2012 Beach Trip: Day 1: { Road Trip and Accommodations }

{ This is the first of many, many vacation posts with lots of photos! Hope you enjoy! }

We woke up at 2:10am on Friday, August 10th super excited to be on our way to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina! To say we were overdue for a real family vacation was an understatement! Last year we had a mini-trip to Virginia Beach, VA { Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 } but we missed having a real vacation!

I love waking up early in the middle of the night to go on vacation. I have such fond memories of slugging to the car with my cd player, pillow and hot chocolate to either get settled for a long drive or go to the airport. 

We had packed everything up in our U-haul the night before (yes, who else do you know that needs to rent a freakin' U-haul to take their family on a week long vacation?!?) and only needed to grab our coffee, the girls and a few last minute things, like toothbrushes and my straightener.

We were out the door by 2:45am and the girls barely even woke up. We traveled the 40 minutes to my parents house and put a few more things into the U-haul that my parents couldn't fit and on our way to the highway we went. 

We tried to get as far as we could until the girls needed a break and we needed to eat. We stopped at Cracker Barrel around 9am in North Carolina and got the girls changed and dressed and fed. Everyone was very happy to be out and running around for a little while, including Tim and I!

The girls had a lot of fun playing together in the car. This was the first trip with their new seats and facing forward. They loved holding hands and stealing each other's stuff and watching and singing along with Barney of course!

We made very few stops, just for gas and to use the bathroom and then we arrived around 12:30pm at the hotel and decided to get lunch before settling in. We went to Johnny Rockets and the girls were very entertained by all the music and waiters and waitresses that dance and sing to all the oldies songs. And they enjoyed eating more french fries then ever before!

We walked around Broadway at the Beach and made our way back to the car to head over to our hotel. We stayed at the Sheraton Broadway Plantation Ownership Resort. My parents own a time share { in Cancun } but this is the East Coast resort that we can stay at.

We pulled in and the girls were happy to be able to run and play with their toys for awhile. They found great fun in trying to ride the luggage carts though and had fun climbing on them each time we would unload everything!

We unpacked and unpacked and waited for my sister and her boyfriend, Zack to get there and then hit the pool for a little while. 

The girls had a blast the the resort's "Splash Cove" was absolutely perfect for them and us. It was so nice to just relax and lay in the shallow water while the girls played safely.

Zack and Natalee

Emily hanging out in one of my 31 bags!

I think we all went up and down those slides one million times through the week. The girls were relentless. Up the stairs and down the slide. ONE.MILLION.TIMES!!!!!!!!

The girls had a blast at the pool each and every day. I loved that they weren't scared at all. They wanted to say hi to everyone and play with all the other kids. Other kids comments cracked me up..."are they all twins?" or "they all are matching?" There was another little girl there named Claire and she always thought I was yelling her name throughout the week. Some of the other little girls wanted to hold Madelynn and Claire's hands and would tell them "it's okay, my mommy told me you don't have to be scared," even though my girls were never scared, I still thought it was so cute.

We then decided to just get pizza for the night and relax. It rained that evening and so we sat around and enjoyed each other's company before going to bed! We were exhausted after such a long day!

Up next...Day 2, 3, and 4....STAY TUNED!