagine… Fluffy pancakes, covered in Nutella, whipped cream, graham cracker crumbs, marshmallows, chocolate chips, and sprinkles. Mmmm! I ate 1.5 and was so FULL!
A couple of little girls were really excited about the sprinkles!
This baby girl was just as happy with a tray full of marshmallows!
Great post-run fuel, right?
Michael had been keeping the rest of the day’s plans a secret, but the girls spilled the beans about us needing our swimsuits shortly after breakfast was over, so I knew we were going to the aquatic center! It took a little while to collect everyone’s necessary suits and towels (we haven’t been swimming since last summer), but it was so worth it when we got there and saw the smiles on the girls’ faces.
This was actually our first time going there, and I think Kaya and Kaelyn were equally excited and terrified by the water that would fall from the upper beams. And, as you can see, we were the only ones there besides one other family.
The older girls loved going down this crocodile slide!
Kaecakes, you crack me up.
This was Nella’s first time ever swimming! I can’t believe it took us so long to take her to the pool, but it’s just not as easy as it was with Kaya and Kaelyn, since we had access to a neighborhood pool when they were babies. Nella had the best time, and although the water was a little chilly, she still didn’t want to get out.
She was happy as long as she had this big red ball.
Kaya had Daddy give her a mini swim lessson, mostly just practicing floating and kicking her legs up and down the short end of the pool. She really wants to learn to swim for real so she can go down that huge water slide in the back (no life jackets are allowed, and parents can’t wait at the bottom to catch their child, either, so she’d need to be completely independent).
I love all these baby girls more than I could ever say. This outing had me feeling especially grateful for homeschool, too, because it allowed us to all be together, Kaya included. These are the best days.
Michael did have to go and teach his afternoon class, so while he headed off to do that, we all washed up, ate lunch, and had naps. Kaelyn gave me about a thousand sweet homemade cards that she had hidden about a week before my actual birthday. Our sweet new baby girl spent a lot of the day kicking in my belly, which felt like a little gift, too. We ended the day at one of our favorite places- Red Robin!
I honestly couldn’t have come up with any better way to spend my birthday. Thirty is looking really great so far.
There was a cute little living room, where we watched a couple of movies at night (Trolls and The Secret Life of Pets)!
A dining area (and it became very clear to me that I will never, ever, have a glass tabletop, especially with kids)!
It had a little red kitchen! That’s what always seals the deal for me… wherever we stay has to have a kitchen, because there is no way we’d want to eat out for every meal. We cooked and had leftovers for several nights, and bought supplies for breakfast and lunch at the house. We all love our routines, so we were happy eating muffins for breakfast, and salads and sandwiches for lunch, just like at home.
This house actually had three bedrooms, but we ended up just using two, since the third one was on the opposite side of the living room, and I didn’t want to put Nella in there all on her own. She slept in the pack ‘n play in our room, and it worked out just fine.
These beds were king-sized, and when Kaya and Kaelyn overheard us saying that, they thought we meant that real kings sleep in them. It was the funniest idea to me, so I went along with their imaginations for the rest of the week. They thought that kings must have owned the beach house, and we were sleeping in their beds. They were also a little concerned that the kings would come back while we were still there. It was pretty adorable.
Kaya and Kaelyn shared this bed (and had plenty of room for Daddy to read to them or Mommy to snuggle in the middle)!
On the last morning, we headed out to the beach at sunrise to take our traditional family picture. It’s always so hard to get up and out that early (these were taken around 6:20 am), but it’s always worth it to remember our trip.
Goodbye beach!
Michael and I had a little too much fun playing, too.
After nap time, we headed down to Broadway at the Beach, which, crazily enough, was literally just down the street from our beach house this year. We had promised Kaya and Kaelyn that they could ride a real carousel (or, as Kaelyn called it, a “carouslide!”) before we left. This one was just beautiful!
We bought just enough tickets for them to go on three rides, so they chose these little motorboats next (which were extra cool, since they were in real water)!
We walked around the boardwalk for a bit more before heading home. We saw Kaelyn’s beloved “Blue Kitty” on the wall, so I had to get a picture of her with it. She sure loves her Beanie Babies!
Kaya was so glad to be golfing around all these animal statues!
Can we just reminisce for a moment about Kaya in this exact spot, 
I came within one point of tying with Michael on our first game! That’s unusually good for me!
This course had dinosaur footprints all along the walking path.
Kaelyn adopted what we started calling, the “hockey technique”.
To be honest, both the girls cheated a little bit, but they’re still so young that we let it go. In a couple years though, it’s on!
Right up until the end of the trip, the girls kept requesting (and even asking in their morning prayers) for us to go mini golfing one more time. We ended our final evening with 18 holes at Jungle Lagoon!
This course was the most physically challenging with kids. There were two routes, and we chose the one that took us to the very top of the hill in order to see the view. It was a little slippery from all the waterfalls, too. It was a pretty wonderful panorama of the city, though!
Sleepy baby! Our trip as a whole wore her out.
We spent six days down in Myrtle Beach this year, three of which found us on the actual beach.
On the first day, as soon as I set Nella down, she started trying to eat sand. This was a losing battle- she ended up with sand in her diaper for the whole week.
Nevertheless, she was still completely excited and enthusiastic about the time we spent playing on the beach.
Meanwhile, I still kept trying to prevent Nella from eating sand.
Confession- this was actually my first time swimming in the ocean (i.e. I went in further than knee deep). I know, I know! But I only went to the shore once as a kid, and half of the times I’ve been down to Myrtle as an adult, I was pregnant and not looking to go swimming. Anyway, it was so invigorating and refreshing! I loved trying to ride the waves (even in my somewhat inefficient manner).
Making sandcastles was definitely on the beach bucket list… (see what I did there?)
Michael helped the girls build up some big fortresses to try and block the waves. He’s really such a fun dad.
Meanwhile, I finally wised up in our sand-eating war and tried to keep Nella in the stroller as much as possible.
Everyone loves surprising Daddy!
(forgive my voice, it was first thing in the morning!) 
I’d been daydreaming about these pancakes for months, and they were worth the wait! Yes, that’s Nutella drizzled on top. Mmmmm!
Kaelyn also ate a lemon while we were there… and loved it! She’s taking after her Uncle Karl…
We asked Kaya if 30 is old, and she told us it’s not old, it’s not young, it’s “nothing”. Good answer! Haha. I hope the girls still get this excited about birthdays when we’re 60.
The clouds kept moving, and at times, the sun wasn’t visible at all. The rain had stopped, at least, but we were hoping it would be clear at the most important moment!
We watched through our glasses as the moon moved over the sun, and then, through the lenses, it was completely black. This was the only time it was okay to take them off, and when I did so, I was surprised not to see complete darkness where the sun once was, but a glowing, beautiful orb. It reminded me of a diamond, and there are no pictures online that even come close to portraying how amazing an eclipse actually is. I think I’ll never forget that moment of beauty. We had a full minute and 21 seconds of totality, and it went by so quickly that I’m glad I didn’t waste any of it by attempting to take pictures. I soaked it in with my family, which was what Michael and I both wanted.
Michael used 
Michael had the best time of all, and he’s so excited about eclipses now that he’s already looking forward to the one in 2024!
We really missed her sweet, smiley personality, and it was so good to see her feeling better and grinning again yesterday.
