Myrtle Beach/MS Wrap-Up

Okay, so it's time to FINALLY finish telling y'all about our vacation! (It may be a long one... I've promised myself this is the LAST vacation post.)

The other non-beachy fun thing we did was visit Brookgreen Gardens for the day.  It's close to Myrtle Beach, and they have a ton of things to do! (You can check out their website HERE) There are hundreds of acres of beautiful gardens with unique sculptures to explore. That's what we decided to do first. 

Unfortunately, it was HOOOOOOOOOOT that day, and the one sculpture we (well, okay, LL) really wanted to find alluded us for a while, and we were wandering around in the oppressive heat for a very, very long time.  Beautiful though it was. :o)  Finally, we reached the Pegasus sculpture (the Pegasus is symbol of veterinary medicine used by MSU, so that's why LL really wanted to find it) and there was much rejoicing by all.  And lots of picture taking. 

After a much-needed lunch break, we boarded the "train" as Reed called it, to go to the other part of the park.

They had a wildlife park and a butterfly garden, and we were excited to check it out. The kiddos had a great time at the wildlife park. 

 She even posed with the otter scuplture!

Collette looooooves animals, but hands down, the otters were her favorite.  I thought it was fitting that she was wearing her otter backpack at the time.

After the wildlife park, we were able to go to the Butterfly garden. They sell tickets for specific times, due to limited space inside.  The butterfly garden was actually our original reason for visiting Brookgreen, but of course, about 10 minutes before we were able to get in, Collette fell asleep.  Poor thing.  She was soooo tired. 

Our only shot of Collette with the butterfly chair!

After our long hot day, we decided we needed to cool off with some treats from Sonic.  LL decided to get Collette a milkshake, too.  She'd never really had one before, and she thought it was, in her own words, "awesome!"

Of course, who really gives a one-and-a-half year old her own milkshake in a moving vehicle?  Parenting FAIL. 

Yes, she ended up wearing her Banana milkshake.  She didn't seem to mind one bit. :o) As you can probably tell from the picture, Lydia and I were both hysterical over it!

We also got to enjoy a variety of fun meals while we were in Myrtle Beach.  Although let me tell you, taking a one and a half  and two year old to nicer, sit-down restaurants is not for the faint of heart! Our last night in MB, we went to the Melting Pot.  (yes, I realize this is a chain restaurant, but none of us had ever been, and it sounded like a fun and different, so we went with it).  If any of you aren't familiar with the Melting Pot, it's a fondue restaurant.  We started with a cheese fondue, then had a marinade to cook our meats in at the table, and then ended with a chocolate fondue.  So much fun!

After our dinner, we did some pictures on the beach.

The Edwards' Family

I just love this one of these two! Precious!

The next day, we drove to Starkville for the weekend.  We stayed with our great friends, the Longs,  and it was so great to catch up with them! Collette and sweet Mary Audrey had such fun together.

 Chocolate cupcakes-- yum!

Just look at all that hair. And at those bellies! LOL

 John and his girls :)

Collette trying out MA's 4-wheeler:

Of course, my child did manage to find an ice tea glass, carry it around unbeknownst to us, drop and shatter it into a million pieces, and cut her self in several places.  She was fine, but almost gave her Mama a heart attack!

Showing off her finger cut, saying "owwww" (you can thank LL for that camera angle):

And showing off her big boo-boo on her arm:

Saturday evening we were able to attend our dear friend Kathryn's wedding-- the actual reason for our

"detour" to MS.  It was so special to see her and be there, and we also got to see our great friends the Kimes, and meet sweet new baby Peyton! Of course, I didn't happen to get ANY pictures of the entire event, because I was too busy trying to corral Collette! (Let me tell you, that child truly knows no strangers.  She was allll over the place at the reception!) Well, hopefully I can get a link to her pictures eventually.  In any event, the wedding and reception were beautiful, and we were so glad we were able to attend!

And the next morning we went to our MS church, and then hit the road for the long trip back to PA.  We actually did it in two days, which was so nice, and Collette was a great traveler! We put 2,800 miles on our van on our vacation! Craziness.