Well, we did it! We actually took our family on a real vacation to the beach! And we all survived :)
It was a long trip. We drove from northern middle Tennessee to Fort Lauderdale. It took about 16 hours total. But we broke it up into two days on the way down and three on the way home. We we're lucky to have family in Saint Augustine where we rested for a few days and enjoyed some awesome fellowship and family time.
We started the planning a few months in advance. My mom rented us a room on the beach with an awesome view!
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| Our room view! |
Then we rented a van, to ensure we would actually make it to Fort Lauderdale :)
Next we started planning, saving, packing, & rolling coins. We really couldn't afford this trip (even with a free room) but we knew there may not ever be a time while all of our children are still living at home that we would be able to "afford" a vacation like this. So we did it anyway. And I'm glad we did.
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| School work the day before we left |
I tried to stay as organized as possible while packing. I wish I would have taken pictures of the whole process. I color coordinated everyone's clothes and bagged them up by the day. I took each activity we had planned into consideration and tried to have a spare outfit for each of the babies. I even made sure that each days bag had a diaper, a pull-up, and matching hair bows. I thought I had it all figured out.
My plan was working wonderfully until Saturday (day one) when Mary (6) went through FOUR outfits. Oh well, you win some you lose some.
We spent 6 days visiting with Granny and Grandpa Howard. It was totally worth the money and effort.
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| We started with the buddies sitting together :) |
The kids made a ton of memories and enjoyed spending time with Granny and Grandpa Howard.
There were a few not so fabulous moments but the good ones more than make up for it!
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| This picture alone was worth the effort! |
Visiting with Grandparents, uncles & cousins will be a memory the girls will carry with them forever.
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