family vacation (my favorite week of the year)

It gets better every year.  Maybe this year it was because Violet was potty trained and fairly independent.  Maybe it was because we went into it with reasonable expectations.  Whatever the reason, it was a week to remember.  It's just hard to go wrong when you are all together with nothing really to worry about except whether you should go to the beach or pool first and where you should eat for dinner.  Vacation is such a beautiful thing.

We are blessed with awesome road-trippers.  They wake up devastatingly early when we are away from home but they travel like champs.  That is our third year in a row driving to Florida without a DVD player.  We listen to chapter books and they can't get enough.  Even Violet will just sit quietly most of the time sucking her thumb and listening.  The whole family gets into the book and then we can discuss it too.  It also helps to get books where the reader has a British accent.  

We stop halfway both directions and that makes everyone happier.  It's all part of the trip and our way of sucking the life out of every last minute of vacation and keeping everyone sane by not traveling through the night.  We pulled the all-nighter the first year as rookies and it just wasn't for us.

Of course swimming at the hotel is a favorite.  And I got one of my favorite pictures from the whole week that first night.

Violet was mainly used to being in shallow water where she could reach so she kind of freaked out and refused to leave Daddy when we first got in the pool.

It took a whole five minutes for her to realize she could easily do it on her own and then she wouldn't let us near her.  She is a funny kid.

The shots of all our babies together on one bed especially with their Daddy make me happy.  I can't resist taking them every single time.  Tyson happily slept on the floor in a sleeping bag, the big girls had the other bed, and Violet in a pack and play.

There was a barstool for each of them so this is where they ate breakfast every morning.

When I would first bring my camera out, it would fog up so bad and you could never get a clear picture until several minutes later after cleaning the lens.  But sometimes the haze makes the pictures better.

Most days we would rest a little in between the beach and the pool and put Violet down for a nap. One day we stayed out longer and didn't make time for naps so Violet fell asleep on the couch waiting for Mommy to take a shower before dinner.  It was precious.

Avery would spend any down time reading on the balcony and she loved it...until a sister or brother would come out and bug join her.

We went to the restaurant with the alligators as the kids requested.  They were so into the alligators and did not want to leave.

Mia had a whole story to go along with the alligators on the dock.  There was a Grandma, teenager sister, and all kinds of different family members.  She was very serious about it and knew their life story.

The kids meals come with a tiny plastic alligator which became all of their favorite thing for the next few days and it definitely kept them busy as we waited for our food.  I had Avery take a picture of Jason and I as we alligator watched outside and it actually came out decent.  I really need to do that more often.

Avery is a fun little goofball and just had to get a picture taken with the alligator statue and her head inside it's mouth.  She thought it was hilarious.

I love walking behind everyone on our way to the beach and just enjoy the view.  So thankful for my people.

Violet was not very excited about the beach the previous two years so we did not know what to expect.  She pleasantly surprised us by being thrilled with the sand and everything about the beach.  Except for the "crazy waves", she only liked the "calm waves".  We did have a red flag the last few days and the waves were big and she wasn't a fan of that unless Daddy took her out and held her tight.  She liked to play in the sand next to Avery a lot.

Mia & Tyson love the ocean.  They played in the sand some too but no matter how crazy the waves were, that was their preference.

They love it when Daddy digs huge holes for them to stand in.

Avery got excited about the little sand shelf that the waves had created.  She said it was "art" and she messed with it for hours requesting a picture with each change caused by her or a wave.  It was serious business.

I caught Violet eating sand quite a bit.  She seemed to enjoy it and I couldn't figure that out.

I have no idea why she was crying at this point but it was cute so it was a moment worthy of a photo.

This was totally random but Mia found a bra pad in the ocean that had come out of a swimsuit.  It entertained her for a long time and she kept calling it a bra and using it to make her sand castles.  She even walked up to a few women and asked them if they lost their bra pad.  I could not stop laughing.  Jason just gave them a look and they answered no and then laughed afterward.

Oh, my boys.  They are the cutest.

I only take my camera to the beach one day during the week and this ended up being the perfect one.  We went in the afternoon on this day and the clouds and red flag must have kept people away because it was not very crowded.  I am practically floating on air as I photograph my family on the beach.  It's my favorite.

One night we got ready to go to dinner and we noticed that Tyson was heading to the door without pants on so we whispered to get the word around to the girls.  He had been so busy wiggling his super loose tooth that he didn't even remember to put on his shorts.  We all walked out trying hard to hold in our laughter and then we just stood there at the top of the stairs staring at him.  He had no idea why and wasn't even paying much attention to anything but his tooth until Jason asked him if he was missing something.  We all cracked up.  I cried.  It was hilarious.  That's our boy.

We walked to our favorite restaurant on the ocean for our favorite popcorn shrimp.  We had a blast and everyone was goofy as ever that night.  We had so much fun.

And that tooth of Tyson's finally came out as we were sitting at dinner.

Our waiter even offered to take a family picture for us.

After dinner that night, we walked on the beach for a bit and it was just extra gorgeous that night.  The kids were all looking cute and I loved every minute of it.

The best part was the way Violet and Mia were just dancing around and singing without a care in the world.  Just pure joy.  It was awesome.

Tyson could not resist jumping from the huge wooden box on the beach that holds chairs.  He would have done that all night if we had let him.

There was a giant inflatable shark that belong to the condo place or somebody had left it there.  Everyone staying there that week enjoyed this thing and it was funny to watch people get on and off.  It was not an easy task.  Jason fell off a couple minutes after this picture was taken.  Good times.

We met all kinds of nice people at the condo again this year.  This time Violet and Mia befriended an older couple.  The wife's name was Sandi and Violet referred to her as "my friend Sandi".  She talked their ears off and they seemed to love every bit of it.  We sat back watching and cracking up.

We had an amazing week and none of us wanted it to end.  And not only was vacation ending but school was starting just a few days after we got back home.  That was rough and not great timing on our part.  I was desperately wishing summer could go on and on but those fresh memories of a sweet vacation were stuck in my mind and that helped a little.