Myrtle Beach Pandemic Vacation - Day 4

Day 4 of our September 2020 Myrtle Beach Vacation looked a lot like the previous days! Slow mornings, lots of relaxing, and spending the day swimming and sitting on the beach. We are beach people, so those long days on the oceanfront suit us perfectly!

We have always gone to Myrtle Beach in August, so we are used to the hot Summer days. This was a rapidly planned vacation during the off season. We couldn't pass up an end of September trip for the ridiculously cheap price of $1200 for the week!

While we were at the beach, we were able to celebrate the first day of Fall. It was different being there when the weather was cooler, but we still enjoyed ourselves. It was warm during the day, and cool at night, so there were lots of hoodies involved! We all thought it was cool that we experienced two seasons on our beach vacation!

Myrtle Beach Pandemic Vacation - Day 3

 

Day 3 of our Myrtle Beach "Pandemic" Vacation was a relaxing one! Life is always GO GO GO for us at home, so we try to take it easy on vacation. In September, we took advantage of all the restrictions still in place, and just did our own thing at the beach. It ended up being one of our best beach vacations!

It was perfect, because we started each day slowly, spent our afternoons at the pool and the beach, ate dinner together as a family, took walks on the beach, and enjoyed late night swims. Although a few days were a bit more adventurous, day 3 was all about relaxing and just enjoying being at the beach. It truly is our happy place! 

I'm not quite sure what this month's vacation to the beach is going to be like, but we will definitely be adopting a few of those lazy days strategies. Slow mornings were new to us on this vacation, and we all agreed that it was exactly what we needed. Recapping this last trip from September is making us feel so excited for our upcoming family vacation!

Myrtle Beach Pandemic Vacation - Day 2

Our first full day at the Myrtle Beach was perfectly relaxing! We were just so thrilled to be back at our happy place, despite all the restrictions due to the pandemic. We weren't quite sure this trip was going to happen, and we were so grateful we were able to pull it together with just one month of planning!

Life is so busy with 5 kids, so when we go to the beach, we keep things low-key. We focus on simply relaxing, and spending uninterrupted time together as a family. We all love the beach, so just being there is enough for us!

Our trip involves slow mornings, hours spent at the beach and the pool, family dinners with the balcony doors open, evening strolls on the boardwalk, night walks on the beach, shell collecting, late night swims, sunrises, and relaxing on the balcony overlooking the beach. We try to plan one or two small outings or dinners, but we mostly love our beach days. Someday - someday - we will move there, or at least get a timeshare!

Traveling During a Pandemic: Our Family Road Trip to Myrtle Beach

2020 was a year unlike any other. There was so much we couldn't do during the pandemic, including going on our usual Summer vacation to the beach. It turned out that we just needed to rethink our travel plans!

Like so many other families, we were being careful, and avoiding travel, especially to hotspots. As Summer neared an end, we decided we would look for a condo at a beach, since Fall isn't a peak time for beach travel. We knew we were going to have to wear masks, and we knew the weather was going to be cooler, but we just wanted to get away after the craziness of the year. 

We ended up finding a big condo in Myrtle Beach, for an INCREDIBLE deal, at the end of September. We immediately booked it, then invited my dad to join us. We had never taken anyone on our family vacation, and we had never gone during the school year, so we were excited to try something different! It ended up being a great vacation full of fun memories. We are officially less than a month away from our 2021 beach vacation, so I figured I would do a quick recap of our pandemic vacation before I start packing for our next trip!

Liam's Rockin' Pandemic 7th Birthday

Spoiler Alert: We are just over one month until Liam's EIGHTH Birthday, but I didn't realize I didn't post Liam's 7th Birthday recap during my semi-blog-hiatus! Better late than never...it was time to finish what I started. Liam's 7th Birthday fell during the pandemic, so he didn't have a big party in 2020, but his birthday was a lot of fun! 

Despite the "quiet" birthday, Liam had a great day! We went swimming, we ate a favorite meal, his grandparents stopped by, and he loved his presents. I don't think Liam even cared about the fact that he didn't have a big party!

Just like every other year, we managed to tackle all of our favorite birthday traditions. His day started out with a room filled with balloons, we had donuts and sang the Happy Birthday song, he got a new outfit, we had a mini birthday photoshoot, he picked a favorite meal, he got presents from all of his siblings (and mom and dad), we had cake, and he got new pajamas. Honestly, his smile said it ALL!

The January Wrap Up

January was filled with worry and waiting, so I'm glad it's behind us! There were good moments, but life last month was very overwhelming. Thankfully, it ended well, which is the only thing that matters!

I headed into 2021, hoping to recap each week on the blog, like I used to do before life became too busy. I started the year strong, but a a week later, I gave up! So here I am, wrapping up 3 weeks in one post. Maybe I'll get back on track one day...

So here's to January. Lots of worry, lots of waiting, a surgery, a recovery, weekday runs, cold days, cute puppies, back to school, and a whole bunch of snow! It really does help to look back on the month, and see all the good that could be found in each day!

Togetherness: The Word of The Year for 2021

Happy 2021! I'm not one to wish away time, but I do hope 2021 is an improvement over 2020. I'm realistic enough to know that change won't happen immediately, but I do hope we return to some sort of normal this year!

2020 wasn't an awful year. It was just different, and it had its good moments and bad moments. One of the best parts of 2020 was all the time we were able to spend together as a family. That is exactly what made me start thinking about togetherness for my word of the year. 

The holiday season was great, but 2020 did not end well. Lexie was with her best friend's family when they experienced a tragic loss. We spent the past week praying and crying, and we're absolutely heartbroken for their family. We are reminded that time spent with family and friends is a precious gift that should be treasured and made a priority. If this year taught me anything, it’s that loved ones are EVERYTHING, which is why togetherness became my word for 2021.

The End of the Fall-idays

2020 is most certainly a challenging year, but we had one of our best Thanksgiving breaks ever! I know it's contradictive, but this is the most relaxed AND productive I have felt in months. We spent 4 great days together as a family, and I'm not even bummed about it coming to an end on Tuesday morning, because we are all so excited to celebrate the Christmas season together!

Despite being an unprecidented year full of things we never expected to face, this year went surprisingly fast. Spring in quarantine quickly turned into a Summer at home, then my kids went back to school, cheerleading/football began, and Fall arrived. The busyness of (somewhat but not really) normal life took over, and before we knew it, Halloween passed and November was here. 

Before moving on to all things Christmas, I wanted to share my last Fall post. I figured it was easiest to lump the rest of the Fall-idays together. Here are the pictures from our annual trip to the pumpkin patch, and the quickest Thanksgiving recap ever!