We love Ocean Lakes. We love the family atmosphere and the memories we make every year as we cruise on the golf cart, slide water slides, make crafts, feed fish, play on the beach, and just so much good stuff.
Late nights because it’s summer and it’s vacation for Ellie. The best beach naps. Beach book reading. Pina coladas and chilled white wine in tumblers in the sand. Sand castles, seashell scavenger hunts, playing rough in the waves, and flying kites. Playing hard with babies and making sure they know they are the priority.
Vitamin D and Vitamin Sea are all this mama needs to feel my best playing alongside my precious family. It was a magical week spent together. It was Elias’s first beach trip and he loved it. He mostly slept on the beach all day but when he was awake, he ate so much sand and enjoyed splashing in the ocean or in the pool. We wore his and Ellie’s tails out every single day with sun and fun which made for some hard and late sleeping babies.
Of course we enjoyed our usual traditions of going to the Pavilion to let Ellie ride rides, playing putt-putt, taking a pirate cruise out of Murrell’s Inlet, going for seafood, and a dinner show. This year we did Medieval Times. Ellie loved the horses and she caught a flower from a knight! Elias just loved eating all the food we could give him anywhere we went.
Eric and I got to take a date night to The Claw House in Murrell’s Inlet because my parents came to spend one day with the kids and us and gave us the night to be a couple.
We did family photos with Whitney Carroll Photography because the last two years I have had a heck of a time trying to just do them myself with the wind and the elements and I was not playing that game this year with a new little one. I wanted good photos for my first family of four beach trip! They were excellent and I cannot wait to frame some for our new home we are renovating in GA. On that note - can I just say how reviving it was to be back in the lowcountry SC and be surrounded by ORANGE?? Go Tigers! Hahaha! That is God’s country! 😅😜
Nights were filled with fun outings or golf cart rides with ice cream and glow sticks. We played games of “how many ‘xyz’ can you find?” - usually we looked for how many lit up trees could be found but one night we played for American flags and it was definitely a good game to keep those counting skills sharp for Ellie, and it was her idea!
Ellie and I did pottery one morning and we also went to the nature center at Ocean Lakes on a rainy morning before hitting the beach. We did a scavenger hunt and Ellie got a prize.
My favorite part of the entire trip was the bonding between Ellie and myself. It is SO important to me to play with her all day as much as she wants me - she will not want me to build sandcastles or swim in the ocean or chase me down the beach forever. One day too soon that will come to an end. Our time will still be special even when that ends because I can imagine her laying beside me reading a book along with me or taking morning runs with me too but I want to enjoy her as a little girl running wild on the beach as long as I can - not from the sidelines but right up in the action with her. And I love that she tells me how happy that makes her. That makes the exhaustion of it all at the end of the day more than worth it. I love making memories with my family so much!
Every year is more and more special and I am so thankful we were able to have another wonderful season at the beach!
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