well, we’re back!! it’s been a crazy couple of weeks going from one vaca to the next, but i’ve found my groove again and i can’t wait to fill you in! for starters, we had THE BEST time in florida. my family has been heading south every year {since before i was born!} and now that my sister and i have families of our own, we’re making new traditions while keeping some of the old as well. a full week to unplug, laugh, and make memories…it truly was the best!

traveling with 5 under 5 with 5 car seats, 2 double strollers, 5 backpacks and 9 suitcases is always a circus but i gotta say, we’ve gotten it down to a science and overall it runs pretty smooth. we always get a kick out of the comments that ensue because inevitably, christine {my sister} winds up walking with zach and i always wind up walking with mark {christine’s husband} with the 4 youngest. some of our favs:
‘oh my, are those triplets + a baby?!’
‘woah. that’s a lot of kids.’
‘you SURE have your hands full.’
‘did you see that lady? do you think they’re all hers?’
we’re used the comments but always get a good laugh.

we made it through the two flights on the way down and one on the way home…alive, and everyone was SO well behaved!
i have a tips + tricks post coming tomorrow, so stay tuned!

we have a condo around the fort myers area which is prime location for shell hunting, sand castle building, pool diving and family fun.

now that our families are packed with a bunch of babes, we make a grocery run when we get there for breakfast, lunch and most dinner items and plan for one night out to eat. 

we worked out 6 mornings in a row on the tennis courts {my sis is my biggest motivation..she’s THE most competitive person i know and she’s worked her tush off to be fit, healthy and strong} doing sean t week and it was HOT. it was a great way to start out the morning though!
the person who was watching the kids {either my mom or mark,who wound up with stitches in his ankle on the 2nd day! 🙁 } would feed the kids breakfast while we got our sweat on. 

the rest of the day typically was spent outside soaking up as much sun and wearing all those babes out! we typically spent the first part of the day at the pool before heading in for lunch/naps, then the afternoon until dinner was spent on the beach searching for shells, building sand castles and playing in the ocean. 

i was SO proud of the kids this year…lila, parker and graham all mastered diving to the bottom of the pool for dive sticks and parker even learned how to swim unassisted! those 3 would have spent every minute in the pool! piper loved searching for seashells + treasures on the beach, but was happy paddling around in her puddle jumpers. mills was pretty happy wherever  he was and maintained his happy little demeanor all trip!

we all had so much fun… each year gets better and better!
now off for another vaca with zach’s side…we’re truly so blessed to spend so much time with our families making memories!

vaca photo dump

see ya next year, florida!