Arrogantly Shabby in 2015

I am behind on this blog post because, quite frankly, it's a bit overwhelming to get started. But here goes nothing.

Pawley's Island 2015

#peerypruettbeachweek

A couple of weeks ago, we spent a week at the beach. Not just any beach, but my favorite beach, Pawley's Island, hence the post title "Arrogantly Shabby". That's their motto. Love it. My family has been vacationing there for generations and it's funny to me to think about being a little kid there at the beach myself and now to be bringing my own kids there. Any free moments I had were spent reminiscing and it was so nostalgic for me to be there. I've made so, so many amazing memories there with family and friends. Seriously some of my very favorite memories and moments of my life have been there. The last time we went, the boys weren't born, but were there in utero. :)

Beached whale carrying triplets, circa 2013

20 weeks preggo

So this year, we went after the primetime vacay season and waited until the week of Labor Day to go. It's so nice because the rates are better and the weather is still really nice and warm (assuming you don't get any tropical storms since it's during hurricane season!). It felt like it took forrrreeeevvveeerrrr for our beach week to get here. I endured pictures of friends at the beach all summer and couldn't wait to get there! Now of course, our vacation is over, it's back to the grind, there is actually a chill in the air (I'm not even kidding), fall is coming, and I'm bummed. Take me back!!!!!!

Anyway, we went with the Pruetts - Joey, Lisa and Davis - this year, and created our hashtag for the week: #peerypruettbeachweek, which actually never got  used. Oh well. We had a few guest stars on our vacation as well! MaSha spent a few days with us at the beginning of the week and then Steph and Clark Mays came for a few days at the end of the week. All were great additions to our vacation!

I took, ahem, 836 pictures, and that is not a joke, although it sounds like one. My memory card was jammed up full and that is part of the reason that I've been delaying writing this post. Too much! Too intimidating! How to capture all of this in a blog post?!?! I didn't want to miss even one little millisecond of a fun moment or a photo opp. I have a problem. The first step is admitting it, right?!?!? Now I have to try to only post a handful of them. Or do you want to see all 836? That would make my job easier. :) It's too hard to pick and choose! This post will still contain a whole lotta pictures, but it's my feeble attempt to pick and choose only the best ones. Haha!!!

We checked in on Sunday late afternoon and hung out on the beach a little and on the porch of the house, which by the way, was incredible.

Joey and Thomas, lifelong buddies

William in rocking chair

Ryan in rocking chair

Stokes in rocking chair

 *Notice in pictures above that I tried to coordinate shirts with chairs. I'm that kind of nerd. Cute though, right?!!?

Mama with sweetie boy, Ryan

Playing on the deck

 Time to go down to the beach!!!

MaSha and William

MaSha and William, Stokes and Mama

Ryan and Da-da

More porch time

 So here's what it looked like pretty much every morning.

Rainy, rainy

RAIN! And a lot of it. I was just glad that it would rain overnight and in the morning because most of the day were just perfect! Please notice above that the deck has a gate. FOR REAL! We could relax and let the kids play out there without worrying that they would run down to the beach and drown or get bitten by a shark, or fall off into the dunes, or any number of crazy things that could happen. This is the only house I've ever seen on PI with a gate on the deck. We had no idea that it was gated before we got there and how much more perfect could it be?

Hanging out and opening birthday presents!

Beach time! I love these Prodoh shirts that they got for their birthday. In fact, I'm obsessed with them! They're like an outdoors shirt but for little kids. They provide SPF and are perfect for swimming and just being outside. Plus, I think they just look so super handsome wearing them! Prodoh models needed? I got 3.

Stokes, Ryan, William

William, Ryan, Stokes

Buckets from Leece and Aunt Tara from last year

MaSha and Ryan

The most beautiful boy

Playing in the water

My boys and me

Family pic

Peerys and Pruetts

Fun in the waves

William, Joey, Davis and Lisa

Stokie and me (with Ryan and Da-da in the background)

splash!

Love this view

The pier

Monday night MaSha watched all the kids for us and let Joey, Lisa, Thomas and me go on an adults only dinner date to a great restaurant, Bistro 217. We had to get some pics in the evening lighting before we left though!!

Mama and Stokes

Stokes and Da-da

Mama and Ryan

Ryan and Da-da

Mama and William

Da-da and William

Our family

My sweetheart

MaSha with Ryan

Lisa and Joey

We tried to get a picture with Davis....
didn't work so well. Ha!

Bistro 217

Lisa and Joey at dinner

Thomas and me at dinner

Followed on Tuesday with more beach time (that will be the case every day). :)

We took the guys for a walk to the north end of the island.

MaSha with William and Stokes

Davis, Stokes and William

Always on the move

Ryan in stroller

Such little cuties!!!

MaSha and William

Da-da holding Stokes while he pushed the stroller
(he thought he was such a big boy to push the stroller and
was having a ball!)

Davis, Joey and Lisa

Stokes and Da-da

The Pruetts on the walk

Stokes got tired of walking and hopped in
the stroller with Ryan

Ryan loved the company

William with Da-da

Playing in the water

We found a baby crab!

Stokie and mama

Sleepy boy resting on MaSha's shoulder

Me with Stokes and Ryan in the stroller,
and no, this isn't a double stroller - Stokes just
made himself a seat on the footrest!

Ryan

William resting...for a second!

Da-da and William

We attempted lunch on the beach this day. It was messy.
Not recommended.

Rinsing off!

Handsome guys!

William with Mama's hat and playing with Joey

I loved this bucket on the way up to the house. It's great to just dip your feet in to get the sand off. We used it to rinse off the boys each time we came in from the beach. On this occasion, we put them all in there together. This progression of pictures is too funny!

Mama with Stokes and Ryan hanging out on the deck

Evening snuggles with MaSha on the deck

William

Thomas and Stokes

More rain! Look how hard it was coming down!! Each day I would get worried that it would ruin the day, and each day I was surprised with a gorgeous, sunny day!

Ryan playing with his new keyboard from Davis!

MaSha, Stokes and William

Ry Ry

Fun in the waves

Splish splash

William with Da-da

He loved it

This one was moving around and hard to take a picture of!

Playing in the waves

This was MaSha's last day with us before she had to leave so we decided to all go out to eat in Murrells Inlet. I, of course, had to take some pictures of my handsome little fellas all dressed up!

Preppy boys

We went to Drunken Jack's. We have all been there plenty of times and have lots of fond memories of this restaurant.

We had FOUR two-year-olds and knew that this place gets crowded and has long waits. We tried to circumvent that by getting there early. Joey arrived by 4:45 to get our name on the list.  We showed up around 5:15 hoping that we would be seated and eating by 5:45 or 6. Keep in mind that the original quoted wait time was about an hour to an hour and half, so worst case, we should have been seated by 6:15. We figured we could make do. So we went to the Marsh Walk behind all the restaurants in Murrells Inlet and....surprise, surprise, took more pictures!! ;)

My boys!!

Thomas and MaSha with the boys

Thomas and me with the boys

Kayaks and marsh in Murrells Inlet

So beautiful

After we had done that a while, we went to the bar at the restaurant to get a drink and try to kill more time. They had these cute pirate hats for the boys. Everyone was behaving and we were enjoying our time. It was smooth sailing!

Stokes with pirate hat

Ryan with pirate hat

Joey with pirate hat LOL

These guys are always laughing when they're together

Marsh Walk

Lisa, Joey and Davis

Wearing shades - Da-da and Stokes

my handsome Ryan and me

Glasses switch! MaSha wearing Stokes's glasses and he's
wearing hers!

Looks like it was great, right?!?!? It was. Until we were waiting for 2 hours after we got there, despite the fact that our name was on the list at 4:45. Let's get serious. 4:45 is still afternoon time! Good grief.  All the kids were out of interesting and fun things to do....and they were hungry....and their patience was done....and we were trying to stick it out. We got seated after 7 (btw, their normal dinnertime is 6:00 and bedtime is 7:30) and Stokes went into full on meltdown mode at the table. It was actually pretty miserable. We ordered, ate and paid our bill as fast as we could so we could just get out there and make the torture stop. Not fun. I don't think we will be returning anytime soon.

Anyway, at least we woke up with three happy and fun little kids again after their evening of rage and tantrums was over.

Stokes, Ryan and William

Hey, guess what! The van got a flat tire while we were at the beach! It must have happened either to or from our Drunken Jack's dinner. Figures.

spare tire

Aww, man!

Luckily, a local tire place was able to patch it for us! Whew! We were thinking we might have to buy 2 new tires while on vacation. Yikes.

Brothers kissy time

William helping Ryan put his glasses on

I love this view. Melt my heart

Cool guys in the shade

They love their sunglasses

It's a miracle that we have kept all 3 pairs in tact
and in our possession! They even made it from
from the beach!!

Stokes and Da-da

Ryan, my sweet

Hanging out with Ryan

Davis making sand castles

Davis and Ryan, back to back

Lisa and Davis

Getting rinsed

Ryan in the tub

Evening pictures - William, Stokes, Ryan & Davis

Checking out the view

My boys and me

It was low country boil night!!!

Lisa reading to William

Our beach neighbors brought this dump truck over
for the boys to play with!

Davis and Ryan

Having fun playing in the sand

Stephanie and Clark drove in on Thursday and got there late on Thursday night. Bless them, they had to drive in terrible storms (because it rained basically every night) and I was really proud of them for coming down to the beach and getting out of the house. They have a 6 week old baby, Ava Lane, who was being cared for by grandparents. Isn't that impressive?!?!?! I am so glad they came!!

On Friday, Lisa, Stephanie and I decided that we needed to have a girls only lunch and went to one of my favorite beach restaurants, Chive Blossom. Neither Steph nor Lisa had been there and they both loved it too!

Lisa, Steph, me

Hanging out on the screened-in porch!

William, Thomas, Stokes

The whole fam

Clark and Steph - cuties!

Later that afternoon, we went for another walk on the beach with Clark and Steph this time.

Clark and William

Steph pushing Ryan's stroller

the pier

Stokie and his mama

William and Stokes leading the way

William and Da-da

Riding on the shoulders

sailboat in the dunes

Saturday was game day and we pulled out all the stops - Clemson hats and orange trunks and our little orange football!

Davis with the football

This picture makes me laugh because we wanted to get a picture of them in their orange with the beach in the background. So we put them on top of the gate and Thomas and Clark are behind them holding on to them. Clearly, they didn't like it, but it made for a cute picture. If only they were smiling or all looking at the camera (story of my life), sigh.

Go Tigers!!!

It was actually pretty overcast on Saturday. It was definitely the least sunny day we had during the whole week.

William is so loving. He dotes on Ryan and showers him with love and affection. This made my heart melt. Ryan was sitting on the beach and unprovoked or requested, William just went over to him and started hugging him. I started snapping pictures as fast as I could. So, so sweet!

Ryan loves his brothers so much!

And he's off again!

Mama and William

Ryan

William, Ryan and Stokes with their names in the sand

I don't typically like to watch tv while we're at the beach, but we had to make an exception for the Clemson/Wofford game. It also helped that the weather wasn't great so we didn't feel too bad that we were missing out on beach time!

Watching the tigers play!

Game time! GO TIGERS!!!!

Steph and Clark with Ryan

Clemson won. YAY! The boys napped. YAY! It was a great afternoon. After they woke up, we took them back to the beach to do the obligatory bare bum beach shot. It was so funny!

Preparation with help from Da-da and Clark

Cute little fannies!!!!

We have an escapee - with a sandy hiney!

Ryan, pondering life.

Clark did a "Baywatch" into the water

Snuggles with Da-da

Me, Ryan, William, Thomas and Stokes

We got these naked babies all wrapped up!

We eventually got over the Drunken Jack's fiasco and agreed to try to go out one more time during the week. We got a few recommendations (thanks, Wendy!) and decided to check out Wicked Tuna, which is also in Murrells Inlet.

Quick pic on the hammock before going to dinner

Wicked Tuna

This was a completely different experience than that at Drunken Jack's. We were able to call ahead and by the time we got to the restaurant, the Mays and the Pruetts were already seated and we were rocking and rolling. Our service was incredible and the food came out really quickly...and was really good! Two thumbs up to Wicked Tuna. It was a great experience and truly like night and day from our earlier attempt to "enjoy" a dinner out with everyone!

Our table - Clark, Steph, Lisa, Davis,
Joey, William, Thomas, Stokes
and Ryan

Thomas and Stokes

Ryan and me

Sunday morning was oh, so sad. It was leaving day. We did a little packing up on Saturday night, but Sunday morning we had to get up and get moving. Cleaning, packing, organizing, loading into the car, etc....all while taking care of all the kiddos. It was the most gorgeous morning, so I did stop and take a few minutes to go outside and enjoy this beauty. God's creation - breathtaking.

Stokes and Ryan looking toward the water

My boys loved the beach

A few notes about our trip that I want to put here so I can remember them later...

-Stokes loved the water. He'd have a great time playing in the waves and splashing around, until a wave would get him or if he fell and his head went under. Then he just wanted to be held! He would put his head on my shoulder (my fave!), so I was happy to oblige! 

-Stokes has proved that he can climb out of his pack n play (we brought 3 and that's what the boys slept in), but he would miraculously stay put until I came into their room in the morning or after nap before he climbed out.

-Stokes liked to eat sand. He would pinch a tiny little bit at a time and quickly put it in his mouth. Major distraction was required to stop the sand eating. 

-Ryan loves it when I blow in his face. It wasn't surprising therefore that he loved sitting out on the beach and feeling the wind on his face and blowing through his hair. 

-I could tell Ryan liked the feel of the sand in his fingers and would laugh when we put sand on his feet and legs. 

-Ryan's anti-seizure meds prevent sweating, which is the human body's method to cool itself down. Since he doesn't sweat, it's easy for him to get overheated. We had to pay attention to the color of his cheeks while out on the beach to make sure he didn't get too hot. The breeze helped and anytime his cheeks would get pink, we would take him for a dip in the ocean, which he loved.

-William randomly started calling me Mommydaddy (all one word) while we were there. Not sure why. He's done it a little since we've been home, but not as much and I haven't heard it lately. Btw, "mama" has morphed into "mommy" lately from William. Tear!!!! At least he doesn't call me "mom" yet - that sounds way too mature!

-William really took a liking to Joey and was so cute calling his name and trying to hang out with him. He actually ran after a guy on the beach calling out, "Joey! Joey!" thinking it was him. 

-Thomas and I would point out the waves and call out "wave" when one was coming and William would start waving! Ha! He would wave to the wave. Hilarious.

-William loved chasing the birds on the beach. We loved it too because it would wear him out! He called the seagulls "seegees". 

-We changed a lot of diapers. Between multiple swim diapers per day plus changing regular diapers, it seemed like we changed about a million over the course of the week!

I was so incredibly sad to leave the beach at the end of our vacation. I wish we had another full week to spend there. It was truly an amazing trip. The boys had a blast, and in turn, we had so much fun with them! They were playing, exploring, learning and laughing. They didn't technically say it, but I know that they were so disappointed to leave as well. The drive home was depressing. I'm still fighting off a funk about the end of our summer and our awesome beach vacation. I don't want to go back to ordinary life. Can I go ahead and start looking forward to next summer?!?!?!?! Take me back to the beach, please!

Till next year, Pawley's Island, stay shabby. Hope to see you again soon! xoxo