As soon as school let out for the summer, Brent and I took off for the beach! We both really needed the break, and with the baby coming it may be the last one we ever get....so, we booked a hotel and spent three days in Myrtle Beach. Although over-commercialized and way too "city" for me to ever dream of living there, it was a perfect vacation for a couple days and we had a blast! Here are some of our favorite pictures from the trip.
This is the beach we stayed on. It was absolutely beautiful! Our hotel was right on the beach so it was easy to walk down the stairs and onto the sand.

We spent most of our trip basking in the sun and soaking up rays.

We also searched for seashells, and found quite a few beautiful and unique ones.

We got to see a bunch of living creatures like this hermit crab! Brent grabbed it because he thought the shell was pretty, and then realized there was a crab inside...so cool!

This star fish washed up on the shore near us. He's missing one of his limbs, but Brent threw him back into the ocean in hopes of saving the little guy.

In addition to those, we also saw a regular ocean crab about the size of a softball, an entire school of fish glistening across the top of the water, and birds that dove into the ocean in search of food. Then, Brent had a "National Geographic" moment when he happened to glance out into the ocean and saw a fish about 1 foot long jump out of the water, followed by a fish about 3-4 feet long in hot pursuit. They came about 6 feet out of the water, arched, and dove back in. It was so fun for him to see that!
Here we are just enjoying the water.

Since Myrtle Beach is practically the golf capital of the world, we just had to hit the miniature golf course! They have over 50 mini golf courses in that town with a variety of themes. This one was a Captain Hook theme.

Brent is a bit proud of his hole-in-one...
Then I got my revenge with a hole-in-one of my own! (Of course, I lost by about 15 strokes, so I don't know if you can really call that revenge...)

One of the last things we did was visit the Ripley's Believe It or Not Aquarium. They had full-size sharks, sea turtles, plenty of fish, an octopus, and much more. In one area, they had a huge tank that you could walk underneath, or ride the moving sidewalk. It was really neat. However, our favorite part (by far) was....
Petting the sting rays!! They had a huge tank full of about 5-6 different kinds of rays, and they were awesome! Some had soft, slippery skin while others had rough skin. Some were really friendly and playful like dolphins, and others were more mellow. Some had spots, dorsal fins, upturned noses, funny shaped mouths...it was quite the experience! We both could have spent all day there!


After three days, we were exhausted! We had a great trip, and felt blessed to have so many wonderful experiences while we were there. It was really hard to head back home and back to real life, but we were refreshed and ready.