Vacay Pics Pt. 5

If I hadn't already started the titles of this series "Vacay Pics", I would have named this post:

"I'm having fish tonight!"

Hmmm... for a person who can't stand seafood, what could this possibly mean?  Well, I guess you'll have to read today's post to find out. ;)

Our second day in Mrytle Beach was nice.  It was relaxing.  We went shopping again and then out to lunch.  Many of us would have enjoyed going back to the beach, but Acadia really wanted to swim at the pool instead.  (The salt water really burned her eyes and she wanted to practice swimming underwater which, obviously isn't very practical in the ocean.)  The parental units were still looking for something in the shops so they went back out to a different group of stores while I took Acadia to the pool and Ryan and Rori napped in the hotel room.  Like I said, relaxing.   

Suzy and her family had invited us to dinner, which I was very much looking forward to.  I met Suzy when we arrived in Myrtle Beach and looked forward to meeting her husband and children.  And actually, Ryan was too - he hadn't met them yet either!  The beach and hotel were fun, but our reason for flying across the country and then driving down to Myrtle Beach was to visit FAMILY.  So this evening was what our time in Myrtle Beach was really all about.  Suzy was leaving work early and offered to take Cadi home with her so she would have more time to play with her cousins.  After swimming, we went up to the room so she could change and get ready to go.

Right after Acadia left with Suzy, this light started flashing!

My immediate thought was, "We're on the top floor - there are gonna be A LOT of stairs to go down!!!"  Now, there were no audio alarms going off and we were wondering what that meant.  We started to grab our things to go (ie. Rori), but someone thought, Let's just call down to be sure first.  They called the front desk and sure enough, it was a false alarm.  A three year old had pulled the alarm in the stairwell.  Well, I could totally understand how that happened - just that day we were showing Rori how to push the button to call the elevator so as soon as we got in the elevator, she tried to push the first button she saw in there, too.  Which was the alarm button. lol 

Even though it had already been checked out and cleared, we still heard sirens just moments later and looked out our window to see this:

I'm sorry, did I say that this day was relaxing? lol  Well, since this all took place in the time frame of 5 minutes, it really was a relaxing day.  No harm, no foul. :)

A couple more pics from the hotel room before we headed over to Suzy's for dinner:

Soon, we headed over to Suzy's.  It was great to visit with them!  The kids all got along great!  Cadi had a lot of fun with the girls (Riley and Madison) and little Hiatt adored Rori, I think he thought she was a toy just for him! lol  Rick is a "Jack of all trades"!  He has done so many projects around their house - tile work, molding, cabinetry, room additions - and it is all beautiful work!  Not to mention, he's the chef of the house and a tasty one at that!

The kids ate first: chicken, potatoes, corn on the cob, asparagus, and garlic bread.  Rori ate so well - I was so glad since she can be a picky eater sometimes.  Her favorite was the corn on the cob - she totally cleaned that cob! lol  But as soon as she saw me take a bite of her asparagus, she attacked that, too.  I'm normally not a lover of asparagus, but this was delicious!  (I've requested the recipe for the marinade Rick used. lol) 

After the kids finished eating, we let them run back upstairs to continue playing while we ate.  Our menu was slightly different. 

Salmon.

Did I mention that I can't stand seafood?  I have tried numerous times because Ryan loves seafood.  But every time I've taken a bite, I've nearly lost my dinner right there at the dinner table, usually in a restaurant.  Not pleasant.

However, Rick and Suzy had already been so generous to us (getting us that room and scoring tickets for us at the Dixie Stampede), I felt it would be horribly rude if I didn't make an honest effort to try to eat the meal that they so generously prepared for us.  And it did look great - everything looked gourmet.  They were so nice and insisted that I didn't need to eat it, they offered the chicken instead.  But I was determined to try (yet again) to like some kind of seafood.  So... I took a bite!  Granted, I smothered that bite in a ton of the corn relish that was prepared with it, but it was still a bite of fish!  And you know what?  It wasn't bad!  It wasn't my favorite, but it was definitely edible!  So, I continued to eat about half of the serving I had on my plate, every bite with a lot of that relish and/or mashed potatoes. lol  Around that point though, the salmon had cooled and my appetite wasn't as big, and it started to become less pleasant with each bite so I quit while I was ahead and switched over to the delicious (and safe) chicken that had also been prepared. :)

Even though I didn't eat all of it, I was pretty proud of myself for eating any at all.  Yay me! lol

After dinner, the kids went out back to play.  This was tons of fun! 

Did I mention how adorable Hiatt and Rori were together?  Oh my goodness, they were the CUTEST!!!

Like I said, the kids all got along so well - I wish so much that we could see them more!  I've encouraged Acadia to write to them, to stay in touch.  I'm hoping they can become little penpals or something, I would love for them to be able to maintain a relationship, even being so far apart.

I really hated that we had to leave their home that night!  We had such a wonderful visit!  But, it was well past bedtimes and Susan, Bill, and Cadi were leaving early the next morning to go back up to Massachusetts. 

Even though Ryan and I still had one more full day before getting on the plane to come home, it felt like tonight was the last night of our vacation.  The next morning our family would be splitting up and no matter what we did after that, it wouldn't be nearly as fun as the times we had just had together.

(I've got one more post coming with lots of pics, so venture on back in a bit to check it out!)