Vacation Photos!

Well, this morning I had a few moments to go over some of the trip photos I promised to post. I had to laugh at this first picture. I have a feeling that this view was a large part of my family's trip! Between me and my brother there was always a camera around taking pictures of everything--including each other :) I'm sure glad everyone was good natured about it though--I know we drove the kids nuts with all out requests to "just let me take 1 more" however, I love the results! Case in point, here is what I looked like pretty much all week! I always had the camera out! I found it kind of funny to see the pictures my brother took of me. I'm not used to being out in front of the glass--I guess the tables kind of got turned on me--haha :) Still, I'm glad to be included in the photographic record of our trip--that dosen't happen too often. I love that these two photos show what a photo shoot is like. You can see in the above photo on a larger scale what the scene was like--Blake took an unexpected romp in the water during one of our walks along the beach. His pants started falling off and his underware was showing. But all of that dosen't really matter, in fact I never even noticed it was going on until I saw the top photo later on. To me all I saw was the bottem picture--what I saw through the lens--my happy kid playing in the warm gulf waters. I love how not everything about the scene was perfect, yet I was still able to take a photo that refelects my thoughts at the moment. This was a really great trip! Despite the hurricane hitting there just before we arrived, South Padre Island was looking beautiful! The sea turtle hospital was cool to see. The boys in paticular really enjoyed getting up close and personal with these giants. My brother and I even saw one out in the waves while we were surfing. It wasn't as big as these bad boys, but still fun to see it going for a ride in the waves with us! I've already posted about this little beatuty, our bicycle car, but thought it was fun enough to deserve another look. It was really fun to ride around town for the first 20 or 30 minutes, after that it got a lot harder. By the time our hour was up we were more than ready to turn it back in :) After all, we needed to save our energy for surfing. The pool in the back yard of course was a big hit with the boys too! Ty loved showing off and increasing upon everything he learned in swim lessons this year. Blake pretty much hugged the stairs the whole time, but had a good time squirting unsuspecting swimmers with his squirt bottle. Spencer was another stair hugger, but he too loved the water--but then again, who wouldn't--it was so warm! Here is a shot of my nephew and brother relaxing in the pool: And even though everyone loved the pool, the beach was really where the action was at: So, yes, the beach was the highlight of the trip! The waves were by no means huge, but big enough to still have a great time. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves--especially the kids! So thanks Mom and Dad for organizing and planning such a fun trip! I know we all had a great time! After our week at the beach we headed north to visit with the other side of the family. We had a great time there as well! Marc's family is delightful and our visit with them was lots of fun. While we were there I had the opportunity to do a mini maternity session for my super cute sister-in-law who is about 6 months along with a baby girl. We are super excited for them and glad for yet another little girl to join the family! And last, but certainly not least, is a quick family shot for another sister-in-law. I couldn't believe how good my neices were for me during this shoot. I think I need them to come and give lessons to my three boys about how to take a family photo! They did so great for their young ages! So anyhow, that was our trip in photos. We had a great time with both trips, but are happy to be home and back into the swing of regular life!