Epic vaca 2012 - recap

So my photography skills are still not where I would like them to be and I just don't have the time to deal with photoshop right now or any time too soon. So these are all SOOC (straight out of camera). There are a few I'd like to tweak so hopefully in the future I'll get around to those but for now, it is what it is!

The whole gang

All the kiddos minus Henry (H was thrilled to be a part of this picture)

Fun in the sun/sand

H listening to Ben sing and play the guitar. As soon as he started strumming she sat right down for the show!

Best beach day! They had so much fun in their little watering holes that Dave dug for them

There was a full moon while we were there

Collecting rocks at Sunset Beach. My favorite beach!

They both loved licking the salt water off their hands.

One of H's 3 "looks that could kill" - she definitely got those looks and eye rolls from me I just don't know how she learned them. I either need to pay more attention to the looks I throw out or it's genetic!

Our last sunset on our last night.

We miss you already vacation! It was so much fun [although I could have done with a few less tantrums from H!]

We had perfect weather every day. We got to spend good, quality time with everyone. All of our kids got along. I got to run with friends every day. Dave FINALLY got to go para-sailing! We saw dolphins playing from the shore every day. Dave and I even got to sneak away one night to have ice cream all by ourselves - seriously best friends anyone could ask for!


Things that will be missed in 2 more years:
- Kye using the third person

- Almost half of the kids still not able to talk {lol}

- Naptimes

- Toppings fro-yo shop

- The big front porch

- Sunset beach

- The awesome outdoor shower


Funny memorable moments:
- Playing Five Seconds: Al and Taryn got 'name 3 major league ball parks'
Al, "Yankee Stadium" (pause)
Taryn looks at him, "Yankee Stadium"
Al, "Fenway" (pause)
Taryn looks at him, "Fenway"
(time is now up), Al, "Why do you just keep repeating me??!" (frustrated after losing another sports related card)

- Kylan being locked in the closet.
Al went to check on the 'big kids' and Kylan. After asking, "where is Kylan" he was told by George, Caroline, Brynn, and Braeden, "he's in the closet"!
Apparently they had all taken turns going in the closet and Kylan not knowing any better wanted his turn. Unfortunately for him he was too small to let himself back out like the others.

- George telling Brynn and Caroline, "I know how we can make this fair" when interrupting a conflict of interest the girls were having over making head bands.

- George (telling one of the other kids), "he's cute, but he's NOT good" when referring to Kylan. When Lauryn went over to explain to him that, that was not nice to say, he simply replies, "see" while pointing at Kylan who had two fist fulls of Brynn's hair. Taryn says, "he only speaks the truth" referring to George's observation of Kylan!
Unfortunately for George, Kylan was a big fan of his hair as well! Kylan had a hard time resisting H's pigtails too!

**I know I missed a lot of things the 'big kids' said because I was busy dealing with H's temper-tantrums.**

- Ben to me at our last dinner (while he was talking yet again about romance and the lack of with kid filled vacations and I was likely rolling my eyes), "Have you read 50 Shades?"
Me, "No."
Ben to Dave, "Dave, you have got to buy her the 50 Shades books. Best 3 weeks of my life. Make her read them slowly, like only 10 min. a day." [Lauryn blushing]

- Kye batting his eye lashes.

- H shooting her 'evil death looks' to Robb, Ben, and even Dave one day.

- Kye's "ROAR", "ACH-COOO", and "Perrrrfeccctooooo"

- Brynn clogging the toilet

- V walking up and down the beach on our first day waving and blowing kisses to everyone like they were all there to see her.

- All the nice compliments from strangers about how cute or beautiful our girls are (depending on what they were wearing and how they were acting.)

- V force feeding me veggie straws and thinking it was so funny that she was feeding mommy when it's always mommy feeding her.


Things we wished didn't happen:
- 3 of the 4 cars had a kid throw up on the ride into CM.

- The entire 3rd floor of our house had air conditioning issues and lack of any cool air due to a bad storm that came through a few days prior and the electricity company putting a brown out in effect during the hottest week of the summer thus far. And while last trip everyone was small enough to sleep in the rooms with their parents this trip we actually needed to use the 3rd floor bedrooms.


Can't wait to figure out where to go in 2014!