Garden City 2019

Garden City Beach
Way back when, my great grandmother began this trip to the beach each year with family.  At first everyone rented a house at Surfside Beach and as the years progressed and Surfside grew, Garden City began the beach of choice.  We rent a home way down from the pier so it is rather quiet.  My Aunt Kim and her husband, David, rent a home on the waterway for their crew - all in all, we have 23ish people at any given time together on the beach and for meals....it is fun, somewhat organized chaos!
On our drive down to the beach, we stopped for lunch at Rush's and decided to surprise Ryan's parents with a visit.  Ryan's mother was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma ten years ago and has been doing very well until recently.  Her markers have been elevated and she has been taking oral chemo as well as receiving radiation on her back....she is a fighter but she is tired.  She is 84 years old and, on a normal day, has more energy than I do but this round of meds is knocking her down a bit.  On this day, she asked for a chili dog in hopes that it would taste good vs like styrofoam - she says everything tastes awful now that she has endured chemo!
We arrived at Garden City Beach during the late afternoon.....surprisingly, we were the last to arrive - this is not typically the case.  Usually, it is Kellie who is last :) We made many, many, many trips up and down the stairs, began unpacking and making up beds....and then we realized that we had left not just one but TWO of our hampers at home....these two hampers contained sheets, towels, beach towels, and many other items we needed for the week.  But, instead of getting upset, I simply chose to use this as a reminder that things could be much worse - at least this was an issue that could be taken care of easily with a shopping experience at one of my favorite venues, Target :) So, off I went to buy all the things!
The week was spent eating way too much of all of the traditional beach foods, playing games well into the later evening hours, chatting, swimming, chasing the ice cream truck, going to the pier and arcade, family picture chaos, and everything in between.  It was a great week of family time and, for that, I am thankful!

Chapman Learns to Swim

All of our kiddos are swimmers and all of them have been early swimmers with Pryce being the earliest at the age of 2 (almost 3).  He would jump in the pool and then yell at the lifeguards not to save him because he could swim....and he would then swim to the side and do it all over again.
Colin took in-depth swimming lessons and hated every moment of them! These are the same lessons that scarred my mom and Ryan's mom for life - we lived in Florida where every home has a pool and every piece of land is connected to a canal or a pond.  MK taught herself to swim using a swim vest....and then she was swimming on our swim team at the age of 4 and hasn't looked back since.  She loves to swim on the team and just for fun.  Maddox could take it or leave it....she's a good competitor on the team yet she is just fine not having to be in the pool....I honestly can't remember if she did a formal lesson or if she just figured it out on her own but either way she is full-on beast mode in the pool now.  Maryn jumped in the pool while we were visiting Seabrook and she was able to swim....we had no idea!  And then our Cha....Chapman has been swimming with her puddle jumper, jumping in like a champ, not scared of water on her face....all of it, she was doing so well!  We put a pool in our backyard last summer and I have been a nervous wreck because I wanted Cha to be swimming before it was in....since she wasn't totally an independent swimmer, we put her in at our local swim school, Dolphin Academy.  She went every week for six months, made the cutest little friends, and had the best time.  She would tell me every time we were going in, "I'm going to SINK! I not know how to SWIM!" but she went in with a smile on her face.  She was doing it all....kicking was great, arm movement was great, holding her breath was great....but, she didn't want to put her face in for more than a second....and she continued this pattern for her entire stay at Dolphin.  Summer came and we went to swim lessons every day for one week and lo and behold the Cha came home swimming like a champ!  That was the first week of June!  Now, we are at the first week of August, and our little is swimming the length of our pool and she is a little fish!!! Amazing!  She loves the water, loves to be in the pool with her sisters and brothers, and she is just a fabulous swimmer!