And because of that guilt, I never knew where to start or what to included when I actually did dial into the good ole interwebz again. Thankfully, I had a good long heart to heart with myself and decided to just 'let it go' and pick up exactly where we are now...which is the end of summer.
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| All smiles as we get on the road! |
9.5 hours into the trip I moved to the backseat to cheer these little dudes up. It only worked on one of them. I'll let you figure out who that was.
9 seconds on the beach and all that traffic nonsense was forgotten!
The beach was fabulous...as long as we were there. lol. I tell people that as a type A person I tend to set my expectations high and then do whatever it takes to get me there. The problem is, when you have kids AND you are type A, you tend to also set their expectations high and you have absolutely no way of forcing them to reach them. Mid way through this trip I realized I had done this and no one was happy about it.
So what if they didn't want to hang on the beach as long as I would have wanted (sun up to sun down), they were happy.
So what if they wanted to be in the pool 85% of the time, they were happy.
So what if they would rather stay in and eaten dinner in front of a movie, they were happy.
So what if they got up at 6AM every.single.morning, they were happy.
So about mid way through I realized this was their family trip too and my expectations should be; "make them smile".
Luke and Evan loved the ocean. They loved everything about it. They loved swimming in it, diving into it, wrestling against it, body boarding with it, searching for fish in it, getting beat up by it!
They weren't as enthusiastic about the sand, but would dig and build with me when I talked them into it.
We ventured out for a couple meals. The boys did great, but let us know quite vividly that they would rather stay in the condo and watch a movie while eating. I mean, when you only eat 6 foods, I can completely see how that would be more enjoyable. (:eyeroll:)
Thanks to the modern age of technology and social media, we found out we had not one, but TWO families we knew on 30A the same week! It was so fun to meet up with friends I haven't seen in years and introduce them to boys AND meet up friend from school so the guys could see a friendly face!
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| Careful Adam...captain Big Head is near. |
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| Who needs toys when you have new friends and spoons!? |
Most nights John and I ate dinner together on our patio looking out on the ocean and beach. One of my favorite activities while eating was watching all the well dressed families and groups of high school girls go out at sunset and take pictures. I loved predicting their poses, critiquing their lighting choices, oooh-ing and awwww-ing at their adorable kids playing in the sand. So the last evening we were there, we decided to just go for a walk on the beach. I grabbed my camera and we set off. Little did I know I would capture my family rawly in their elements. These are by far some of my favorite pictures of my family. The ones that tell you exactly who they are.
Luke...well, Luke just wanted to be Luke.
Both these boys, in their frustrating ways, are perfect and all mine.
Evan wanted to record a video blog for his YouTube channel...that he doesn't have. Then he immediately found someone he found interesting, because the man was combing the beach with a metal detector, and tagged along with him looking for treasure.
Luke...well, Luke just wanted to be Luke.
Both these boys, in their frustrating ways, are perfect and all mine.
All in all, it was a good week. Not perfect, but good. My chaos, my family, my lovely lovely blessed life.
