Home away from Home

Ok - by now we sort of feel like we are in a psuedo home away from home. Every year my family loads up and heads South to the Gulf. We rent a beach house and all 11 of us settle in for some old fashioned family fun. It's rooted in our early childhood memories of good ole family vacations.

We want the girls to have that same value of togetherness with family - and at the same time enjoy a fabulous beach trip.

Last year Nicole wasn't able to enjoy it to it's fullest..... I was 36 weeks pregnant. This year - it's full of firsts for her!

We actually made a pit-stop on the way down and she had her first hotel stay (this is the girls watching tv while Tom and I got ready). Megan is having fun on the beach....

And in the water....

Nicole is loving spending lots of quality time with her cousins. Here she is loving up on Daniel - the oldest cousin.

She's not quite so sure about the beach. It's loud and scary and she hasn't enjoyed being near the water at all. And the sand... oh my, that's a meltdown waiting to happen.

But she's a cutie and is growing by leaps and bounds everyday! She wants to crawl so badly - and her cousins may be the catalyst to get her going.... we'll see.

I'll try to post some more this week - as we lounge around and simply soak up life together!