family vacay

Family vacations are rarely vacations when there are several tiny ones in tow (although I am holding out hope that they will become vacations again at some point in the future). For now, they are really just trips. Trips where we pack an ungodly amount of things in the car, drive and drive until we are convinced that this was a terrible idea (and discover that one of our children gets carsick), and then do the same things we do at home in a different location. Yes, family vacations are a labor of love. But they are also filled with opportunity. They are an opportunity to stretch our kids a bit, to show them more than their community, to begin to introduce them to the greater world, to teach them more about God's creation, to watch them fall in love with our earth a little more, and to play with them and love on them without the distractions that inevitably pop up at home.

Ove the past three years, I've learned that the key to a great family "vacation" is to set low expectations. So this year, I prepared for crazy, and got less crazy and more fun than I could have expected. We drove to the beach on Shepherd's birthday and ended up having a surprisingly sweet few days of family time.

The first order of business, of course, was to celebrate Shepherd's first birthday. He was pretty pumped.

So much beach time. B&F were quite the imaginative explorers, checking out every inch of dune and sand. Shep liked the beach, but was quickly covered from head to toe in sticky sand, so his love was a bit less enthusiastic.

The porch was a big hit this year. B&F kept saying they wanted to "listen to the waves...." So big!

vacation= ice cream

and a morning at the aquarium on our one rainy day