Myrtle Beach - Family Reunion part 1

Every year we have a family reunion with my mom's mom side of the family - which is something I remember doing for quite a long time.  Jason has even been to everyone of them (except one since we were in Africa) since we started dating which has been 18 years.  Now they used to be in Albany with about 100 people and it would be for just the weekend.  We have also had them North of Atlanta at Red Top and Callaway Gardens.  The attendance has been dwindling down over the past few years - I guess due to people's schedules or whatever, but my Grandmother's youngest sister who lives in Oak Ridge, TN and her family along with my mom have been trying to keep it going.  Unfortunately, no one else is really attending so the past 2 years we have traveled just our 2 families for the week to Destin and Pigeon Forge.  This past year we decided on North Myrtle Beach.  We had never been there but my Aunt Yvonne used to go years ago and it brought back a lot of memories for her so we all gave it a try.

The boys were pretty excited to be going on vacation and I was as well just to get away from all the construction stuff going on.  We were staying in a condo right on the beach.  Here is our view for the week.  It's about as ocean front as you can get.  I have never seen a beach so crowded as this one.  We had to step all around people just to get to the water.

We were on the 12th floor and my great aunt and her family were up on the 13th to our right.  We were able to chat with each other from our balconies.  Here's my great aunt, her daughter and daughter in law.

Each morning we would get up and head down to the beach around 10, but these people are serious because their tents were set up by 8 to claim a spot.

Our setup each day.

My days of just sitting on the beach relaxing are gone now that both boys LOVE riding the waves on their boogie boards.

My dad's view from the balcony

The water wasn't very pretty - kind of like ours.  I was really missing Destin, but the kids had a lot of fun with the waves.  Since Jason was a lifeguard when he was younger, he has made me more cautious aka scared of the ocean - not for me but for the boys.

Samantha is my 3rd cousin and she is a couple years older than Brody and they got along great.

Brody cannot stand the water on his face so he rubs not just eyes but all the way down his face, which then rubs all the sunscreen off.  I have tried to be more prepared for this and used a clear zinc on his face as well as reapplying every hour or so.

Trevor and his sweet cute self talked Samantha into pulling him around on the boogie board.

He then sweet talked me into pulling him around.

A little paddle ball action.

I like it so much better when they are just playing in the sand and let me say that Trevor LOVES to get it all over him EVERYWHERE!!

After mornings at the beach, we were all pretty tired so it was nap time a lot of days.

Sometimes we couldn't even make it to the room to take a nap.

We spent a lot of time playing games from Zingo to Uno, which was their new game they learned while on vacation.

One thing the boys always remember about their Gan (my Aunt Yvonne) is that she brings them blueberries every year.  They always think Gan's blueberries are the best.  They love her so much and it makes me realize how much they would have loved my Grandmother and she would have loved them.