The Breuers: Breuer Beach Trip 2015

I am WAY late on this post, but I've been putting it off because I just have SO many photos to go through. We went on the annual Breuer family vacation the last week of June. This year we went to Destin, Florida. We rented a huge 8-bedroom/7-bathroom house with a pool only two blocks from the beach. It was great and fit our huge family perfectly.

Joe & Diane stayed with us Friday night before we drove down, and so did Molly, who had been at summer camp in North Georgia earlier in June. Molly rode with us to Florida, and she was great at keeping Lola occupied in the backseat. Even though we have a much larger car than we did last year, we still needed the rooftop carrier. We just had so much stuff! Lucy takes up a good portion of the trunk, and we did have an extra child (plus her luggage), so that's my excuse. Maybe next year we can bring less...although with two kids I'm sure we'll end up bringing more.

We arrived around 3 Saturday afternoon, and Ed and Jenny got there right before us (having driven from San Antonio). The rest of the family trickled in over the next few hours. We had pizza and quiet first night. We had wanted to do a big pregnancy announcement to everyone, but it was hard to get everyone in the same place at the same time. So we just put Lola in her "Big Sister" shirt and showed her to everyone. We think some people had already guessed since I was wearing a very loose shirt to cover up my growing belly. Everyone was very excited for another child - he/she will be the 11th Breuer grandchild!

The rest of the week was pretty much wake up, breakfast, beach, lunch, nap, pool, dinner, bed, repeat. We didn't do any big activities, just a lot of good quality family time. We did go out as a group for dinner on Thursday night to the Back Porch, and it was nice to get out of the house and eat (the rest of the week we cooked all our meals at home). I also went on a shopping trip to the outlets with Lola, Jenny, Molly, and Tatiana one rainy morning.

It was so much fun watching Lola interact with her cousins. Rebecca, Rachel, and Reagan live in Cumming (about 45 minutes north of us), so we see them every few months, but not super frequently. Molly, Shannon, Colin, and Cassidy live in Texas, so we usually only see them once a year, on this trip. Lola loved getting to know her cousins and playing with them. Last year she couldn't walk or talk, so this year she was much more active.

The adults also enjoyed catching up. After bedtime each night we would hang out and talk, watch TV, play games, etc. Unfortunately I was feeling pretty sick for most of the trip, so I took naps every day when Lola napped, and I was usually in bed sometime between 9 and 10. But I still had fun with everyone, and it was definitely nice to have extra hands to help with Lola.

As for the beach, Lola was really scared of the ocean the first time she saw it. We were surprised because we had been to the beach several times before. But she slowly got used to it, and by the end of the week, she was running in and out of the water. She loved the pool the entire time and fearlessly jumped in many times, which can be a bit scary. We tried to teach her that someone has to be there to catch her before she can jump in. She loved playing in the water, and she got pretty good at kicking her feet. We need to get her in swim lessons sometime soon.

It was a wonderful, relaxing week with family. We wish we could see everyone more often, but at least we have this trip to look forward to each year!