Our Trip to Myrtle Beach

Oh how much fun we had!! It was a much, much needed break from reality coupled with some great family time. I started this post by detailing everything we did, when we did it, etc... and then realized it would be 90 pages long by the time I was done. Instead, I've decided to bullet the highlights and things I loved about our trip and then let the pictures tell the rest of the story. (I took 515 pictures but will only bore you with 70 of them!)

My favorite things:

1. Riding in the car with 3 boys fast asleep (Alex, Andrew and Alex's friend Coley) talking with Keith. We talked for the entire ride - non-stop. That is the most time we've had to talk since July!

2. Meeting up with Rachel, Troy and Daniel. I've talked/emailed with Rachel since June of last year - many, many times each week. We've gone through the highs and lows together and it was surreal to have our kids meet. At some points throughout the process we never thought it would happen and here we are, on vacation together with our kiddos!

3. Watching Andrew discover the ocean. He LOVED the ocean. It's the biggest "pool" he's ever seen! He was fearless (which scared mom and dad a few times) and would have stayed there all day and night if we let him. At one point, while trying to take him out of his wet clothes (he fell a few times) he ran back to the ocean in his underwear (Finding Nemo underwear - how fitting!)

4. Telling Andrew and Daniel to hold hands and watching them both fall over when the wave hit. It was TOO TOO funny. Of course, us parents stood their and laughed and then realized "whoops! Guess we should pick our kids up, huh?". You'll see a picture of Andrew standing and a random leg in the air. That would be Daniel. :-) He took a spill and the picture looks like Andrew pushed him, but he didn't!

5. Hearing Andrew say "Bury me AGAIN!" as his big brother, Coley and Daniel buried him in the sand. Three times.

6. Watching Alex and Coley turn into little kids again as they dared each other to run into the (cold) ocean. And they did. Three times.

7. Seeing Sira for the first time at the rehearsal and seeing her grin from ear to ear as she looked at all of the adopted children practicing their walk down the aisle. She is such a very special person and loves these kids a ton!

8. Watching Andrew and Daniel practice their walk down the aisle holding hands. (See #2 for why this just melted my heart!)

9. Listening to Andrew ask over and over and over again "Where's Alex? Where's Coley?". He has these two boys on such a pedestal and they just love him. It's so great to see 3 boys of all ages (4, if you count Keith) play around and just be silly.

10. Trick or treating with Andrew. We went to Barefoot Landing (stores) and trick or treated. Seeing the Monkey and the Alligator together was just the cutest. Andrew would say "Wait! Wait for the Alligator!" and Daniel would say "Monkey!! hehehe... Monkey!!" and point at Andrew. At that point, they had no names - just Monkey and Alligator.

11. THE WEDDING! It was absolutely gorgeous - down to the very last detail. Andrew had not taken a nap so we were a bit nervous he would pitch a fit going down the aisle, but thankfully he made it! He actually made it to the end and stood there (near the bride's spot) until someone reminded him to go sit on the blanket. Sira was absolutely beautiful, Cliff looked so calm and collected and Max was just precious in his ring bearers outfit. Sira had a kid's handbell choir (is it called a choir?) there and they played "Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music as the kids walked down the aisle. How awesome is that?

12. Watching Andrew make out with the cupcake. Sira had cupcakes for all of the kids with their names on it. Andrew just started attacking the icing. It was all over his face and his tongue never left the top of the cupcake. It was a bit disturbing to watch. :-)

13. Dancing with my husband at the wedding. Granted, it was only 2 slow songs but it was nice to have that quiet time together!

14. Making new friends! We had the pleasure of sitting with two other couples at the wedding reception. It was so much fun to compare stories. It's interesting how much different your experience can be based on the country, region and even down to the orphanage level.

I'm sure there is such much more I'm forgetting! The bottom line is that we had a BLAST! We all wanted to stay another 4 days or so, but unfortunately work and school beckoned. Andrew keeps asking if tomorrow is a "Vacation Day" (we have a calendar that has S's and H's on it (S = school day and H = home day) - it helps ease anxiety when Andrew is able to see what the next day is). We added a few V's to the calendar for Thanksgiving but it doesn't seem to be helping at all. He misses the ocean and even blew it a kiss the day we left.

I'll leave you with pictures!