Glad To Be a Gladden: Ocean Lakes Year 2 Family Vacay!

Last May in 2020, we stayed at Ocean Lakes Family Campground in a little beach bungalow for the first time ever. We got so blessed to be able to still go given the fact the world was drunk. But, a tourist town wasn't going to stay down during tourist season thankfully and we got to still go on our vacation and even go out to eat and do fun things. We stayed 11 days then. We loved our time there so much that we booked two weeks this year for 2021. A week as a family, and another week that will be for just me and my E. (My parents stay in the resort as well the second week in another house on the other end with all the grandkids and have Camp Grandcrew & Eric and I get alone time! We did this for 3 days last year.)

Our week with Ellie on our annual Gladden family beach vacation has come to an end. Man, it breaks my heart how fast that time flies by. A week flies by with my baby even though I already get to be home with her all day every day; a week at the beach is made for memory making and playing hard and because it is so lovely, the time is fleeting. It is my mission to not sit around, relax, or be self indulged during family vacation. It is my mission and JOY to spend every ounce of energy I possess in playing with Ellie so that she will always remember her family beach vacations fondly. I want her to know that her Mommy and Daddy love to play with her and invest in her. I got in the cold water, I got sandy, I made castles, forts, moats, a beach "garden", and anything else her mind imagined so that I could play with her just the way she wanted to play. We only get about 18 ish summers with our kids, maybe at least one vacation a year with them, and in that time frame, they might be interested in actually playing with us as parents for a little more than half those years. It is heart breaking to me to know that one day, the interest in jumping over waves, chasing each other, and building sand castles will dwindle and fizzle. I covet time with my child. I am jealous for her and time with her and giving her the best childhood packed and overflowing with love, attention, and knowing how much I desire her and enjoy her. I can rest when I'm old. I know everybody goes on and on and on about self care but y'all, my self totally cares to have an awesome relationship with my daughter (as a mother and not a "cool mom" obviously, ha!...as if I could even come close to cool anyway!!😂😂) So turning her over to my parents and her cousins was exciting to see her be so happy to have time with them but also a weight on my heart as I just so dearly and genuinely LOVE kissing her talking to her, and playing with her, and investing in her, and laughing with her, and helping shape and grow her into a good strong Godly woman. Like, there are no words strong enough to relay to you how joyous and happy it is for me to be with her. I LOVE being her mommy and I know that our time is short, nor is every day promised, and so, this vacation, friends, was for me, all about making it so awesomely memorable and packed with boundless love for Ellie - love that she never doubts for a single second, giving of myself to her all my time and energy so that she never has to beg me to play with her. Remember, your child only gets so many "childhood summers."

With that passionate prologue - I now give you - Photos! Thanks for loving my little family, friends. They are the greatest blessing and gift God could ever have bestowed upon someone so undeserving as myself!

We're Here!!!! Woooo!! The night began with grabbing groceries, running on the beach, swimming in clothes, running and chasing on the beach, and pizza on the golf cart at the playground!

Beach fun!

We have been taking Ellie on a Pirate Cruise Adventure wherever we stay for the last 3 summers. Hilton Head and the Myrtle Beach areas all have them. It is so much fun! If you have never done this with your child do it! We love it every year! I'd say ages up to 8 ish would enjoy it. We had to track down Pirate Pete and battle him for keys to the treasure map! Water cannons, moving aboard the ship, yelling out pirate calls, all so fun. I participated this year, too! 😂😂😂 Oh! and of course, Pirate Grog is served!

More Beach Play!

We took Ellie to play putt-putt at the resort and to play in the arcade. Home slice LOVED racing the cars and whack-a-mole! Too too cute! She was such a hoot to watch playing!

Morning muffins and Hammocking for our sweet girl!

Water Park fun! The water park at Ocean Lakes is so awesome! It is one reason we really value our stay here as it provides such wonderful entertainment and fun and family time! This year the slides were open (Covid didn't allow last May) and Ellie got to go down the little water slides! Even I went down the mat racer! I actually flipped in a water slide when I was in around 2nd-3rd grade....my body was so lightweight that it didn't really lay flat when sliding down yet, it came up and I was flying down the tube practically mid air. My body flipped, I hit my head, and it traumatized me and gave me a fear of ever doing a water slide that didn't involve riding down in an innertube again. Until this week! Now, the slides here aren't the ones like I experienced where you lay flat on your bare back crossing ankles and arms, yet, I still descended face first on a mat! I told Eric, "I'm gonna conquer my fears today. I'm gonna do it. I want to be able to do slides again!" And so, heart pounding, I grabbed a mat, laid down on my belly head first and went flying down the wavy slide into a pool of water! I did it!! Woo! The best part was that my daughter saw me do something "big" and Eric and Ellie cheered me on! I like to do things out of my comfort zone with Ellie because it teaches her so much about conquering her own fears and when she fails at something to get up and try again. Ellie conquered a new slightly scary to her event this week while on vacation. She jumped into the pool WITHOUT Mommy and Daddy catching her! She would approach the edge, squeeze her eyes shut and jump out into the water going all the way under and popping back up! (She will be taking swimming lessons in a few weeks so this was a good start!) She was SO PROUD of herself as she should be; and she did this over and over again! She realized it is ok to get your face wet. It is ok when you get water in your mouth just spit it out and rub your eyes when they are full of water, too. The best part of all this was her telling me, "I like trying new things I've never done before!" Yes!!!

We ventured two miles down the road one day for a beach day at Myrtle Beach State Park. Here, Ellie and I got stamps for our SC State Parks Passports as we gradually continue working to become "Ultimate Outsiders." We walked some nature trails, played on the playground, walked the pier and observed fishermen and their catches flopping around on the deck, went to the Nature Center where Ellie got to feed all the cool fish and crabs as well as take home a new beach toy for free! We spent the day on the beach digging holes, finding shells, making a beach city in the sand, and napping soundly. We loved getting to see the "South Carolina Tree" - an oak that grew in the shape of SC! How cool?!

As big hikers, this sign above cracked me up! 1 foot...Ha! Love it.

We also took Ellie to play putt-putt at Hawaiian Rumble - my favorite putt-putt spot since I was a little kid. Eric had surprised us the night before we left for vacation with matching Mommy & Me dresses! So sweet!! So we wore them to play putt-putt! They were perfect!

Even more beach fun! We made so many sand castles this week! We made tunnels, moats, and even a pond!

Another night, we wanted another pirate adventure so we took Ellie to the dinner show, "Pirate's Voyage!" I had gone before 8 years ago with my oldest nephew and niece and I loved it. It's one of the Dolly Parton dinner shows so you know its good! Ellie LOVED it!! It was just so fun. Honestly its fun for all ages. The stunts and acrobatics, the live animals and their tricks, the involvement of the crowd and the meal itself were just such fun. Ellie got really into it! We were the Sapphire Pirates! Ellie wore her new mermaid dress to this show. She got a souvenir popcorn bucket which is a shovel and bucket she can play with on the beach after she is done. She got a free skull mug drink. She had a strawberry frozen drink and she thought that was heaven. Eric and I got some rum drinks in our skull mugs that felt just beachy!

Ok so if you have ever stayed at Ocean Lakes even just once, you know what the nightly golf cart parades and high fives are all about! Ellie found out real quick that her social butterfly self loved the golf cart high fives. She got glow sticks from some carts passing by. Most nights, we would cruise around looking at potential future rental properties, play at the playground, then cruise the parade. Ellie said, "I've got my high fiver ready!" Ha! She is so dang cute! Introvert Emmay here would have normally thought, meh, I could do without all that...but y'all it really is fun...seeing your kid smiling and laughing and slapping high fives and just enjoying the night beach air is really sweet. Also, it was just honestly awesome to see people living normal life again with no masks and not being all wigged out to be near one another. That's how it should be.

Another day, we spent our beach day at Huntington Beach State Park! Another stamp for us girls! So beautiful out there, y'all! Here, we toured Atalaya Castle built in 1931..a real treasure to tour! Then, we walked a few trails and piers where we peered upon alligators and coastal birds, fish, and crabs. We toured the nature center where Ellie got to be hands on with the marine life. Then we beached it. We walked the beach to the causeway where we ventured out over the water. We found massive star fish, sea urchins, corals, and beautiful shells. Ellie fell asleep on Eric the walk back to our beach chairs. She napped, I read, and then when she woke up we played hard some more before packing up and heading back to our little beach bungalow.

Ellie has been riding amusement park rides since she was 11 months old with her first adventure at a 4th of July fair in Bay City Michigan. She has never been the least bit daunted by the rides and in fact tries to make them go faster and wilder! We took her to the Pavilion (now located at Broadway at the Beach) again this year as we did last year also to ride all the rides and have dinner at the Grumpy Monk which by the way has great burgers, cocktails, and a crab dip that Ellie was literally licking the bowl to get every last morsel. She has always loved crab. Before a year old she would eat crab cakes anytime we went out for seafood and nothing off the kid's menu making waiters everywhere puzzled by this crab eating baby. Ellie has class. Haha!

We had another pool day with Ellie where she got to go down some "big for her" slides and she practiced swimming again before lessons in a few weeks. She also had Dippin Dots ice cream and took a nap.