2nd Family Day Celebration Trip

We just returned yesterday from a mini vacation for 4 nights at the beach. It was a great trip and so very relaxing, which was much needed. Landon had chosen to go to the beach for his family day celebration this year (gotcha day) several months ago, so we've been planning it for quite some time. We have a big trip planned for his 3rd family day celebration next year if it all works out, but after that, we may have to scale it back a little. :)  We arrived on Tuesday at Dunes Village Resort where we spent our vacation at Myrtle Beach. We ordered Ultimate California Pizza for dinner our first night and had it delivered. We also went swimming in the lazy river and pool outside our hotel. It was ICE cold in the pool outside, so we spent most of the time in the lazy river. Once we arrived at the hotel and checked in, there was a mess up with our room. We were supposed to be in a King studio, but I had called earlier in the week and added an additional night on to make our stay 4 nights rather than 3. They couldn't find the second reservation at first and I was beginning to get frantic. Then they found it but both reservations were showing the girl had upgrade our room to a 2 queen suite rather than the 1 King studio. We were told this was a much larger room and that we wouldn't have to swap rooms if we took it, so we accepted. So glad that we did! It was super nice and much roomier than the king studio we'd had 2 years prior. We had a bedroom with 2 queen beds, a jacuzzi tub, a washer/dryer, a full size kitchen and a living room and oceanfront balcony.

 

Here was our dinner the first night. It was delicious!! Ultimate California Pizza. There are several locations in and around Myrtle Beach. Excellent selection and food.

 

I got up a little early the first morning there and took some pictures of the sunrise. I think there is nothing more beautiful than the sun rising over the ocean.

 

Here are some pics of the backside of our resort - this first pic is the main building and was where our room was located on the 11th floor. The next picture is the second building of the hotel next door where an additional indoor water park is located.

 

Someone was ready for the ocean and the sand as soon as we hit the beach.



 

 

I love these two.....

He LOVED being buried in the sand.

 

Day 2:

 

 

 

Taking a cruise around the lazy river. We did this lots.

 

One of the kids play areas

 

Getting ready to head out to dinner on Night 2:

 

We ate at an AMAZING restaurant on Wednesday night. It was the number one rated restaurant on tripadvisor and since I'm all about tripadvisor and ratings, we chose to eat there. It's Hano Teppanyaki House and the food as well as the service were amazing. We loved this place. So much in fact that I took photos of our food. Haha!

 

The entire inside of the restaurant was very pretty decorated and completely spotless!

 

 

I even thought the silverware was neat.

 

This was the house soup and a recipe of the owners. It was wonderful. This was Landon's favorite. Both the owner's wife and our waitress were very attentive and super sweet to us and Landon.

 

Eric ordered Green Tea to drink and this is what they brought out.

 

House salad with homemade ginger dressing. We're turning into huge ginger fans. :)

 

Eric ordered the Teriyaki New York Strip

 

And I had the Teriyaki Chicken. Both were wonderful.

 

Day 3:

We celebrated our Forever Family Day or Gotcha Day. Landon chose cheeseburgers (with pickles only) and milkshakes for his meal, so where better than Steak N Shake? We had never tried it and we met up with our best friends and had dinner there.

 

 

Landon's "nilla" milkshake versus mommy's cookies n cream shake

And of course, no celebration is complete without ice cream. The gotcha day boy chose Ben and Jerry's vanilla bean ice cream in a waffle cone. And he finished every single drop although it was very messy!

 



 

Sunset over Broadway at the Beach

 

 

Since we met up with our best friends, we had Uncle Ray take some pictures of our family on the beach. I love them. They have some even better ones that they are going to send to us once they get home today and I can't wait to get those and edit them! Here are the ones from our camera.

 

 

 

We had a wonderful little mini vacation and I can't wait to do it again soon!