Day 14 of our April 2009 vacation

Travel home day

6:00am wake-up call
6:15am breakfast at hotel
7:00am driving in car to Charlotte airport rental car return
8:45am all but Abby board plane to Dallas/Fort Worth (her gate was just next to our gate!)
[Abby boarded a little before 1pm and flew to Atlanta, then arrived in Dayton Ohio around 4:30pm (according to Abby Ohio is Eastern time).]
11:45am (+1 hour time zone change) Land at DFW, switch gates, eat lunch at Einstien's
12:45pm leave DFW
1:30pm (+1 hour time zone change) Land in Denver - a nice cool and dry 56 degrees :)
2:30pm Arrive home thanks to our friend Ian picking up the 6 of us and find grandma has made us a wonderful meal, after enjoying the meal, we all take naps.

5:00pm I woke up and found Amy doing laundry and Todd doing his math test that is due tomorrow at 8am (He had been studying for it during the entire vacation, including doing math work on the flight segments and long car rides.)

I plan to head off to a softball manager's meeting tonight at 6:30pm. We're home!

Day 13 of our April 2009 vacation

I took grandma to the Myrtle Beach airport this morning at 6:30am, and she was back at our home in Denver with snow on the ground by 11:30am Colorado Mountain time.

We cleaned up our cabin at Myrtle Beach, packed up, then donated the beach toys and beach chairs we bought to the victims of the North Myrtle Beach fire, then drove up to Gastonia, NC. On the drive up, since we had packed our left overs, we ate chicken salad on some bread and crackers in a shaded area with picnic tables (that happened to be next to a Wendy's so we ended up with Frosty's too :)

We took a nap after arriving at our hotel a little after 3pm, and then went out to dinner at Hillbilly's BBQ, some mighty fine BBQ at a reasonable price :) Amy thanked our Lord during the blessing of our meal for the fact that no one was injured during AWANA games, our playing in the ocean, and all of the driving we have done. He has been good to us on this family vacation.

We've laid out our clothes, I went to the store and got a big bag to bring home my boogie board and the kids' skim board together in. It is all wrapped up and ready to go, and I've filled the van with gas, so we are ready to go to the airport in the morning. Our plane leaves Charlotte at 9am for Dallas/Fort Worth Texas, and then all but Abby fly back to Denver. Abby will be leaving Charlotte to fly to Ohio to spend a couple of weeks with her good friend, also named Abby.

We are ready to wrap up this trip and get back home, as we'll be hitting the ground running as soon as we get back to Denver.

Thanks for reading along, and for those of you who prayed for us, thank you too!

Day 12 of our April 2009 vacation

Last day on the beach.

We enjoyed our last day on the beach today. Todd did a lot of skim boarding, the other kids and I all enjoyed boogie boarding from low tide to high tide. Todd forgot to put sun lotion on his legs and got burned, and Abby only put 30 SPF on instead of 70 and got sunburned too.

Finished the night with ice cream at Baskin Robbins.

Leaving SC tomorrow, taking grandma to the airport early in the morning.

We were blessed with large waves again today around the low tide change and really enjoyed our last day on the beach.

Day 11 of our April 2009 vacation

A day at the beach.

What a blessing to find that before and after low tide during the heat of the day today, the waves were quite fun to boogie board on! All of us took turns riding the boogie board, all five kids, my wife and I :) No one appears to be sun burnt tonight. We loaded up with 70 SPF and reapplied after getting out of the ocean.

We were exhausted for dinner so ordered pizza to be delivered :) Todd and I drove to the closest BlockBuster and got 'The Tale of Despereaux' which we enjoyed together after dinner. We sat around and just enjoyed each other's company, laughing and having an enjoyable evening together.

Getting to bed a little before 11pm tonight.

Day 10 of our April 2009 vacation

We attempted to keep this day out of the sun as much as possible.

Sun burns are looking much better today.

Grandma bought all the grandkids helicopter rides this morning. They enjoyed a 2 mile flight out over the ocean and beach.

We then went to Friendly's for lunch and ice cream (had a 20% off coupon from the visitor's center.) Was an enjoyable time together.

Shopped together at Wal-Mart, getting a few more items for our cookout.

Back at the State Park, found out there was a ban on charcol fires (due to the fire up in North Myrtle Beach) so we ate chicken and pasta in the cabin instead.

The kids and I went and played some frisbee in the shade off the beach, under the trees in the grass. Then we went in for dinner.

The high tide again was crashing small on the beach, so I read that not only high tide is an influence on the size of the waves, but so is the wind, so I was glad the wind was down the last couple of days as that has assisted the firemen in containing the 31 square mile fire up in North Mrytle Beach area.

After dinner we invented a softball game with dice, paper napkins, and sea shells, and played that together, then took a long walk on the beach together at night.

Calling it a night a little after 11pm.

Day 9 of our April 2009 vacation

We woke up to the smell of some of the smoke from the North Myrtle Beach fire, but are far enough away not to be in harm's way.

The kids used the skim board on the beach.

We flew the kite on the beach.

We spent a lot of time on the beach today, with 30 & 70 SPF but Eric, Jamie, and Beth got sun burned :(

Came out to boogie board 30 minutes before high tide, but was a little dissappointed to see the waves were only 1 to 1.5 feet high and were crashing right on the shore, so did not boogie board tonight.

Lots of Aloe Vera used tonight before bed, thanking the Lord for things like Aloe Vera!

Day 8 of our April 2009 vacation

Ate breakfast in the cabin.

Took a nap.

Took a walk on the beach.

Ate Eddie's (like Dryer's) ice cream on the warf. Walked back to the cabin and had lunch (I know, after desert, but we are on vacation :)

Eric, Jamie and Todd built some sand castles, while Amy, Beth and Abby rested, and Grandma and I went shopping at a few stores.

Amy and I went and saw the sand castles that the kids built, as the incoming tide came in and washed it away.

Grandma had surprised all the kids by purchasing tickets to the 'Medieval Times Dinnner & Tournament' which we left the cabin a little before 5pm and the dinner and show went from 6pm-8pm. This was the first time our family had ever attended one, and grandma's 4th time since she has taken her other grandchildren to this.

We plan on going to bed early and hope to rise early (5:15am) to see the Lyrids meteor shower in the east before sunrise which happens at 6:35am, and then watch the sun rise over the atlantic ocean. It is 9pm now, so goodnight.

Day 7 of our April 2009 vacation

We had a wonderful vacation day today.

Breakfast in the cabin.

A morning walk on the beach.

Some shopping for my boogie board and other beach stuff.

Lunch after shopping in the cabin.

Todd and I flew our kite on the beach, while the girls made sand castles with their pails and shovels.

Abby had gotten a little sunburn (even after putting on 30 and then some 70 SPF).

Eric was still fighting his sore throat so rested in the cabin most all day long.

We went back to the store and bought a skim board for the kids and some aloe vera for Abby and anyone else who might become sun burned.

I looked again at the tidal charts and found out that Myrtle Beach was 26 minutes ahead of the posted charts (which were for Charleston down the way), so changed dinner plans to eat after going boogie boarding now at 5-5:36pm.

I went back out with my wet suit on 30 minutes before high tide and enjoyed catching some waves on my new boogie board, while Todd learned how to use the skim board, and Amy and Mary watched from the windy beach.

The shower felt wonderful to get all the salt and sand off.

Ate dinner together in the cabin.

Beth did some laundry, so we are all caught up on that now.

Watched one show on TV and called it a night a little after 10:30pm.

Day 6 of our April 2009 vacation

Travel Monday.

We ate our last free breakfast at our hotel.

We helped take a load of AWANA kids to the airport.

Then picked up our youngest, checked out of our hotel and started our drive from Greensboro at 12noon, ate lunch at a Hardee's (it is like a Carl's Jr.), then arrived at the state campground in Myrtle Beach around 4:45pm. We shopped, fixed dinner in our cabin, and after dinner, we picked up grandma Mary from the airport a little after 9pm.

We reviewed all of the pictures from both digital cameras tonight (after loading them onto the laptop) and called it a night around 11:15pm.

We'll see how cold the water is tomorrow. The air is supposed to be a high of 73 with a UV index of 9 "Sunny", and the high tide is supposed to happen at 6:03pm with a rise of 5.3 feet, and sunset is at 7:52pm, so if I can stand to be in the water with my wet suit on, then I'll attempt to purchase a boogie board tomorrow.

I haven't updated everyone on Abby's croup - thank you for your prayers, she did not have any flare ups at all after that first night with us.

We are happy with our large cabin that sleeps all 8 us, right next to the beach.

Day 5 of our April 2009 vacation

A restful Sunday

We ended up sleeping in way late, and only Jamie and I had breakfast at the hotel before they closed it down at 10am, so we missed getting to check out that church.

We read that our church back in Aurora had so much snow they could not plow and shovel out the trailer so worship was lead by Bill with his guitair and Sierra with her bass - without any sound board, and Pastor Mark preached without a mike and thus no recording of his message. I was looking forward to downloading his message since we were out of state, so I'll ask friends about it once we get back home.

Beth, Todd and Abby continue to be with their AWANA friends today, two of which are participating in the fine arts competition - Josiah and Sarah Lydia.

Amy, Eric, Jamie and I went ahead and did our laundry to get ready for our travel day tomorrow to Myrtle Beach. We did not use any check-ons since it cost extra, so we packed light using only carry-ons, so we will need to do laundry a couple of times on this trip.

Since we've been eating out so much, we shopped at the store to make sandwiches for lunch today, and we must be getting used to this nap thing, as after lunch, all but Eric took a nap this afternoon. We woke up to a gentle rain outside.

At 6:15pm the electricity went out, and Amy had found in the newspaper a concert that started at 7pm so we went to that: Elijah by Felix Mendelssohn and it was wonderful by the Greensboro Oratorio Singers. The scripture was taken from 1 Kings chapters 17 and 18 and sung by 6 soloists and a choir of 35.

Watched some Iron Chef and Myth Busters (switching between the two stations) and went to bed at 1am :}

Day 4 of our April 2009 vacation

Bronze round competitors: Sarah Lydia, William, coach Michael, Thomas, and Todd.

Silver Round Medalists: Elizabeth, Natalie, Kathryn, coach Dan, Corbin, and Preston.

Gold Round team medalists: Beth, Joe, Mary, Abby, and coach Lisa.

Today we ate our free breakfast at the hotel again.

We joined our kids as they competed in their AWANA Bible Quiz rounds today. Beth and Abby were on a team with a senior named Mary, and a freshman named Joe. Todd was on another team with a senior named Thomas, a freshman named William, and a sophomore named Sarah Lydia. In addition, there was a third team from the kids' AWANA which included a senior named Elizabeth, a sophomore named Natalie, a freshman name Kathryn, a Junior named Corbin and a freshman named Preston. There are 45 quiz teams competing over the course of today and tomorrow. Half of the teams competed today.

The first round, all 3 of the above teams went on to the next round. The second round was called the Bronze round. Todd's team received Bronze status recognition (they lost in that round), and the other two teams went on. The 3rd round was called the Silver round where the 3rd team above received Silver medals (losing out in that round.) The 4th and final round of today was called the Gold round and 13 teams competed with 5 moving on to the Platinum round tomorrow night during closing cerimonies. Beth and Abby's team were 10th place in this round and ended their day very happy with Gold medals.

I was humbled and amazed to see how much these young adults have hidden God's Word in their hearts!

Since none of our teams are proceeding to the Platinum round tomorrow night, we will see our 3 youngest again on Monday before noon.

We ate an early dinner at 4pm at Smokey Bones and it was excellent!

We came back to the hotel and all but Eric took a nap.

We found a 9marks.org church to attend here in Greensboro for tomorrow morning that meets in a hotel less than 10 minutes away.

We watched some TV and went to bed a little after 11pm.

Day 3 of our April 2009 vacation

We enjoyed our free breakfast again at the hotel.

We got to the kids' AWANA games right before they started (around 8:30am) and were excited (and surprised) to see them go past 2 rounds this year! After their first 2 rounds of games, it was lunch time - the 3 AWANA kids ate with their teammates in the hotel, and the 4 of us went out to eat lunch at BiscuitVille. Amy liked their salt and pepper shakers so I asked if I could buy some new ones from them (and since the owner happened to be eating in his own resturaunt, they directed me to him.) He gave us a pair right off of his table for free :)

Then we went back to the Hotel for the 2nd part of AWANA games and when we asked about paying for our wrist bands (we got their too late in the morning) she stamped our hands for free (saving us $60 for that day!) 35 AWANA teams started out that morning and our kids' team won their round after lunch, moving them on to round 4 which narrowed the field down to the final 15 teams! They were one of the 6 teams who lost in that 4th round out before the semi-final 9 teams played in the 5th round, which the winners of those three 3 way games would face off in the final 6th round. We left the kids' hotel, which Eric said had the best floors yet to play AWANA games on.

We came back to our hotel and slept about 2 hours (Eric slept 3.) Amy and Jamie thought of the idea to get Beth balloons for her citation reward, so we went to a local Party City and got a dozen balloons. Jamie worked with one of the AWANA leaders to get into Beth's hotel room and leave the balloons floating over her bed. We then went to the Citation Award Ceremony where 187 people received their citation awards, including Beth.

We tried to go out to a BBQ resturaunt called SMOKEY BONES, but the wait was 40 minutes from 9:15pm, so we drove across the street to Oh'Brians after calling them and finding out they did BBQ too and had no wait, we walked in, and had to leave due to the cigarrette smoke, so we drove across the street again and ate at a Wendy's about 10pm :}

We watched some HGTV.

We got to bed a little after midnight.

Day 2 of our April 2009 vacation

A Restful Day

Abby had a bit of croup cough last night, so please pray for her.

All 7 of us had a very nice free Breakfast at our Hotel.

We drove to the store, since we were pleased to find out that our rooms included a small fridge and a microwave. Bought some cough medicine for Abby, and some snacks for late evenings. Then we took a drive to what the Garmin labeled a go-cart race track, and it was a lovely drive, but we ended up on a dead end residential street :) We saw a walking path on that drive so we decided to drive back to the walking path. We all took a walk along a creek enjoying the beautiful flowers, and were blessed to end up at a park, where the kids played awhile and then we strolled back.

For lunch we stopped at a mall near the kids' hotel/convention center, and ate at the food court: 4 Subway sandwiches, 2 Cajun Chicken meals, and Eric did Sabarro pizza.

We dropped Beth, Todd, and Abby off at their nearby hotel at 3:30pm since their AWANA group flew in this afternoon. The rest of us came back to our hotel and all took a long nap.

Amy, Eric, Jamie and I saw a wonderful Jazz Orchestra featuring trombonist Delfaeyo Marsalis at the North Carolina A&T State University campus starting at 7pm.

We ate left over Cajun and Subway sandwiches for a late night dinner in our hotel room watching TV seeing 13 going on 30.

Got to bed about midnight.

Day 1 of our April 2009 vacation

Travel Day:
8:15am Drive from Aurora to Denver International Airport (Thanks Ian for serving us!)
Fly from Denver to Dallas/Fort Worth Airport
Eat lunch at DFW airport - food court (oriental for 4, sandwiches for 2, pizza for 1)
Go to the wrong gate at DFW right at boarding time (C39) find out flight is leaving from A39
Quickly get all of us to gate A39 (2 miles in less than 15 minutes - thankfully was able to use the sky train to assist!) Just about the last to board, but we made it!
Fly from Dallas/Fort Worth to Charlotte NC arrive on time at 7pm
At the rental car company, Amy spotted a Toyota Sienna sitting in a weird spot in the corner that was available - just what we wanted as it seats 8 comfortably (so when we pick up grandma in Myrtle Beach there will be enough room for all 8 of us!) Thank you Lord for that graciously reserved Van for us!
Drove towards Greensboro NC and stopped in Salisbury NC for dinner around 8:45pm at "Cook Out", a Christian owned chain that the 7 of us ate for under $40 including 1/4 lb cheeseburgers, shakes, and 2 sides each!
Safely Arrived in Greensboro around 10:15pm.