Myrtle Beach, SC

hi everyone! we just got back from a mini-vacation to myrtle beach. on the drive down there, we met up with our friends in wilmington for lunch and some play time at jungle rapids, which has a huge indoor playground. the kids were in heaven (and so were we when jane slept for the rest of our ride!). in myrtle beach, we stayed at a beautiful place right on the ocean. it was a three- bedroom condo (which ended up being bigger than our house!). being that it is off-season, it wasn't crowded, and the price was very reasonable. the weather was quite chilly, so we didn't spend too much time on the beach, but we sure did enjoy the view from our balcony. one afternoon while we were taking a short walk on the beach, we ran into a family who was feeding bread to the seagulls (AKA sky rats). ordinarily, i'm not too impressed by this, because someone usually gets attacked or pooped on, but it ended up being a lot of fun for the kids. we spent a good portion of our days at the water park in our building. it had a lazy river, a toddler play area, hot tubs, and water slides. even our little thrill-seeker jane took a few trips down the slide! yesterday, which was our last day there, was anna's birthday. we celebrated by having a yummy dinner at the olive garden. they even brought her a cake and sang the nifty little song.... she loved it! after blowing out the candle on the cake, she promptly cut it in half, and announced, "ok, this is my piece...." ha ha. we also brought along our present for her, which was a horse barn. she loves horses, and it seemed like the perfect gift. she's been having a ball with it, and to daddy's delight, she and jane have also been incorporating their little farmall H tractor into the farm scene. we've had a wonderful couple of days. thanks to matt & jen for telling us about such a fun place!