{pretty, happy, funny, real} ~ vacation edition

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

Every Thursday, here at Like Mother, Like Daughter!

A few months ago, I texted Sukie something along the lines of, “I found the closest beach, and it’s near Houston. We are all going to rent a house in Galveston together in September.” Her response was something along the lines of, “Yes, yes we are.”

And you know what? We did!

Our hardworking husbands were able to take a little leave at the same time, which just happened to be soon after everyone else went back to school (and, notably, the rental rates dropped). It was still hot, but not scorching, and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

It was wonderful.

{pretty}

I only pulled my camera out twice, since it’s a lot easier to handle an iphone than a big camera when you’re also trying to hold a baby on the beach and simultaneously help keep several small children from hurling themselves into the Gulf of Mexico. (And even the phone is a little tricky.)

But I did bring it along on a few evening trips to the beach, so I do have a few pretty photos to show you.

{happy}

Someone didn’t get the memo about not going in the water with all your clothes on:

(But that’s ok. We didn’t get into bathing suits that time so we’d get out the door faster. Get your clothes wet! We’re on vacation!)

This little girl caught her Aunt Sukie’s eye from about 20 feet away and just lit up:

(Hashtag, lovethosechunkythighs)

And this little guy is just the happiest. There was nothing about the beach that he didn’t love.

{funny}

“Quick, let’s crouch down and grab the kids, and they’ll totally stand still long enough for Sukie to take a nice family photo!”

“Ok, but I really want a picture of me and my sister and all the kids. Let’s try a little harder this time.”

There was just too much going on. They each had about 15 seconds of standing-still-looking-at-the-camera time in them, and none of it overlapped. Oh well. We love them anyway.

Meanwhile, this face totally made my day:

So much attitude expressed in this picture that does not actually exist in reality!

{real}

On the way down, we left in the wee hours of the morning so we could get some good driving done while the kids were sleeping, and so we could stop outside of Dallas for Mass and breakfast with my brother-in-law before continuing on. This seemed like a good plan the night before, but a little less so at the aforementioned wee hour.

To anyone who may have seen us at church that morning (including/especially one sweet reader who introduced herself afterwards!), I apologize for my children’s extraordinarily squirmy ways, and can only say that they’d been in the car for three hours already when we arrived. We were not on our A game, I’m afraid. The good news is that your children all looked like angels by comparison. (not that they needed it!)

Our two “bigs” are pretty good travelers, but Nora, sadly, is not a fan of the car. We did our best, she did her best, and the Chick-fil-a we stopped at on the way home did its best, too, with lunch, a playplace, and balloons for all the kids! Thank you, Chick-fil-a. That was clutch.

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