Family Vacation w/ friends!! :)

Last year we went to the mountains with some friends. You can see those adventures here. This year we decided to do it again but this time to the beach. Yay!! :) We rented a villa together. Our room had such a big closet that our children slept there. Okay, that sounds bad but really, it was big! :) Check this out...

Here's little Ronni getting ready for bed in her "room". :) See how much room there was? It was HUGE!!! Day 1 we didn't do much. We hung out in the house which had a screened in back porch which locked from the outside. This was great for the kids!! We didn't let them play in the backyard b/c there was a pond back there with a couple of gators we we opted with locking them on the back porch. ;) After dinner, we got the kids (all 6) in bed and the adults (all 6) stayed up and played games until after midnight (actually, we did that every night). ;)

Day 2: The kids, Paul and I got up, showered, dressed, ate breakfast and headed off to check out the beach. :) By the time we made it back to the house the others were awake, fed and getting ready for the beach so we changed into our swimsuits and headed back out. :)
It was supposed to rain all weekend and the morning certainly made us think the forecast was right.

The tide was low and there were little pools everywhere. The pools were great for the smaller kids and the waves fabulous for the bigger kids (bigger kids meaning my 5 yo was the oldest one there... LOL!).
Eventually the sun came out and we were all digging around for sunblock. :)

Here is a picture of our sand castle mountain with a mote. :) Hey! The kids had fun and they thought it was pretty cool. :)
After our beach adventures we headed home for lunch and saw someone swimming in the pond behind the house....

The kids thought it was pretty neat and of course it was my husband who walked to the edge of the pond to take the pictures of the gator... "/
After nap time it was off to the pool. I, unfortunately, forgot the camera at the pool but it was so much fun. Ronni borrowed a friend's life jacket which gave her a lot more confidence in the water than she normally has. When it was late and we were trying to load up the kids to head back to the house Ronni started crying as she yelled, "I have to stay here to practice my swimming. I might forget tomorrow." LOL! She's so funny sometimes. Collin was the oldest one there and he likes to stack cups. We buy plastic cups just for him to stack and apparently he's not the only one. Another family there did the same thing. Collin liked to build the towers and then let the younger kids knock it over. Sometimes they wanted to knock them over before he was finished so he would go into the master bathroom and build them and then invite the kids in once he was done to knock them over. Here's one of his towers.

That night we had tacos and the adults stayed up playing games... again. :)

Day 3 we all split up and did our own thing. Our little family headed off for the lighthouse.

 We made it all 114 steps to the top of the lighthouse!! Yeah! We are awesome. We didn't even have to carry the kids. YAY!!!

Isn't that a great view from the top?
Then we found a park...

Then we headed home for lunch and naps. After naps we went back to the beach then came back home for pizza!! :) After pizza we went on a bike ride around the island until dark. After that, we all headed up to the Salty Dog Cafe where we had ice cream and the kids danced.

Then we headed home and put the kids to bed and.. well, played more games. :)

Day 4 we had to be checked out by 10am and the church there started at 10am so we were out a little before then. We were a little late for church but that was okay. I must add that it was really nice being able to go to Relief Society. I honestly cannot remember the last time I was able to go to that. I've been in primary (kids) for the past 3 years and before that I was in young women's for almost 3 years so... yeah, it's been a while. :)  

Anyways... that was our exciting vacation!! =o)