Life at the Lyman's: The Good......

Last week we traveled to Outer Banks, North Carolina for family vacation. We have made this trip before but not with 3 children. We are always up for an adventure, and that it was. I decided to make 3 separate entries to cover the good, the bad, and the ugly of the trip.

We set off on our adventure at 7 am on Saturday morning. We had children buckled, cooler loaded, and car bulging at the seems. We made stop at rest stops or gas stations. When it was time to eat, we took out our sandwiches and had lunch let the kids stretch their legs and changed diapers, and had potty breaks. The kids did wonderful. We watched many movies, thank heavens for movies in the car. We drove to Evansville, Indiana. We stopped at my cousin, Megan's house for a break and some dinner. We loaded back in the car at midnight to caravan the remainder of the trip with her family. We couldn't check in to our house until 3pm on Sunday. We wanted to arrive as close to check in as possible and wanted to be unloaed by dinner. That was how we decided we should leave around midnight. The kids slept well until morning and then again we made our rest stop and had breakfast and coffee. We made it to our house by around 3:30. The "are we there yet" didn't start until after lunch so that wasn't to bad.

Just for your understanding my entire family was on this trip. My grandparents, both my aunts and uncles, my parents, all of my cousins and their families, my brother and his family. 2 other houses that were with in blocks of us had my grandma's sister, 2 of my mom's cousins and their family and another house had my grandpa's sister and their family. In our 10 bedroom house their were 28 people, 11children, and 9 of the were 6 years or younger. This was one happen house.

We loved spending time with everyone, the kids loved playing on the beach. The first time the boys were on the sand they were not a huge fan but they grew to love it by the end of the first day. The last couple of days the waves didn't even scare them and they would charge towards them. They wore Mitch and I out chasing them and keeping them from getting knocked down by a crashing wave. Nap time was always welcome by the afternoon. We let the big kids 4,5 and 6 year old just play all day so they would be ready to crash come bed time. They all had so much fun building sand castles and looking for sea shells, or burying each other in the sand. The big kids enjoyed jumping waves, especially after a storm and the waves were huge.

We took turns cooking dinner for the house. It was hard to know how much food to make so that we didn't have to much leftovers but enough to feed everyone. Megan and her husband Chase, and Mitch and I made enchiladas with bean and rice for our meal with a yummy buster bar dessert. We also celebrated her daughter Evie's birthday because she turned 3 the day we all went home. We would usually feed the kids first and then the adults would eat. Our good friend Hayley was with us and she was great with keeping all the little girls occupied by painting their nails or playing hind-and- seek.

Uncle Rolli and Aunt Joyce brought over happy hour one afternoon with snacks. That same night the older kids( I am included in this group) went out to dinner with Mema and Poppop without kids. My parents and my aunt and uncle stayed home with all the kids. We enjoyed a wonderful seafood dinner together.

There will be more to come on our rainy days and drive home later.... here come all the pictures...

Leaving our house