Merediths' Shower Saturday, August 16th, 2008

What a lovely afternoon! Becky drove Julianne, Cecilia and I to Martinsville to Scuffle House for a wonderful time of fellowship.

After introductions, we played two games during which we learned more about the bride and the groom. Winners (

including me) received wonderful prizes from Bath & Body Works.

After the games, we enjoyed finger sandwiches of chicken and guacamole, prosciutto and melon, and cucumber and cream cheese. Broccoli salad, vegetable tray and dip, and fruit tray and dip rounded out the table. My personal favorite was the tomato and mozzarella. For dessert, we had creme brule, Key lime pie and carrot cake cupcakes.

Meredith received many gifts and well wishes for a strong marriage. She got many cooking related items from her registry and some beautiful pillows. Christy gave a kit for marriage that included ketchup, pepper and Mountain Dew.

Julianne and Cecilia were intrigued by the punch and they enjoyed several cups. They helped with gift and refuse management. Julianne burped in the next room loud enough for everyone to hear. She played bride with some tulle from a package. Cecilia interacted with our one male interloper, Sam.

Obviously Adrienne, Christy and Christy's sister worked very hard today. Today was the most enjoyable wedding shower I have ever attended (besides my own). The shower was fun, relaxed, well planned and full of fellowship. The food was great and the house was beautiful.

myrtle day 5 Thursday August 7th

Got to sleep in today and it was some very good rest. We all slept about 9 hours so obviously we needed it. After a good breakfast we headed down to the "MARKET COMMON" which is an area in the original part of Myrtle Beach and right outside the Myrtle Beach AFB, where I landed at least once maybe twice in the early 80's. Now the area (the AFB is the airport now) is being torn down and built up as sort of an upscale walking shopping area with condos above (sorry forgot the pictures of it). Has some pretty upscale resturants and shops, everything the richies would love. But a movie theatre as well which is cool. We enjoyed the Barnes and Nobles, and the Bath and Body works where Julie set the record for most samples tested in 15 minutes.

We had lunch at PF CHANGS which had some of the best chinese food Ive had at least since Ive eaten in Chinatown San Fran last. Very smooth and well presented the place smelled great as well. The girls are acting up a bit in the last 24 hours, putting us at our MAX limit for patience, kind of a spoiled dispostion with is dissapointed considering that A) neither Tina or I are spoiled and B) we dont think we spoil them. Which means its probably a combination of 1) we might spoil them more than we think and 2) they might get attitudes about things from school chums.

We told them our sadness and dissapointment and said that there were people that would be very dissapointed in their attitudes. We will see where that goes.

Anyhoo, we were going to go to the BIG BUCKET water park here at the condos but were told someone had had an "accident" in the thing and it was closed so it was off to the ramp pool. After that we went to MCCallisters for Dinner and during a quick jaunt to Walmart (were coming up 6 eggs short for Breakfast saturday), it opened up raining and you could hear the roof at Walmart rattle. Yikes. Todays pics are from PF CHANGS and its HORSE, Barnes and Nobles and the girls in the car on the ride back from MArket COmmon (cilly asleep, juli not asleep)

until later

Myrtle Day 4 Wednesday August 5th

Tina got to work out early this morning on the beach, a Yoga Class, and it was Sandy but went well.

After breakfast we went to the duck pond (about 50 yards away) and fed the ducks and turtles, a crane even came by but didnt feed.

Then we went to the Broadway at the Beach and went to the Friend to be an offshoot of Build a Bear. Chance to have a little fun and dress a doll or two. Also a short trip to Club Libby Lu for a little make case (the 19 dollar variety) and the girls had a lot of fun after getting back to the condo making themselves up.

We had lunch at Johnny ROckets and then went to see JOURNEY TO THE CENTER Of the Earth in 3-D, it was quite a romp and the girls loved it. We at dinner in with leftovers from all our great take out meals, and that was quite fun as well.

Tina and cilly went shopping but that didnt work well as Cecilia thought it was a shopping trip for her alone and put mommy bear in a funk, but during the trip Julie had voted to stay at the condo and watch Harvey Birdman with me and eat popcorn, we had a fun time doing that. Todays pictures are courtesy of Julie with her Camera, might be a little blurry but she wanted to try. They are of the Duck Pond feeding, a close up of me making the snausages, the girls with their dolls (i took the one of Julie) and Julie and I's popcorn and Harvey birdman DVD

Myrtle Day 3 Tuesday August 5th

Another big day, yesterday we decided to improvise a trip 60 miles north to WILMINGTON, NC to see the USS North Carolina, it was built from 1937 to 1940 and served during WWII, losting only 10 crewman during the whole time (unheard of during the war) after it was taken off the inactive list in 1960 and scheduled for destruction, school children from all over the state sent in their dimes and the state was able to purchase a place to dock it and maintain it. Anyhow it is a very extensive self guided tour which really shows you everything about how cramped it was. Got some great pictures by the rescue boat, the sixteen inch forward guns, at the post office, the anchor and with Julie in the Captains chair on the bridge. Julie wanted to get a little swabbies hat and it was cute on her. After that we drove back and stopped for an ice cream,and stopped by a store that had a huge entrace that looked like a shark. We went insides and they had a pretty good selection of good priced stuff, but TIna suspected it was an al-quieda front. Finally we took a picture at the ramp pool when we went there for our afternoon relaxation.

For dinner we went to a Japanese steak house where the put on a production before they give you your food, and light a big fire, what for Im not sure because I hadnt got my dinner up to that point and it didnt seem to hasten it into my tummy. The girls were more tired than they knew from crawling up and down the deck stairs on the ship. But they had never seen anything that big (the battleship is 728 feet long). And so they werent tired till it was all over. More tommorrow!

Myrtle Day 2 Monday August 4th

What a HOT day, again. I didnt think I could make it but managed to tough it out, which is what happens when you live with three girls. But a fun day, started out BAD for Mommy Bear as she announced we had none COFFEE in the condo. YOINKS! well she took it hard and blamed her migrane for part of the day on the "NO COFFEE FIASCO of 2008". We rectified it later by purchasing coffee from a store (more later on that adventure).

We started our day by going to "BROADWAY at the BEACH" which is a nice layout of shops and attractions. But today utterly useless in heat. However our day started in MAGICQUEST, which the girls return to every year with their magic wand there are adventures and quests you have to go on and we did quests, searching this enormous building which resembles a 2 floor magic forest/castle thing. It was funner than I thought because it was less crowded than I thought. After that we went to the HARD ROCK CAFE for lunch and were shown to a cramped liitle room where you could see nothing. Now Ive noticed that everyone has tried to put us in little rooms full of other little kids, but that sucked so I asked to move to the main room and we were. After that it was touch and go (because of the heat) whether I would last the two hours till the IMAX 3-D Grand Canyon Movie. But they had some rather interesting shops to look in.

THe IMAX 3-D movie was great showing the canyon in all its grandness and the girls enjoyed it, it also was a first for the many years of IMAX shows (I saw the first IMAX film the week it premiered in 1988 (THE DREAM IS ALIVE). that the movie had a title sequence (directed by, etc.) they had a little fun with that sequence and we enjoyed it.

After that we headed back and stopped by to get some coffee and were standing in the self serve line TWO ROWS of two machines each, anyhoo a lady from near the end of the OTHER line leaped infront of us (presumbly because she figured we couldnt move as quick as her because we had kids and I told her that "you just cut in front of us" she didnt respond so i said "I guess you dont care that you cut in front of us?" no response " Ill take that as a no, you dont care" then she shot back a nasty look and informed me that the lady that was in front of us had finished and that she decided that she was going to come over to this line , to wit I informed her "thats taking cuts" she said something and I said something (I was wholly dramatic, but not quite "into" really letting her have it. Anyhoo we actually were through before her. We got in to our car and as luck would have it she was trying to zip through the parking lot, driving with her cig and cell phone to her ear, but we just happened to pass in front of her and I flipped her off. It was fate alone that put us directly in her path, where she was forced to watch me.

Then it was a nice dip in the ramp pool very warm and a little breezy so again a very refreshing respite from the heat.

Dinner was delightful we were going to go to DAMONS but it wasnt the DAMONS we were thinking of, and decided to go across the street to DENNYS DINER, pretty fun, except when PEANUT chips got dumped all over Mommy Bear and CIllys, cheesecake. Mommy Bear had to come back and rest after that and we all got some good sleep,

Myrtle Day 1 Sunday August 3rd

We arrived last night in good time and were packed away and in bed by 11Pm. We took it easy this morning and enjoyed being able to stay in our Jammies and Make Breakfast and just relax. We finally left the condo about 11 and headed down to a minature golf place called "May Day" it had a rescue theme and a plane (thats plummeting) as a nice symbol that you could seen from the street. We had a good time, although as a rule if its 94 and humid its not the best weather for minature golf.

After that though we had a great lunch at BOB EVANS and headed back for a little quiet time at the condo. Around four (and thankfully the weather had cooled and clouds came in) we went to the "ramp pool" so called because it has ramps you can walk into the pool with. And had it too ourselves and were able to play and beat the heat for about an hour. After showers we headed to a place called CHESTNUT HILL, which was very pricey BUT actually exceeded expectations and provided one of the best eat out meals in memory. They had an enclosed pond and it had snappy turtles and gators. The pictures of the gators didnt come out to well and i figured out it was that the camera had been sitting in mommys bag nice and cool in the resturant and when I took it out to shoot the gators it fogged up. I figured out too late to catch the gators, but they were there. I took a shot of the girls in front of the fence instead. Its late now and the condo is quiet and the girls are in their separate rooms enjoying the quiet. More tommorow.

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