Days with the Dorans

We love our spring breaks to Myrtle Beach each year but it's hard losing a kid each year to college. We told Sean he could bring a friend but he wasn't really interested as he likes his family time- but he lucked out... Turned out that Z's college spring break was the same time as ours! He was able to get a ride down to us and then we all went! Our first time WITHOUT a minivan but it was actually great! I bought one of those bags that goes on top of your car for storage. We packed things in the car for an overnight stop in Beckley, WV and it was perfect! We got to MB JUST in time to see the Broncos hockey. Jeff was stressed and it was NOT good but he simmered down and we found a place to watch the game. The Broncos lost but we split an AMAZING sandwich at the Hammock Brewery. The boys were really bummed because their Wing Place (their FAVORITE place) went out of business. One thing to say about this trip is the weather was HOT! That was a picture I sent to Jodie when we wer...

Well... Joey's last Spring Break with us isn't exactly what we thought it would be... Our dog sitters fell through so dad stayed home while the rest of us were off! I was nervous about driving since he always does the majority of the driving but I had Joe and Al and it wasn't too bad. It was so great to get there and we of course hit Nacho Hippo the first night. The weather was pretty cool but getting out of the snow was all we really cared about! We did have a day that was nice and warm and we took advantage of that! It was fun that the cousins got this last hoorah together! Of course Joe wanted to hit the wing place one last time- it was a bit strange again not having dad there. They were going to send him pictures but then thought that may be mean. We also hit a new putt-putt place (or at least I don't remember it). It was kinda cool because you had to take a train to get to the holes. We had runs, played games, Joe played music, and we ate and laughed and it was a f...

Ok, time to come clean- I'm behind WAY behind in this blog, and if it reads like I'm not, that's because I went back and filled in from the last YEAR! Covid has been a mess (and I will go back and update) but I realized that I have to start now and move forward so I remember the little things that make coming back to read our adventures so fun for me!   So since the world shut down last year, we missed our annual MB trip. This year, it was game on again with Jeff, me and Nana and Papa vaccinated. Though we are vaccinated, we're still careful and were SHOCKED by how many people on our trip down had no masks. It was a bit nuts to be honest (and disappointing). If everyone took this seriously, we wouldn't be in this mess (but I won't go there~ in this blog at least...). There was a Subway that actually enforced the mask rule (though it was in a gas station that didn't enforce it). The lady working at the Subway was really slammed and apologized but we didn'...

 We have arrived and rather than do a day by day,  I figured I'd just capture some of the highlights (in my opinion of course) when I think back to another great vacay with Nana, Papa, the Drapals and of course us Dorans. I started EVERY day with (at least) a 5 mile run. Papa joined me for most of them! We did have some yucky weather so I did do a couple runs on the treadmill. Still it felt good to log some miles and I LOVE running on the beach with my music~ I sometimes wonder how I ran for so long with just my thoughts... I mean I do a lot of thinking still but it's nice to have music in the background.  Of course there was LOTS of pool time! We were worried a bit because we thought the pool was going to be closed for painting! Thankfully it wasn't~ but the lazy river was (which was a bummer since my kids LOVE the lazy river). I think they had fun making due though!  It's never super warm in April. The kids don't seem to mind but now that Joe ...