our not-so-fairy tale life: family vaca 2013

We took a family vacation this summer ... to Florida.

my babies

In typical Wester fashion .. we don't really do things the "normal" way. This means .. we decide to go on vacation. In the middle of July. To the south. Where it's so incredibly hot. And humid. Cool bro. But its "off season" ... so cheaper. Bright side. Would it have been better in November? Or March? Yeah. Probably. But that would be the normal thing to do. What fun is normal anyway?

At any rate ... we were at the beach. And any day on the beach is better than ... any day NOT on the beach.

The kids had a blast. It's been awhile since the boys have been in the ocean. Four years actually. They didn't want to spend a minute outside of the water. Which honestly ... makes my OCD kick in. Very little actual relaxing for me on the sand. It went like this ... where's Jackson? Oh there he is. Where's Eli? I can't find Eli. Hayley WHERE IS ELI? He's dead. OMG ... he drowned ... he's gone ... forever... a shark ate him ... I'm such a bad mom ... I wasn't watching.... OMG Hayley he's GONE! Mom ... he's right there. Oh. Right. Until the whole scene starts again 3 1/2 minutes later ... with Jackson. At one point ... I was running up and down the beach searching for Jackson ... as he's hanging out in the sand behind me.

Three days of that ... was pretty enough for me.

The boys spent most of their time on boogy boards ... which caused these skin burns on their stomachs. Hayley spent most her time complaining about how hot she was laying on the beach. I spent my time searching for boys heads bobbing and explaining to Hayley she was never going to get a deep bronzed tan with all that complaining.

I have to say ... Hayley made me laugh a lot on this trip. The stupid kind of laughing... where it's hard to stop. Everything seemed to be funny. Even late at night when everyone else was sleeping .. we stayed up talking about trivial things ... and me obsessing about how I can't sleep without a fan ... so getting up in the dark to find a plug for the fan. Which caused me to trip on everything .. which caused a fit of laughter out of both of us ... which caused Eli to wake up yelling - I can't sleep with you two laughing like that!

PS ... I can blow bigger bubbles ... (providing entertainment for the old lady sitting next to us)

Hayley hasn't changed since she was 2. She found a crab. Played with it forever. Put it in a bottle to save. Loved on it. Named it. Didn't want to part with it ...

Until ... it had enough ...

This is how the boys spent most every spare moment when we were inside the hotel ..

If we weren't on the beach ... we were taking advantage of every last ounce of sunshine Florida gave us - at the pool. We probably means me... not we. If we were at the pool ... the kids were in the shade. As I constantly moved my chair to follow the sun.