More Water Park Fun!

We are loving this summer vacation. So many friends and so many different activities. Last summer was a little tough with Ethan, but he's just one of the gang now which makes going places so much easier.
Today we hit Palmetto Falls Water Park again. We met Gary and Emily (thanks for the military discount Gary!), Martha, who brought Hunter, Haley, Josh, Zach, and Ryan, and Margaret and Marissa. We brought Alyssa, Matthew and Ethan - of course, and Kali and Zoe. Everyone had a great time! Lots of floating in the lazy river and time after time down the big slides, along with some races down the shorter slides.
Weather was perfect, kid's were great. I hate that school is sneaking up on us so quickly!

Ethan and Emily

Marissa sportin' a new haircut after donating her hair to Locks of Love

Hunter

Matthew

Alyssa

Zach

Kali

Emily

Josh

The Girls

Ethan and Margaret

Martha and Haley on the lazy river

Mr. Gary just relaxin'

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Friends

Alyssa had three of her closest friends from school come over today. These are some of the sweetest 10 year old girls you'll ever meet. They are all smart, innocent, silly, cute and love to have fun together. We're all waiting anxiously for teacher assignments for next year.
Imagine if they all got the same teacher!!!

Jessica . Danielle . Alyssa . Maddie

Danielle - always a clown for the camera

They are all so sweet to Ethan and always try to include him

Lovely

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Ready for his brother to come home!

Ethan insisted that I give him the keys to daddy's car today. I asked him why and where he needed to go and he said, "It's time to go get Matthew, he needs to come home from camp!" Enough is enough as far as he's concerned. I agree. Tomorrow morning we go to get him.
(be sure to pause the music so you can hear Ethan's sweet voice in the video below:)

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ALL BETTER

Yesterday morning Ethan went and had his stitches removed. He did a great job and was very brave. He told his doctor, Dr. Brook, all about what happened to him while he was at the beach. She gave him a popsicle and went to work taking the stitches out. He held perfectly still for her and she was done in less than a minute! Good Job Ethan!!

Reading a book while he waits for the doctor.

Very proud and relieved to have it over and done with!

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EAR PIERCING

Alyssa had her friend Emily sleep over last night and this morning I took them to get their ears pierced. They chose matching studs - how cute.

She really wasn't afraid, just goofing around for the camera

Emily went first

Then Alyssa

After the ear piercing we walked down to Moe's for lunch. It was a fun morning girls, thanks for letting me be your chauffeur.

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AND HE'S OFF

Matthew is away this week.

The house is strangely quiet and calm, almost still.
I'm not sure I like it, but I'm sure he's having a great time!
We drove to Summerton, SC on Sunday and dropped Matthew off at Camp Bob Cooper for a week of 4-H camp. He's in a room with 10 boys one of them being his good friend William. I can't wait to pick him up on Friday and hear about all of his adventures. They should include rock climbing, tubing, canoing, fishing, ropes courses, archery, camp fires, and so much more!

Matthew and William

Lake Marion

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SURFSIDE VACATION!

Last week we went on vacation with all of the Murphy side of the family.

All 19 of us in one big, beautiful house.
Mom, Dad, Jeff, Cyndi, Luke, Jared, Ben, Chris, Cheryl, Nicole, Nathan, Dave, Linette, Alyssa, Matthew, Ethan, Ben, Carla, and Emma.

Crazy, yes, but oh so much fun!

We rented a house in a gated community called Bermuda Bay in Oceanside Village on Surfside Beach. Every day was packed with lots of adventure and fun. Lots of time on the beach of course along with swimming in the pool, a few rounds of mini golf, card games, time in the game room playing pool, ping pong and foosball, a "friendly" game of wiffle ball, close encounters with ducks, kayaking, golf cart rides, a trip to Huntington Beach state park to see alligators, shopping, eating, parasailing (sort of), and even a trip to the ER.
Sorry for the huge number of pictures. I wanted to blog throughout the week but the wifi wasn't working.

Walking back to our house after the oh so fun photo shoot. (I'm not sure if anyone was speaking to each other at this point :)

All 9 kid's and all worried about fire ants

Uncle Ben, Auntie Carla and Nana took Emma and Ethan to the Wacatee Zoo. Ethan keeps asking if he can go back to the zoo with the funny donkeys.

There were lots of ducks in the community. This particular family was very friendly and even walked through the indoor pool area. The kids loved holding the babies although Emma really wanted to get a hold of the mommy.




Matthew

Everyone spent time in the water boogy boarding and body surfing but Dave had us all beat. He spent HOURS in there. Some days it was really rough, but he took it like a man!
A little miniature golf
Luke and Ethan
Alyssa and Nicole riding a wave

Ethan and Emma enjoyed riding the rides at Broadway at the Beach

How cute is that?
Ethan and Emma flying high on the bungee trampoline
Little beach boy

Playing Apples to Apples
Ben and Matthew
Boys and their holes. Matthew was searching for sharks teeth. He found several during the week.
Nathan and Emma

Luke helping out a very tired Ethan

Beautiful Emma

Alyssa, Matthew and Ethan

One of my favorite pictures of the week

Ethan on his boogy board
Daddy's little girl
Nathan
Matthew

Matthew holding a crab and Ethan holding a sea urchin on Pawley's Island

Lots of jelly fish around this week. Fortunately nobody was stung.
A little more mini golf
An alligator at Huntington Beach State Park
Brotherly "love"?

A friendly, or not so friendly game of wiffle ball. These guys are tough!

Jared
Luke
Some time in the pool
Sunset on Pawleys Island

Luke and Ethan

Nicole and Alyssa
Emma and Alyssa
Oops!

Ethan decided to go for a spin in a golf cart. He hopped in, turned the key and disengaged the emergency brake. He rolled over Uncle Jeff's foot and was on his way to hit Uncle Ben's rental car when daddy saw it and jumped in it to stop it. That was almost an expensive moment.

Parasailing. Ok, so this isn't exactly us parasailing but that's what we looked like. Unfortunately everyone didn't get to go... There were 11 of us who wanted to go up and we had reservations for Friday morning. Luke, Jared, Ben, Alyssa, Matthew and I got life jackets on and hopped into the small rubber boat and went for the ride of our lives out to the bigger parasailing boat. To say it was rough would be a huge understatement. Anyway, Alyssa, Matthew and I went together and we were first. We had a blast! Only trouble was that there was a storm coming in really fast and the sky just got darker and darker while we were up there. They brought us down and said they couldn't take anyone else up, that the storm was too strong and getting too close. The little boat was broken so we had to sit out in the ocean waiting for them to fix it while it started raining. 10 minutes went by and they finally were able to get us back to shore. We had a great time, but felt really bad that everyone didn't get to go.


Thursday evening Ethan tripped and hit his head on the coffee table. Poor guy had to get 4 stitches but he handled it like a champ.


Bad picture to end with because the week ended well.

One last walk on the beach on Friday night with glow necklaces for all of the kid's from Luke.

Thanks everyone for making the trip down to S.C. It was a blast!!

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