Day 74 There IS a Reason to Smile

Vacation is over and after spending too many hours in a car to get to a hotel, I've found it difficult to find much about which to smile! That sounds horrible, I know. I'm sure most people wouldn't be doing cartwheels to return home from sun, beach and pool, but to say I can't find anything worthy of happy thoughts is a tad ridiculous.

After packing up the car, or should I say, cramming everything from swim fins to fishing gear, seashells to driftwood, we headed out.

--By the way, the fins were great this week! They really kept the kids afloat while they practiced swimming and boy did those little urchins of mine have a blast in that pool! So, did I with our little aquatic triathlons.--

--Now, that fishing gear did me no good this time! I got nothing... Well, I did get some relaxation, peace and quiet.--

--And those shells are perfect! The kind you buy in stores everywhere else were lining the shore that was close to untouched by tourists. When we gave one to my Grandma, she lit up over it's uniqueness.--

--While I don't know where my husband found that cool piece of driftwood, I cannot wait to put it up on my wall!--

Anyway, we headed out for breakfast and a quick shopping trip to Ridemakerz and Build-A-Bear. Then it was time to hit the road.

--It was fun watching my son pick out his perfect vehicle. He knew just what he wanted and put it together with ease. Then he talked the ears off of a fellow who was also waiting for a Build-A-Bear shopper about the vehicle he created. And my daughter! She picked out the cutest little bunny and clothed her in such girly attire. So typical of my little princess. They loved it all!--

Well, we drove on and made our way to the halfway point and here I sit in the hotel bed, blogging about my unhappy day. Actually, just writing out my day has brought back a lot of memories of the trip. Memories that brought on a true smile. I suppose I need to stop selling my days short from now on and just let the smiles flow.

Day 69 Cleaver-free Monday

It IS possible for Mondays to be good days! Usually, I find them deplorable and a terrible termination to a weekend. This is especially true when the kids are in school, but just as horrible during the too short summers as it means that my husband goes off to work at a pretty cool job where they let you play billiards and video games, and leaves me to handle the housework like June Cleaver. If only I could actually moderate the house in such a TV land way, but I’m definitely a bit amiss when it comes to running the house in an apron, cooking and being neat and tidy (I do like aprons though).

Mondays are the first day of the week where I’m left to summon up my most Cleaver-esque abilities and, much to the rest of the family’s chagrin, I come nowhere close to succeeding. I’m pretty sure I’ve discussed this before... But today, I don’t care if I’m June or not. Because today is another day on vacation. 

My sister and her guy flew in today after being held up by Hurricane Irene. Thrilled to see them... a full house is a happy house!
I swam with my kids and I had a pool triathlon. Triathlon? You run across the shallow end of the pool until you can’t touch the bottom, then you swim across the deep end to the noodles waiting on the side of the pool. Lastly, you “bicycle” paddle on your noodles back to start. It was a riot! 
I went fishing again, and again, no success. I think the fish are just taunting me with their jumping out of the water.
I had dinner at a restaurant on the inlet that had laundry baskets as light fixtures.
I threw in some photography to round the evening out! 
Oh, and not only do I reunite lost children with their parents like I did on Saturday, but I also reunited my mother with her rogue flip flop that was pulled off her foot by a wave tonight, in the dark no less! 

It was a GOOD Monday! I wonder what June did on her vacations... En, who cares, I’ve got a hot tub waiting on me!

Day 68 Sun, Surf, Food, Flatulence

I’m on vacation and while I intend to fulfill my daily smile journal commitment, that doesn’t mean they’re going to be lengthy! I’m too busy enjoying my smiles to get all wordy about them. I will be adding pictures once I’m back home, but for now, I don’t have internet and I am working with an iPad that doesn’t let me use certain blog features like font size, links, or images very easily. Bear with me...

So from morning to now, here’s how my smiles came today in sunny Murrell’s Inlet, SC.

Pool time with my family!!

A walk to the most awesome part of the beach where starfish (or sea stars) were abundant.

Fishing with my boy... didn’t catch any of those little rascals swimming by, but one on one time with my son was something I can’t catch enough of these days!

The kids playing (not bickering) in the pool again. Woo hoo!

My husband shopped and grilled up dinner tonight. Then we all had a nice dinner by the water.

We took the kids to the arcade and pier. $20 in tokens makes little happy faces for some reason. We all love a quick game that’s over too fast and love getting hundreds of tickets to cash in. Unfortunately, my kids each got over 500 tickets each (padded by the generosity of strangers) and kept asking for items that were 2 and 5 tickets each. But hearing my son say “And last, I’ll take another whoopee cushion and enough tootsie rolls to finish it out!” was well worth it.

While switching laundry, I hear an obnoxious sound of flatulence followed by uproarious laughter! Both kids were hysterical over a that toy that’s been around for ages! The good old whoopee cushion...

Now, I’m off to go fishing again and maybe pop into the hot tub with all it’s multi colored awesomeness!

You can’t peel the smile off my face today!

Day 66 Anniversary Travels Well

It is mine and my husband’s 11th wedding anniversary today! Coincidentally, we also spent 11 hours in our car, traveling  from New York to North Carolina today. Out of that 11 hours, I would say that between 9-10 of those hours were near perfect! Hey, they can’t all be perfect, at least not when a map is involved and a hurricane is dictating your unusual path. So we didn’t always see eye to eye on the route or where we would end up so that we would be out of Irene’s eye, but what matters is that we let it pass. We moved on and got over it. That’s what a 11 years of practice can bring you.

 George Washington Bridge

 Baltimore Harbor Tunnel--Bulb Exposure

Baltimore Harbor Tunnel--Bulb Exposure (again)

As far as our drive, we don’t usually spend our anniversary driving for hours on end. Clearly, mapping isn’t our niche and therefore, isn’t beneficial for our marriage. However, I still enjoyed my day. Smiles were had all day from being the shotgun sightseer to listening to the laughter of my mother playing with my daughter in the backseat... From enjoying my husband’s witty remarks beside me to driving to the beat of my own personal karaoke... From snickering at my son trapping a stink bug that stowed away in his sunroof to sipping on a cosmo after settling in at a hotel...  I loved my day! 

To celebrate my 11 years of wedded bliss, I’m sharing some of my favorite photos from our anniversaries past!

Top of the Rock-NYC (Completely blurry, but love it anyway)

The quiet shore that we walked along on our anniversary last year. Murrell's Inlet area.

A guest we found.

Smiles come easy on a day like this. 

Day 65 Move Over Irene

Well, we’re packing for our vacation and watching the weather all day! We just so happened to plan our beach vacation for the exact time that Hurricane Irene has decided to make a visit to the east coast for a bit of a vacation of her own. Now, I have waited for this vacation for an entire year! This yearly trip is what gets me through the bone-chilling winters up here. So I NEED this vacation! 

So we’ve booked the hotel for tomorrow night, packed the suitcases, gathered the toys, rounded up the fishing gear and squeezed it all in the car. We’ve thrown in a few umbrellas to fare against downpours (thank you IRENE). The kids will be separated, hooked up to iPods and DS’s by way of headphones for the sakes of our sanity. Overnight bags are ready so we don’t have to wrangle massive suitcases through the hotel lobby. We’ve mapped out a route that will keep us the furthest away from good ol’ vacation spoiling Irene. Looks like she’s going to miss the beach house for the most part so we just have to dodge her on the way in. We’re all set... at least the car is. 

Our house may be a different story. This Irene is headed for our home and I’m dearly hoping she’s barely crawling by then. Lord knows, the trees my area do NOT withstand any significant wind. Last winter, I returned home from Christmas vacation to fine three trees down in my front yard. We were fortunate that they didn’t land on the house! So tomorrow morning, I’ll be leaving my house in the hands of Irene. I’ll check in with the neighbors once she passes and hope with all my might everything is fine. I’m sure it will be. 

So, to sum it up, come hell or high water, I’m going on vacation. Though it looks like it will be mostly high water. Regardless, I’m going to bed tonight with a smile, knowing that we are headed to the beach. I won’t get there until Saturday afternoon, just in time for Irene’s sloppy seconds, and I’m going to be living it up when I do! So this weekend, if you’re south of the Mason-Dixon line and traveling on I-95. Keep a look out for me! I’ll be the one under the umbrella with a big smile plastered to my face.