Growing up we always made the two-day drive to North Carolina to visit my grandparents and cousins and spend a week at the beach. We would all stay in a house together and spend our days playing in the ocean, setting up "sea-shell stores" (because who wouldn't want to buy shells from us when they could just go pick up their own free ones, right???), and playing lots and lots of putt-putt. The beach holds a special place in my heart with a lot of precious memories.
So in my mind this was a "reunion trip" of sorts. Time for my siblings and parents to go back to the beach, and show our families why we love it so much. All of my brothers and sisters and families were able to come, except for my sister Kristen who was with her husband back in Arkansas getting ready to bring her sweet new twins home from the NICU.
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| Plane watching |
We had some crazy travel issues on the way out. Our flight out of Wichita was delayed 3-4 hours (downside: Wichita airport is tiny and has NOTHING, upside: there's not as many people so we had open hallways to play red-light green-light). We got to Chicago, where we had to spend the night before flying out the next morning. When they gave us hotel vouchers I specifically asked if the hotel was near the airport. They assured me it was all within the same complex. When we landed in Chicago we called the hotel to send the shuttle. They said it would be about 30 min. We checked about taking a taxi, and it was going to cost at least $50, so we waited for the van. Soon several other people from our flight showed up, waiting for the same shuttle. When it finally got there, everybody else loaded up on the van, leaving a VERY tired pregnant woman, her VERY tired two year old son, and husband without a seat. And nobody moved or offered. They said they would come back, it would be about 30 min. So we sat down to wait again. And cry (that was me.) We called after about 30 min and they said it would be about that long before they were back. Cue more crying. All I wanted was a bed. Finally we decided free voucher or not, it wasn't worth it, and got on another shuttle to the hotel that was only two minutes away. They were nice and gave us a discounted rate. By the time we got settled in bed it was about midnight. We set our alarms for 4 a.m. (so depressing) and got a couple hours of sleep before heading back to the airport to catch our next flight.
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| Pluto makes a great pillow! |
We had to add an extra leg to our travels, but finally ended up in Greensburg, SC where my family picked us up. Unfortunately we still had four hours in the car to get to the beach. Which wouldn't have been bad if we'd done all our flying the day before and were going on more than a couple hours of sleep.
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| The boys trying to bust Zoe out of the bathroom. This was honestly within an hour of getting to the house. They ended up having to take off the door jam...oops! |
Once we got to the beach house all was well. Our house was only a couple blocks from the beach, and each family claimed a room. We had North Carolina barbeque for supper, and the cousins got to play. Then we were off to bed!
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| Lyle and his second cousin Hannah. |
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