Oh yeah.
We went on vacation.
2 months ago!
So I should probably blog about it because we leave for another vacation next week!!!
We didn't take a true vacation last year and we knew that we wanted this year's trip to be one of RELAXATION and really nothing else.
So we loaded up the van and headed to Seaside, Florida.
We were excited that this was our first vacation in over 13 years with no stroller or pack-n-play.
BIG stuff!
Doing some calisthenics during a lunch stop on the way down.
Jordan, Lauren and I got spray tans before the trip.
Two of us were definetly, 'Jamacametan'!
I called him Eduardo!
Eduardo-ette.
When we started looking into this vacation we had to decide between staying IN Seaside or being directly on the beach.
It was not a hard decision.
We wanted RELAXATION.
We stayed ON THE BEACH.
Our place was PERFECT.
I would go back again in a heart beat.
Dining and Living area looking out onto the deck and ocean!
Kitchen.
Master bedroom.
Kids bedroom - Lauren and Avery's bed.
Kids bedroom - Sullivan on top bunk...Tess and Tori on bottom.
The blue fourplex was where we stayed.
Perfection.
The kids could play on the beach while Jordan and I were on the deck.
We could send kids in to use the bathroom or grab drinks while we stayed on the beach.
Did I mention it was perfect?
Probably the biggest hit of this trip was all the wildlife we encountered and captured.
Just about 100 yards away from our place was an inlet that was FULL of all kinds of crabs of different colors, shapes and sizes. It could not have been more fun to explore.
We caught this guy on our first full day.
It was SO fun.
He was huge and angry.
And we boiled him up.
It was disgusting.
at best.
This guy was caught and released.
But not before a photo session.
He was absolutely posing for us.
Too awesome.
We had lots of people watching this show.
This is a bad picture of some of the other crabs.
We had too many to count.
They were all given names from the Hunger Games.
And arena was built and the kids thought they would fight.
They did not.
Building part of the arena.
Tess was beyond attached to one of the crabs in particular and kept her all week.
I was shocked when she set her free on the last day.
Her name was Katniss.
Tess's biggest thrill of the week.
Her lizard.
The silly thing let us catch it several times.
He would sit on Tess's chest and let her stroke his head and he quite frankly acted like a cat!
Honestly, people.
It may have been one of the cutest relationships ever recorded.
And he was super cool.
Until part of his tail fell off at which point I was pretty much done with him.
But not Tess.
So much joy when you give kids water and animals!
She had critters in all these buckets and was tending to all of them.
Which was one of the reasons there are so many pictures of her...she was always near me
keeping an eye on her buckets!
She may have been plotting away to bring Katniss home in this picture.
Ew!
We had not been at our condo for more than 20 minutes than Avery was begging to
go boogie boarding.
These two spent a ton of time out in those waves.
Jordan gets dad of the year for all the salt water he had to have taken in.
They typically venture out much further than I like.
Avery gave a lot of rides to Tess like this through the week.
It was a good intro to boogie boarding for Tess.
I have no doubt if we lived near an ocean Avery would be surfing by now and Tess would be soon to follow. They are my adventurous duo.
Can I go far far out mommy!?
My boogie boarding crew.
Sullivan did a great job this year too.
But is not as keen on the salt water in take as his sisters.
He had more fun exploring, digging and catching wildlife!
My whole beach crew.
Someday I know I will look back at this picture and wonder how they could be so young.
But they sure seemed old and big while we were there!
I'm one blessed woman.
We also had access to two swimming pools.
Can you say spoiled?
And my Tori.
She loved the beach but more than anything she loved the fact that her family
surrounded her 24/7 while on vacation. She had constant access to mom
and dad and didn't venture too far away from us.
My goodness she's a sweet pea.
She asked Daddy to carry her out into the waves many times.
And she hung on tight.
I dont think he hated it.
And we wore her out MANY days.
Other than critter catching and boogie boarding we had plenty of time for long beach strolls, playing games, eating special treats and just smiling in the sun.
He gives me his very best and most genuine smiles when we are near water!
He's growing up...and goodness I love him.
I wonder just how many games of Skip-Bo we played?!
She was a little too old for some of the 'silliness' but she was SO good to her siblings.
Helping to dig and build sandcastles and carry bucket after bucket of water to the moat.
And laughing beside me at everyones antics.
This is one awesome kid.
Please stay 6!
Too much of anything is a bad thing.
And that goes for the beach too.
Luckily we had the adorable and picturesque town of Seaside to explore too!
The food trucks were very fun and full of amazing food.
Sullivan's favorite restaurant.
Oh the cuteness.
The prettiest little trail right in the center of town.
The world's cutest post office.
The church in town (yes the only one) is gorgeous.
Many destination weddings are held here.
Each home in Seaside is painted beautifully and is full of patios and decks.
Its like a movie scene, and it was a movie scene for the movie The Truman Show.
And many had tall towers to view the ocean.
The MOST adorable school yard.
The school in town is a charter school and
we saw so much one on one work going on.
awesome.
Seaside cuties...
The best part of vacationing with older kids?
Date night!
We had such a fun night!
The bell is rung every night at sunset.
Even prettier at night!
The charter school at night.
We loved our time in Seaside and would definetly venture back!
