That time when we all went to the beach.

Somehow we actually pulled it off. The Bishop/Hughes/Glover/Salvaggio families managed to pick a week that worked for everyone, choose a destination/house, make it there and survive very early wake up calls by babies and have the best time ever!

The Fam

These 2 were basically the terrorists of the trip. Really, really cute terrorists.

These faces. So much love in one tiny square.

Shannon was there!!! And, totally entertaining my kids with the creepy/awesome singing babies.

Whole group pic (minus Zack who was buying Noah a shirt at Harry T's) You know you wish you were there.

It does not get much cuter than these 2 grinning.

Noni kept everyone entertained by brining chalk, toys, a puzzle*, money for the ice cream man, etc.

*Thank God.

There was a golf cart that belonged to our house, which might have been the best part.

Shrimp Boil by Uncle Hughes!

These 2 are intense in all things, including their love for each other.

Bop-the short order chef.

Streaming photos of the fam, just in case we missed each other.

Thank goodness Noni was a trooper and got in the pool on multiple occasions. 

Speaking of troopers...#bigcousinnoah

Nicole & I would have been in some knock down fights without Amanda as our balance. She is the best one of the sister trio. 

For about 2 minutes, I thought about learning how to drive the golf cart.

Uncle Zack didn't miss a beat to jump off a restaurant dock & get a giant hermit crab for Anderson.

Matching patching shirts!

My 2 favorite things about the ocean: raw oysters & jumping headfirst into giant waves. These were delicious!

She is so cute, it is hard to choose just a few. 

Love this one. 

Noni/Bop took us (me, Anderson, Lily & Max) on a dolphin/shelling cruise that was so much fun! The kids loved driving the boat, looking for dolphins and drinking their own Diet Coke (drinks were free on the boat.) Anderson LOVED finding a ton of shells, real hermit crabs, etc. I think we found about 14 hermit crabs-we left them all in the ocean, though. I try to just kill one per trip. 

Lily was hilarious and said, "I am NOT getting off this boat!" She looked shocked that we would even imagine she would get off in the 3 feet of very seaweedy water. We made her (Nicole wasn't with us to save her and she became our photographer/cheerleader. 

I really think it was one of my favorite parts of the trip. Anderson sort of ruined the pic, but we did have   a lot of fun! Brandon went snuba diving with the guys, but nobody actually took a pic of it. 

The Glovers were there, too! Their stay overlapped ours by one night, so they stopped by for some hugs and caught a little glimpse of the craziness that was Casa de Glover/Hughes/Bishop/Salvaggio. 

The Beach

Perhaps there is no more validating moment as a parent than when you get to introduce your kid to the beach. I just love everything about the ocean & it was so much fun to spend so much time hanging out with people I love in a place that I love. 

 Visit from cousins Morgan & Jacob! Anderson loves Jacob and I am so excited about seeing them again soon!

Max's hard life continued while we were in Destin.

 Jacob got to shoot the cannon!

My husband is a hottie.

Thankful for this Noni who can always calm my kids down when they are upset/acting crazy...ie: often.

Lily (Nicole) made us sand cupcakes!

Apparently miracles happen when you spend 8 hours a day on the beach.

Waves. Love.

The creatures 

The highlight of Anderson's trip was finding random creatures. This "real ocean crab" that Brandon found was his favorite because it walked sideways & it pinched him. 

This salamander (lizard? what is the difference?) was HUGE. 

Again, Brandon totally caught this one.

Bop found a turtle that they named Long Neck.

Preciousness. Anderson was obsessed with the little fish & showed them to Reese, who actually was interested in them. Most of the guys spent a great deal of time trying to find fish/cool stuff for Anderson. 

Oh, and me. I also tried to find stuff and was successful in locating a hermit crab (that I accidentally starved, at least I think that is what killed it), a few frogs and lizards.

He is so good at catching creatures, which is one of those really cool perks that I did not even realize until this trip.

The hermit crab before he died. RIP hermie. 

There was a lake behind our house &, of course, they went fishing. They did not catch anything because I never actually saw anything alive in there. It was very creepy in a Lake Placid kind of way. 

While Anderson was creature hunting, Lily was making jewelry and crafting. This little sign was so precious. The girl is in her element when she is crafting. 

The Puzzle

Mom bought this clearance puzzle & brought it with her. We totally made fun of her & told her nobody was going to do a 1500 piece puzzle at the beach. Except, we were epically wrong. It was possibly the highlight of the trip. 

I think I could put 50 pics of random people and the puzzle at various stages. 

It is now hanging up in Bop's garage. 

The Little People

This trip was so much fun because of how much time we spent together, but I would not necessarily call it a "vacation." As Clare said, It was parenting with a change of scenery. A beautiful, delicious smelling (I love the Ocean) change of scenery. Max & Reese were constantly on the move, trying to see who could break a limb first by falling down the stairs, very easily opening the front door, trying to dive into the ocean, never sitting still, etc. They also woke up by 6 am despite staying up until after 10 on many occasions. Super thankful that we had so many people to help keep an eye on them/entertain them because it would have been impossible to prevent them from going crazy otherwise.