We were also so lucky to have Matt's mom come with us. I could not be more thankful for our family feeling more like one family and less like my family and his family. It really is a blessing.
All 13 of us (8 grown, 5 a little less grown) stayed in this amazing house right on the beach!
This was our backyard for the week. What you can't see is the pool behind the camera. You could literally lay in the pool and look at the ocean.
I can say in all honesty that when the week was up I was sad to leave. I was afraid that having just moved and with Matt's residency around the corner that I wouldn't want to stay the entire time, but boy was I wrong! I soaked up every minute of family time and down time that I could and enjoyed every second of it.
The good thing about this vacation was that there was enough stuff to keep us all as busy as we wanted to be. My dad and brother (who cannot sit still for more than about 3 minutes) went diving or fishing every morning and were able to to keep busy that way. Matt gave both a shot, but learned that he's not able to sit on a rocking boat unless he's medicated. Bless his heart. I spent most of my days either on the beach or in the pool and sometimes back and forth and back and forth because John couldn't make up his mind.
Preparing for a family boat trip that turned out to be our last. Some of the kids (I think 4 of the 5) were a little less than thrilled to be on the boat.
Going to feed the tarpon!
Here fishy, fishy!
These monsters would eat a fish right out of your hand. I coud never get a picture of it happening because I was always in shock when it was time to take it.
You can't tell from this picture, but these jokers are probably 5 feet long!
And we did a whole lot of poolside chillin...
John and Elam had conflicting ideas sometimes, but they could always agree on "wanna go boat."
If that ain't chilaxin', it ain't real.
Going to watch the girls swim with the dolphins!
Not a bad spot to clean fish.
I even had the opportunity to do this for an hour or two! I have been dreaming of just floating in a pool on a raft for years now! It was everything I thought it would be.
For some reason this also seemed like a good idea?
Matt and I tend to end up in the pool with all of the children...I'm not sure what that says about our maturity levels.
Tada!
I know that I'm leaving out a hundred good things about this trip, but suffice it to say we had a good time and thoroughly enjoyed our great family.
Love them!