The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry...
Such was the theme of our summer vacation in 2014 to Navarre Beach, Florida.
Pictures have a way of making everything seem beautiful and peaceful… which, honestly, is really a miracle if you think about it… to be able to find and photograph a single millisecond in time where 3 wild and rambunctious boys all assume a position of joy and contentment (with no crying, crossed eyes, gnarly smiles, etc)… when I can guarantee you the millisecond before and after was complete chaos! It truly is a miracle… and it's SO NOT representative of real life with kids.
I suppose our perception that the vacation was a total wreck was probably a result of Richie and I having our expectations out of whack. You'd think we'd be professionals at this by now, but that was not the case.
Balancing 8 month old little Luke at the beach with his two older brothers really just ended up being exhausting. Luke never slept for more than 3 hours at a time throughout every night… and this was months into him being an all night sleeper.
It made it especially painful that we had spent the previous two summers having really, amazing, relaxing beach trips.
This one just happened to be a nice dose of our new reality.
We set up our cool new umbrella the first day we went down to the beach. Ahh! That feels good… that feels real good...
Within 15 minutes, the entire contraption had flipped itself inside out and two of the metal rods had broken. Richie threw the entire thing in the trash within an hour of our feet touching the sand.
Richie also took Sam and Charlie on their very first deep sea fishing trip in Destin! Luke and I spent the entire 6 hours of their trip shopping, lunching, and hanging out in the area waiting for them to return (which is no easy feat with a baby!) I wanted to make sure I captured the awesome shot of them at the end of the trip with all of their fish.
This is them at the end of their trip.
No fish.
Charlie felt sick 5 minutes into it, never even dropped his line.
Sam held out for maybe 15 or 20 minutes.
They both spent the entire trip inside the cabin.
Richie fished and fished…
Nobody on the boat caught anything.
A three hundred and eighty dollar painful boat trip…
But they all still flashed me the best smiles they could muster!
I love them for that.
George joined us on our trip again! He has been all around this country with us. He's always a good little buddy to bring along.
The boys did have a ball on their boogie boards.
And they loved going crabbing at night.
Luke got a chance to show off his fabulous fedora!
And we found a new little hole in the wall restaurant that we all loved… TC's Front Porch
And we managed to snag a few more milliseconds where everything in the world seemed just right…
Pictures have a way of making everything seem beautiful and peaceful… which, honestly, is really a miracle if you think about it… to be able to find and photograph a single millisecond in time where 3 wild and rambunctious boys all assume a position of joy and contentment (with no crying, crossed eyes, gnarly smiles, etc)… when I can guarantee you the millisecond before and after was complete chaos! It truly is a miracle… and it's SO NOT representative of real life with kids.
I suppose our perception that the vacation was a total wreck was probably a result of Richie and I having our expectations out of whack. You'd think we'd be professionals at this by now, but that was not the case.
Balancing 8 month old little Luke at the beach with his two older brothers really just ended up being exhausting. Luke never slept for more than 3 hours at a time throughout every night… and this was months into him being an all night sleeper.
It made it especially painful that we had spent the previous two summers having really, amazing, relaxing beach trips.
This one just happened to be a nice dose of our new reality.
We set up our cool new umbrella the first day we went down to the beach. Ahh! That feels good… that feels real good...
Richie also took Sam and Charlie on their very first deep sea fishing trip in Destin! Luke and I spent the entire 6 hours of their trip shopping, lunching, and hanging out in the area waiting for them to return (which is no easy feat with a baby!) I wanted to make sure I captured the awesome shot of them at the end of the trip with all of their fish.
This is them at the end of their trip.
No fish.
Charlie felt sick 5 minutes into it, never even dropped his line.
Sam held out for maybe 15 or 20 minutes.
They both spent the entire trip inside the cabin.
Richie fished and fished…
Nobody on the boat caught anything.
A three hundred and eighty dollar painful boat trip…
But they all still flashed me the best smiles they could muster!
I love them for that.
George joined us on our trip again! He has been all around this country with us. He's always a good little buddy to bring along.
The boys did have a ball on their boogie boards.
And they loved going crabbing at night.
Luke got a chance to show off his fabulous fedora!
And we found a new little hole in the wall restaurant that we all loved… TC's Front Porch
And we managed to snag a few more milliseconds where everything in the world seemed just right…
So… it probably wasn't really so bad after all. Sam and Charlie have good memories of it, and I got some lovely pictures out of it… AND, as I mentioned in my previous post, it sparked the early discussions of a mommy and daddy get-away that we just made happen this past month.
Ah, one of these days we're gonna miss this!
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