Myrtle Beach (Garden City Beach), SC

you can see more pics of our house here

Well, the long pole in the tent of my to-do list for many weeks (besides unpacking and preparing for a big birthday bash, of course) has been sorting through the 1400 pictures I took on our beach vacation.  After almost a year in the making, we joined four other families (10 adults and 10 kiddos) the first week of August for seven days of sun and fun just south of Myrtle Beach, SC.  Describing this week as amazing or epic just doesn't do it justice.  Miraculously, with so many people in one space, there was no drama, there were relatively few tears, and the phrase, "best vacation ever," was frequently uttered by young and old alike. 
We shared cooking and cleaning responsibilities with each family taking one day and everyone fending for themselves on travel days.  We even hired local nannies mid-week so all adults could enjoy a meal out together.  We rented sea kayaks and took a few little adventures as families but mostly sat on the beach or by the pool from sun-up to sun-down.  The mom's got a spa day and the dad's a day on the town, and despite signature cocktails each day and all day, most mornings fostered quick recoveries for all the grown-ups.  

Date night was at aptly named Bliss

 

all 10 kids

WHELP

Wilsons...

Heimers

 

Earnests

 

Lineberrys

Petersens

I was ecstatic to capture pictures of Ben's first steps into the ocean.  He loves swimming and being outside so much and is so fearless, I was convinced he would LOVE it.  He did love the ocean and all the time with Dada that this week brought although a sand rash on his legs made the salt water an unwelcome friend on days 2 and 3.

Ben and Max were best buds :)

Before this trip we had all toyed with the idea of making it a regular occurrence and after we all concurred it would be.  The traveling families WHELP will reconvene in 2014 after deciding next summer where our next destination will be..........