Beach Week 2010!

Once a year, my family tries to all get together and take a long weekend to the beach. This year, my parents actually bought a time share in MB for the whole week, and it was soo nice! It was great for the kids too, because the resort also had a HUGE pool, and a whole water park/splash area. Who am I kidding...it was fun for the adults too!

Nora and Rachel were not excited at ALL to go to the beach...

can you tell?

Livvy was super entertained by my sunglasses...which was good, b/c it was pretty much the only way I could distract her so her mom could sneak away! haha And yes, I gave her that sweet faux-hawk.


Our condo was great... We actually got another one when all the husbands and such got there so we'd have enough room. In between beach and pool times, we would eat, re-lather on sunscreen, and of course, try to entertain the slew of kids that we had running around. As you can see, Luke and Ammon were entertained by the gameboy, Emily and Evva were 'baby-sitters' and Nora found my camera, as usual.

There was also a little creek out the back door of the condo, so one morning, we took some popcorn out and fed the turtles and ducks. You can really tell from that picture, but there were TONS of turtles!

And then.....the BEACH!

There was playing, sand sculpting, talking (well, lots of talking, with all the Harris girls there) wave jumping and boogie-boarding. It was kinda sad this year to not be able to boogie board. I LOVE doing it, and I was there for 4 days...but alas...my stomach would not allow me to ride on a board. Maybe next year, while my baby girl is probably chewing on some sand like the other babies, i'll take a turn in the water!



On the last day at the beach, Noah brought an awesome kite that you could do some cool tricks with, and he brought a wake board which Luke thought was awesome! He was cracking me up because he would stay on the board for less than 1 second before falling off. I will say, though, I was so proud of him for perservering and not complaining at all about all his tumbles. From what I hear, he's gotten even better since then on his last trip to the beach!

ALL the kids LOVED jumping the waves! I was a little jealous....I tried to convince someone...ahem, Stephen...to help ME jump the waves, but he refused. Something about me being too heavy or whatnot....I don't know why he would say that! haha

I'm so glad that my dad got to come to the beach for most of the week too. Its a rarity that he gets to escape some of the stresses of work and being a bishop. Although, he was attached to his phone at some points...we loved getting to actually spend some time with him without having to share too much with church or work. And can I mention how much I love these pictures of my parents? We used to always joke with them because our friends in youth would always call them "cute" when they danced at stake dances, etc. Well, i'm happy to say that they are still incredibly cute! I love that they are still flirty and just as much in love now as they were 38 years ago when they got married!

Also...I bet you can't judge from the above picture who's skin tone I took after.....HA!

Cara and the kids made me a 'pregnant mermaid' sculpture. Although my belly is not that big yet...the belly button was pretty much to scale!

Also, i'm sad I didn't get a good picture with Cara, but this year we had matching bathing suits....yeah, we are THAT cool.

Dad and I compared our stomachs....I think i'm winning. I've only been working on mine for 21 weeks...he's been working on his for almost 60 years!

We also went to lunch at this restaurant near the beach. In my opinion, it was not worth the wait. Well, retract that...it was worth it because I was super hungry after waiting for an hour and a half...but it wasn't the best seafood ever. Nora decided that she needed to be my child at the restaurant. She wouldn't go to the other table to get her food...she made the waitress bring it to her at my table...and she pretty much refused to get off my lap the whole time I ate. I guess she was just helping me practice for when the baby comes. Cara and I are starting to worry, though...I may not have other kids to have sibling rivalry...but we're starting to wonder if there is going to be some 'cousin-rivalry' when the baby comes.

There was also an awesome splash park that we all loved. I was a little partial to the lazy river ride...but that must be because it had 'lazy' in its name.

If you look close in the top left picture, Rachel is demonstrating her technique of covering both her ears and plugging her nose whenever she got close to the water.

The week was a blast. The only bad thing was....it wasn't long enough. It was a much needed break for me from work, and I loved every minute of fun and relaxation!