Myrtle Beach

Last week we went to Myrtle Beach with Nana, Papa, and Aunt Caitlin. We had a great time. Juliana was absolutely thrilled by the ocean and the sand. We were less than thrilled with the huge, heaping handfuls of sand she ingested... Fistful after fistful with a side of salt water. Guess she was having a salt craving? And liked the crunchy texture of the sand? Oh well. To us, she seemed a bit manic all week. We finally deduced that it was probably (1) sand moving through her digestive track, (2) the sandy poops irritating her poor bottom (3) sand getting into her diaper from sitting and playing in it (4) not eating enough "real" food (5) the artificial light outside our room that even with the blackout curtains made her decide between 5-5:30 am was the time to get up instead of the normal 6-6:30 am (6) the cold she, Daddy, and eventually Mommy, got the second half of the week (7) eye teeth moving down through the gums (still haven't broken the gum line yet) (8) all the sun and fun (9) different routine (10) pack 'n' play versus crib or (11) who knows...

All that to be said, we had a great time.

Got there late Sunday night, she did fantastic in the car until the last hour or so when she was completely over it.

Monday, we headed down to the beach first thing. She toddled right into the water, and was totally fine with it until a wave knocked her over and she got a face full of salt water. But she wanted to be carried out past where the waves were breaking, she wanted to sit in the shallow waves, she wanted to dig in the sand, she wanted to eat the sand, she wanted to jump the waves, etc. It was funny, because when we sat in the sand with the shallow waves occasionally coming past us, she was engrossed with digging in the sand, but then the wave would come and wipe away her progress and she would say "No! Mine!" every single time. So after about 1.5 hrs, we headed back for her nap and lunch then tried to hit the many pools in the afternoon. She could care less about getting into the pools (it was a bit chilly for the first couple of days and breezy), but she was enthralled with the showers to wash sand off your feet and body before getting into the pool.

Tuesday, we waited until after the morning nap to go to the beach. Nana, Papa, and Caitlin had set up the tent and we brought Juliana's bucket of sand toys. Then the afternoon was spent with another attempt at the pool.

Wednesday, went to the beach first thing (decided to try the one nap a day thing at this point), brought the bucket of toys and had a grand time. We were going to go back out to the beach in the afternoon, but Juliana took a 3 hour nap, so after that we had a quick trip to the pool and we were done for the day.

Thursday, we took her over to the playground and it was meltingly hot. She was so red in the cheeks, and her hair was soaking wet from sweat, but she refused to get into the pool (it was cold, but still). So we brought out her bucket and played for a bit poolside to try and keep her cool. In the afternoon, we ran some errands and attempted the pool again.

Friday, we headed to Alligator Adventure to see alligators and crocodiles, snakes, turtles, etc. It was fascinating and I think she enjoyed it, but we timed it a bit poorly since she was exhausted and had fallen asleep when we got there, so we had to wake her up, etc. She took a long nap again that afternoon.

Saturday, we headed to the outlets, and Sunday we headed home!

First nap of vacation at Nana and Papa's

Since she's used to traveling the long distances in the evening or late afternoon and we were going to be traveling to and from the beach during the bulk of the day, I loaded up on Crayola color wonder paper and a Cow marker (although the marker wasn't such a good thing since she's used to coloring with smaller things like crayons), and stickers.