Back to real life :)

Well, we are back from an amazingly awesomely fun vacation with my family.  I titled the post this way because our kids did not want to leave Florida!  I told them it is not real life to be played with 24/7, swim multiple times a day, eat out all the time and have CONSTANT fun.  Ha!  They seriously LOVED Florida. 

 

Our condo this year (which my parents rented from my dad's boss) was simply amazing.  We were in the "penthouse", and it had 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms, really high ceilings, a master bedroom the size of an apartment and beautiful décor.  We LOVED it. 

 

The condo also had an outdoor and an indoor pool, which was great because we had some rainy days.  What a perfect place to stay!

 

(some of you probably already saw my sis Jill's blogpost about our vacation, so check it out!  She might have added more detail).

 

Here is the view from our balcony:

The condo was so huge that Nathan was able to have his own "prayer/devotion room".  This is where he would take all the kiddos to do devos and pray with them.  I always appreciated it when he did this!  What a good daddy :)

Our kids were always up bright and early!  We weren't always super happy to see them at that hour :) 

Our kids loved, loved, loved the pool.  We spent LOTS of hours at the pool!!

(Halle practiced her swimming a lot in FL, and she did so great!  She swam all the way across the width of the pool, which was very great for her!)

she was pretty proud of herself :) 

We also loved going to the beach!  I had to choose to be joyful, though, sitting and playing in the sand.   It is NOT my favorite thing, to get all sandy.  But I need to be a joyful example to my kiddos...so I tried to forget about all the sand that was (and some probably still is) inside my swimsuit :)

The guys did lots of fishing.  I love that Kaine is at the age where he is able to hang out with the "guys".  He fished with them, played in the waves while they fished, went out crab-hunting for hours at night with them, and also served as the "ball-boy" while they played tennis.  Of course, my dad and Nathan played tennis with him, too, but he was really content to just watch their tennis matches and get the balls.  What a sweet kid he is, and such a blessing!

(I love this pic of everyone cracking up at Nathan.  He had an idea--or maybe it was Aaron's idea!--to smush the meat out of these ladyfish to make "ladyfish patties"...yuck!)

Here is the first "ladyfish patty"...but needless to say, we scrapped that idea.  Nathan was severely outvoted!!

We had some GREAT family time with our kiddos...

And some great couple time with Nathan and I!  (major kudos to my parents for watching all 7 kids one evening so that Nathan and I and Aaron and Jill could go on dates!  Thanks, mom and dad!!)

(I love that I am holding a pink Minnie mouse phone in this pic) :)

And, our kids LOVED spending so much time with their cousins and grandparents!  It is so wonderful to see them interacting and playing together more and more as they get older. 

 

Now, we are back to real life :)

 

What a fun trip! Thank you so much, mom and dad, for taking us to Florida...we can't begin to tell you how much we loved it and appreciate everything you did for us!