The beach is one of the few places that I busted out my good camera and took a bazillion pictures. As such, it was hard to narrow it down, and you get the benefit of seeing so many fun faces.
This is cousin Anna. She is a doll. And she has cheeks for days!
This is hubby. With a cheesy grin. But still handsome.
This is the Dyl man. Splashing around in the freezing cold water. Also, I'm pretty sure his arm isn't broken.... but his head may be on backwards.
Because children are impervious to temperature changes.
There's Anna again! She is just such a good smiley poser!
Kari, my Kari. She is growing up so fast!
Fun story: we just pulled off to a beach on the side of the road. Some people where already there, playing music for everyone to "enjoy". Someone (not from our group) went and asked if they would turn it down, to which we are pretty sure they turned it UP. So we got to enjoy music the whole time we were at the beach. Yay.
After Legoland, we needed a laid back day. Unfortunately, Jonamon had to leave early that morning, but we were super happy we got to spend a lot of time with him.
That afternoon, we decided to head to the beach. Little did we know, it was a horribly busy, touristy place. The traffic was horrible, and most of the places were crowded. We eventually found this little area off the side of the road.
It had water, it had sand... What more could a person ask for?
All of the kids were brave enough to try getting in the water at least once.
And, while the outside temp was in the 80s still, the water was a bit chilly.
I, personally, think they were all little bit crazy, but....
You just can't tell kids how to have fun, so....
Towards the end of our beach time, the kids decided it would be fun to ride Kari.
Again, I have very little explanation for this.
The good news is that a good time was had by all.
The even better news for you is that I took a bazillion pictures while we were there... so..
Get ready for a whole week of beach pictures in the middle of winter!
Grandma and Grandpa live less than an hour away from Orlando. While we knew the kids would be getting tickets to Disney for Christmas, we thought we shouldn't be this close to all the attractions and not take advantage of it! So.... we headed to Legoland!
The first thing to greet us after we walked into the gate was some fabulous Christmas lego creations!
We followed some conventional wisdom and headed to the back of the park first... more rides, supposedly, less wait. This was one of the few times we had to split the kids. Kelsey wasn't big/old enough to ride the big version, but she was still excited for the mini version. She got her own car and everything!
She did a great job! And the big kids had fun too!
Of course there were all kinds of rides in the park. And, somehow miraculously, we had an adult for every kid, which worked out quite well!
I'm pretty sure a fun time was had by all!
And there were so many cool creations all over the park! Kelsey wanted to make the same face that he was making :)
Merry Lego Christmas!
There was even fun stuff for the grown ups!
It was so great to have family to help entertain us in the lines.
Family always makes waiting more interesting!
Because we are horrible parents, I should also point out that we have never taken our children to an amusement park. And this is therefore the first time they have ridden on any kind of roller coaster at all. It looks like they had fun, yes?
However, please take note of Benny Boy. He assures us he was having a good time...
There was a whole area devoted to Star Wars Legos. Seriously, some amazing creations!
Towards the end of the day, we ran out of steam. But we were so close, we decided to stay and watch the fireworks. So we filled a little bit more time, and took a few more pictures.
And torture is always a good way to spend time, right?
The fireworks were great, and, amazingly, the not all of the kids were asleep on the ride home. It was a wonderful day and a wonderful way to spend time together :)
By the time pictures were taken, and everyone was back inside, it was time to start winding down for the day. Pizza was ordered, but while we waited, we had a pleasant visit from Mrs. Clause. For their ward Christmas party, Grandma provided a bit of entertainment by reading this fantastic book. and dressing up in a costume she made herself.
She really is a fantastically crafty person. :)
Then it was time to open presents. While, apparently, some people froze. Aunt Pickle is such a lightweight when it comes to AC. I guess it's because she doesn't have to turn it on as often in UT.
Presents were given. And unwrapped. And at some point during all the commotion, little baby Beffy fell asleep on her daddy's lap. I guess it was too much, and she decided to zone out.
And this is where we are such good influences.... While she was sleeping, I may have mentioned that I was completely impressed with her ability to sleep through so much noise and movement. And I may have mentioned that if she was an adult, its possible someone would pull a prank on her. And somehow, that morphed into drawing eyebrows and a mustache on a one year old. Who, I might add, slept through the whole thing until they were about halfway done with wiping it OFF!
She looks like such a diabolical, old fashioned bad guy! Danny Boy posted this picture to his family with the hashtag #Can'tHang. *No babies were harmed in the making of this photo.*
Aunt Pickle on the other hand... She may have busted a gut from laughing so hard. I'm glad she wasn't permanently injured. It was a near thing though :)
And then it was time to get everyone in bed! We had a full day planned for Wednesday!
Tuesday morning was pretty low key. We showered and make-uped and hair did, and then we sat around for a bit. La and her family had to fly into the state. We were planning on taking family pictures as soon as possible. We took them in Grandma and Grandpa's park thingy behind their house. And I think they turned out pretty great! I'm going to share just a few of my favorites.
The first entire group picture.
Without the grandkids.
Nuclear family. No spouses allowed!
Aren't we so cute?!?!
Just the grandparents and the grandbabies.
Just the grandkids. By this point, Baby Beffy had had enough!
So we took a break from the babies, and did a few awesome sibling poses. There has to be a good prom pose in every group!
And, of course, you have to try the trendy duck face!
We even tried to behave once or twice.
There was a quick costume change for a last family photo.
(No persons were harmed in the getting up off the ground ;)
Mommy and Daddy married in '02. Kari is in 10th grade (how do I have a high schooler?!?), Kaitlyn is in 8th, Dylan is in 6th (what?!?). And my baby, Kelsey, is in 3rd grade. Where does the time go? Mommy went back to school when she finally had some time to herself. And she is *this* close to finishing her bachelors! One. More. Semester!!! Welcome to our "normal"!
