Easter 2010...the story

Preface: This post is the longest post I have ever written. It took me about 3 hours to add all the pictures and write the commentary. Please read until the end and then COMMENT. :)

I worked so hard on this one!

As most of you know, this Easter {MG's 1st!} we decided to go on a little family vacation to the beach! My beautiful and wonderful mother works 7 days a week and it's been about 3-ish years since we have gotten to spend Easter with her. I thought the best way to get her off work was to go to the beach! So in mid-March I sent my BFF Anna on a mission to find us the best deal in Myrtle Beach and she did just that. We had an affordable (!) vaca booked in 3 days and I immediately started a countdown! I was so excited about the trip I couldn't have imagined anything going wrong. ha. I was wrong about that!

Thursday, April 1, after weeks of anticipation and planning, we were all loaded and ready to go. I had not been on vacation since August of '08 and was desperately in need of some sand between my toes. Even though we had some minor complications come about before leaving, we were all still excited to just be there, spend time with each other and watch MG experience the Atlantic ocean for the first time.

We got to North Myrtle Beach about 11:00 p.m. on Thursday night and surprisingly MG didn't do too bad in the car. We kept her entertained with food and toys when she was awake and and she entertained herself by sleeping! Being that she was asleep so much of the drive by the time we arrived, she was ready to get back to her usual adventuring self! She quickly got acquainted with our condo, which was really nice, even adventuring into her Mia's suitcase! At about 2:30 a.m., we finally got in the bed to get our beauty rest for our day at the beach!

{cutest thing you could never pack!}

We got up early, ate breakfast, went and signed our check in papers and I prepared for MG's first trip to the beach. I knew that she had to be the most adorable baby on the beach, so I had picked out the pinkest and cutest outfit for this special milestone, her 1st trip to the beach!

{I was told by a friend that I must have been destined for a girl because I sent her to the beach in a bow and tutu!}

{making a break for the beach...no more pictures, i need the sand and ocean!}

Molly Grace's first experience on the beach was amazing to watch. She loved it. She took quickly to the sand, and she of course had to taste some of it! She enjoyed it so much she proceeded to try and eat the entire beach of sand! She probably would have if I hadn't have stopped her! :) We played with her sand buckets, found seashells, stuck our toes in the water (it was too cold for getting in!) and of course took pictures!

{ so THIS is what sand is...}

{looking so cute}

Aunts Amy and Meg with MG!

One thing I hadn't expected was the amount of work it was the have an infant on the beach! My little one never stops and quickly made friends, venturing to other people's beach areas and trying to play with their beach toys. I didn't sit down the whole first day we were on the beach. Because of that we were only on the beach for a few hours because it was so hard to keep MG from eating the sand! My how times have changed. I used to be able to lay and read on the beach all day. I believe those days are definitely gone for a few more years. Honestly, I'm ok with it. I wouldn't trade being a parent for any other job, even if it means I can't read and relax on the beach for a few more years.

Saturday we visited the pool first (which was toooo cold for swimming) and the lazy river! We all had so much fun in the lazy river, including MG, which was warm enough to play in! MG is obviously a water baby, she loved every minute in the water, splishing and splashing!! After all the fun, the little bear was pooped and took a nap on the beach chair. This allowed Mommy to get some rest, relaxation and most importantly sun!! After the nap, we headed back down to the beach and played some more there!

That afternoon we all got dressed and took some family photos! MG actually decided to look at the camera for these! After the family photos, we drove to Myrtle Beach to Broadway on the beach for some shopping...it was nice, and I got a great basket to match the one Mom and Amy had gotten MG as one of my baby shower gifts from Myrtle Beach when they were there last June.

My family....(minus my dad!) Mom, Cohan, Amy, MG, Me, Meg and Dusty!

Then came Sunday, Easter! I had bought MG a sweet monogrammed (duh!) pink seersucker dress with bunnies and had her Easter basket filled with lots of goodies all ready to be opened at lunch since we were crazy busy. We had to pack up and get everything ready to check out at 11:00. We were leaving that day and had planned on going to a local church but because all of the elevators at the hotel except 2 were broken, we were running late and didn't make it. (We were on the 9th floor) We got all dressed up, snapped and few pictures and headed to find a place on the beach to eat lunch before heading back to GA.

MGT's 1st Easter Basket!

{trying to get a picture of her beautiful dress, but she was so obviously over picture taking :)}

That's when it happened. My mom was driving my car and we had stopped to let some pedistrians cross the road. The pedestrians (or rather dumb, ignorant teenage girls running with beach floats around their waist without paying any attention to traffic) got all the way across the road and before we even knew what was happening, we were rear-ended, sending this mommy into panic mode. I think the wreck had barely finished happening when I jumped out of the car and got to MG. Thankfully we are all fine. No bruises, scratches, breaks, etc for any of us. The car on the other hand, was not. It was undrivable, leaving us stranded in Myrtle Beach for another night, with only one car and 7 people! Thankfully, the people that hit us were so very kind and did everything they could to help us, which included packing all of our luggage and belongings into their car so that it wouldn't have to sit on the sidewalk of Myrtle Beach! Since we had already checked out of our hotel, they invited us to come hang out at their condo while we figured out our next move. We knew we wouldn't be leaving MB that day so we had to find another hotel to stay in and wait for the insurance people to find us a rental car to come home in. We finally at lunch at a Irish Pub and Grill on the Beach called Molly Darcy's On the Beach. The weather was perfect and we were finally able to relax a little and enjoy some yummy food! We finally found a hotel, learned that we would not be getting a rental until Monday, and spent the majority of Easter evening, napping and playing Rook in the hotel room.

The Car

To make this long, long, complicated story shorter, we ended up getting a rental car Monday afternoon and made the drive back to Georgia. My car is most likely totaled which means I get to go car shopping, which is both exciting AND stressful. The most important thing is that we are all safe. It was also good to see how my family comes together in crisis. Molly Grace and I are truly blessed to have the people we have in our life.

Overall, the trip was so much fun. I love that I was able to share with MG at an early age my love for the beach. I think she is going to be as big of a fan of the beach as her Mommy is! What do you think?!

Thanks for reading! Now, Comment! ;)