It was the 3 kids and me once again experiencing the Hulsebus Family Dream. We dropped Cindi off early at the Florence, SC airport and made our way to probably once of the largest RV parks we've visited yet. It's called PirateLand Family Camping Resort and is located along the coastline in Myrtle Beach. We got the best spot in the entire park right in front of the Atlantic Ocean. Considering it is late Novemember / early December though this place is a ghost town. Anyway we love our "pull through" spot. We wish the weather was a little better though. We decided to plant it for a while, 7 nights to be exact. The better part of the first 2 days we stayed inside as it pretty much rained nonstop. This gave us lots of inside-the-motorhome time... just what we needed.. haha! Actually the kids have been doing some good reading. Last week Tanner finished the 870 page "Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix" (5th book) and this last week he started AND FINISHED the 6th book, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (652 pages!). Sterling and I read "Football Genius" by Tim Green a few weeks ago. Then he read another football book. Now he's reading Football Double Threat by Matt Christopher. There is a theme here with Sterling that is quite obvious. He LOVES Football! Peyton is our reader in training. He is starting to read and is doing a great job. He is beginning to read all sorts of starter books primarily the ones that are part of his Sing, Spell, Read and Write homeschooling kit.
As the weather got better we were able to get out more and exercise, play on the beach, and feed the seagulls. 
On the third night we drove into the city of Myrtle Beach. We found a nice shopping/restaraunt/entertainment area called Broadway on the Beach. We decided to catch a bite to eat at Senior Frogs. I know, it sounds like a place your supposed to visit when you go ashore on a Mexican Cruise. Actually, I think I've been to one of these places in Mexico... uuhh...anyway, if I have, I don't remember ;-) Well it was very calm inside as we were pretty much the one ones eating dinner in the place. We were going to walk around after dinner but it started to rain so we dipped into an "It's Candy" candy store. Funny thing is we didn't even need to buy any because the samples they were offering were these huge (biggest samples we've ever gotten) chocolate, marshmellow blocks that they easily served as our dessert. The next day we got some sun so we tried to spend a decent amount of time outside after our homeschool. Peyton and I built a rocket back in Minnesota and had yet to launch it off so we decided the time had come. Now, there were signs saying no fireworks, but a rocket is not really a firework (...right?...) so we set up the lauching device next to our motorhome and started the countdown.... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BLASTOFF! Peyton got the honors to push the launch button. Now we knew there was an easterly breeze but we didn't really know how high this rocket would travel. We were absolutley amazed how high this rocket shot into the air. Sterling, who was on the beach hoping to catch it, had no chance. The rocket went so high that it made it into the gulfstream. The parachute deployed properly and begin to float down but the breeze carried it out over the ocean and gave our rocket a realistic Apollo splashdown in the Atlantic. "...There were no survivors." Eventhough we only got the chance to shoot it off once the kids thought it was awesome. We need to buy another rocket. We decided we liked the powerful engines tough.That night since we hadn't swam in the indoor pool we made it a priority. Nothing fancy just a rectangular heated pool and a hot tub. We played, swam a few laps and I got to assume my normal pool role of kid-launcher. The kids had fun stacking themselves 3 high, Peyton on Tanner's shoulders and Tanner on Sterling's shoulders. Lots of laughs!
On the third night we drove into the city of Myrtle Beach. We found a nice shopping/restaraunt/entertainment area called Broadway on the Beach. We decided to catch a bite to eat at Senior Frogs. I know, it sounds like a place your supposed to visit when you go ashore on a Mexican Cruise. Actually, I think I've been to one of these places in Mexico... uuhh...anyway, if I have, I don't remember ;-) Well it was very calm inside as we were pretty much the one ones eating dinner in the place. We were going to walk around after dinner but it started to rain so we dipped into an "It's Candy" candy store. Funny thing is we didn't even need to buy any because the samples they were offering were these huge (biggest samples we've ever gotten) chocolate, marshmellow blocks that they easily served as our dessert. The next day we got some sun so we tried to spend a decent amount of time outside after our homeschool. Peyton and I built a rocket back in Minnesota and had yet to launch it off so we decided the time had come. Now, there were signs saying no fireworks, but a rocket is not really a firework (...right?...) so we set up the lauching device next to our motorhome and started the countdown.... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BLASTOFF! Peyton got the honors to push the launch button. Now we knew there was an easterly breeze but we didn't really know how high this rocket would travel. We were absolutley amazed how high this rocket shot into the air. Sterling, who was on the beach hoping to catch it, had no chance. The rocket went so high that it made it into the gulfstream. The parachute deployed properly and begin to float down but the breeze carried it out over the ocean and gave our rocket a realistic Apollo splashdown in the Atlantic. "...There were no survivors." Eventhough we only got the chance to shoot it off once the kids thought it was awesome. We need to buy another rocket. We decided we liked the powerful engines tough.That night since we hadn't swam in the indoor pool we made it a priority. Nothing fancy just a rectangular heated pool and a hot tub. We played, swam a few laps and I got to assume my normal pool role of kid-launcher. The kids had fun stacking themselves 3 high, Peyton on Tanner's shoulders and Tanner on Sterling's shoulders. Lots of laughs!On Wednesday we homeschooled, beached then drove inland 1 hour to Florence, SC to pickup mommy. We were glad to get mommy back to PirateLand because we all really liked being right on the beach. It somewhat reminded us of the place we stayed in Cape Cod (also right on the beach).Thursday was the best day yet. Sunny and 67 degrees but a little breezey. Not bad considering it now is December. Cindi and I got runs to the piers to the north in and the kids really enjoyed the sand and the beach. We also went to Johnny Rockets for Dinner and back to It's Candy for a little treat. We spent the next day playing on the beach and Peyton had a great time burying Sterling. Their favorite activity was making forts and then bombing them and then building another and then bombing it again. We love the beach!
