No matter how well you know each other...no matter how comfortable you are with your family...no matter how much you truly love them...and no matter how big the house is...something can and most likely will...
go wrong.
Before I cause my family to set out a bounty on my head (and the rest of me), I must make this disclaimer:
I love my family. VERY much. In fact, I love my husband's family, whom I consider to be MY family as well. I love ALL of my family, and there is nothing more exciting to me than to plan a vacation with any or all of my family.
Except to plan a vacation for just the 7 of us (Dean, Tyler, Summerlyn, Savannah, Scarlett, Luke, and myself). I plan waaaaaaaay in advance for this one! My kids will only be this small and this innocent for a short time, and there is simply NOTHING I love better than to go on a carefree vacation with them, acting as if we had nary a care in the world! No stress and no clocks!!!!!
Back to my wonderful extended family...
Last week, my Crew went on vacation with my Grandma (MA), my Aunt & Uncle (Debbie & Jim), my Brother (JET), and my Parents (Mama & Daddy).
It was nothing short of an adventure, as is always true in the precious memories I have of my family.
Our Crew left at 2:30am from Knoxville. It POURED the whole 8 1/2 hours to Holden Beach.
P*O*U*R*E*D* the rain.
It's the first time in my life that my husband actually ASKED me to talk. To help him stay awake and drive through the rain...you know.
We somehow managed to "get lost" in Florence, SC. Florence is a little bitty town that I actually lived in when I was like...5. We always go through Florence to get to the beach...ANY beach! We missed the new bypass and wound up going through the main strip in Florence, upon which, they were having a parade. We got rerouted around "main street" and after a few wrong turns, we were on our way!
Meanwhile, my parents, brother, and oldest son (Tyler) were riding together and horse-laughing our little detour through Florence! It's okay, though, because we wound up beating them to the beach house because they went to Myrtle Beach and THEN drove up the coast to Holden Beach (in Supply, NC). Since Myrtle Beach is an hour away, and we drove straight in...we were pulling into the driveway as the cleaning crew was pulling out! The white van of horse-laughers pulled in about 20-30 minutes after we did!
Did I mention that it was raining?
Did I also mention that it was like...50 degrees at Holden Beach?
I started to doubt my expertise in beach planning, even though we've done this no less than 17 times over the course of our marriage. We always go in October. I just didn't realize that a cold front would be making it's way over our beach! I think the high over the next week was 70. Not bad if you don't mind the wind feeling like it's 55! But as I've always said...even if it rains the entire beach trip, it's still a vacation...a change of scenery...a break from the norm. And preferably a break from the kids if the temp's right. Say...80 or so...!
And YES, we've hit PERFECT weather in years past, going in October. And while we frequented North Myrtle Beach and Sunset Beach in the first few years of our marriage, in recent years, we have visited different beaches. This was our second visit to Holden Beach. Savannah was 10 months old on the first trip there. The temp then was around 50 degrees, too. But we visited in FEBRUARY! Dean had classes to attend to be re certified for the company purposes, and the kids and I stayed in our rented duplex everyday and had TOO much fun!!!
Keep reading...I do have a point...
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