Emma was happy she finally got to ride the horsies. She had been asking when we went to Broadway at the Beach a few days before. I slicked her hair back with gel because she kept insisting on wearing a pony tail in the back (can't blame her, it was hot) and she always ended up looking like a frizz ball. She looks different with slicked hair though.
There was a little zoo area where you could pet alligators and other random things. They didn't have time to go pet them but they got a picture with the sign of biting alligators.
Maddi's large group dance. They did very well and were in 4th place overall for large groups. Another dance from their studio ended up beating that dance out of the finals (you can only have one dance from each studio in each category). Maddi was bummed but we were a little happy that we didn't have to stay all day for them to dance again.
This is Lorelei,Maddi's buddy this year. She is 13, but is a tiny little thing!
That afternoon, we went to Abuelo's for a yummy happy hour dinner on the patio. Part of the adult table plus Emma.
The kids table.
After the kids ate, they ran around in the fountain area and made a massage train.
I think Cade got the raw end on that deal...he gave a massage but never got one!
Cade wanted to be part of their group but didn't. Too bad there weren't many other brothers to hang with.
Killing time on my iphone.
Killing time acting like a wild animal!
The gel has worn off and miss frizz head is back :)
The kids hanging out waiting for the adults to finish up so we could go to the...
...water park! The dance competition rented out the water park for Thursday night. It was free to go so that was nice. It was still pretty crowded. In fact, Cade went with Kyle and his dad and they only rode 2 rides in an hour and half! He was not a happy camper when we told him it was time to go. I guess they rode the most popular rides because Maddi and her friends were able to ride more rides in that time.
We were going to pack up after the water park and leave a day early. However, when we got back, we were worn out and decided to stay Friday and leave early Saturday. The kids were thrilled that we got to stay another day and Brett and I really enjoyed having another day too. Friday morning, I took Maddi and Kate to watch the senior girls dance.
While we were waiting between dances, this bird flew into the window and knocked itself out. The girls were so upset and wanted to rescue the bird. Miss Katey said it was fine and just dizzy and would get up and fly away once it sorted it's head out. I thought she was talking crazy talk but sure enough, that bird laid there a long time and then it got up and flew away. Everyone started clapping and cheering. It was hilarous! One of the funniest parts of the trip.
Nice look Maddi.
One of our favorite parts of the week was watching the dolphins. You can see here how close they would come to shore. This was taken off our balcony. We never noticed any dolphins when we were swimming in the ocean, but we saw a lot from the balcony.
This was also taken from our balcony. It reminds me of what a nice and relaxing week it was spending time with our little family. We all really needed some time away from our crazy schedules to enjoy each other. Friday ended up being such a fun day hanging around the hotel and we were all very happy to have that extra day together.
We went and ate at a pizza place for lunch and Emma was in a crazy mood. She loves to shut her eyes tight for a picture. A stinker I tell ya!
That's better. She kept taking Brett's hat off of him and putting it on him backwards. I think we were trying to distract her from his hat and asked for a picture.
The rest of Friday was spent by the pool and ocean. They had activities for the kids and Emma got her face painted after seeing Sissy and the other girls with their faces painted.
Maddi got a hair wrap in her hair and Emalyn enjoyed painting sea shells. I think this was the hilight of both of their weeks. Even after we got home, Emalyn would ask to paint sea shells. We ran out of sea shells and she started painting rocks. Maddi still has her hair wrap in and it's a good memory of our fun week in Myrtle Beach.
We left at 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning and drove all the way back to Oswego, Il. It really was a pretty painless drive and everyone was really good in the car. We stopped at McDonald's almost every time we stopped to eat or use the restroom. It was the McDonalds day at McDonald's. One of the funniest things was at one of our stops. Brett dropped us off and then he took the car next door to get gas. I guess Cade didn't hear that Brett was doing that. Cade went to use the bathroom and when he came out, the car was gone. He saw Maddi come out of the bathroom and had a solemn look and told her that we left them there at McDonald's. Ha!!!! Maddi told him I was in the bathroom too with Emma so he wasn't alone. He laughed when he realized he wasn't left, but he was truely frightened for a bit. He said he didn't know what to do because he didn't even have a phone to call. Poor guy. We laughed and laughed and also assured him we would never leave him anywhere, especially in the middle of Tennessee.
We made it back to our house before 10:00 p.m. Saturday night. It was a wonderful week together, one we will all remember for many years!
