The Bentons: August 2011

Friday, August 12, 2011

Family Pics

Family pictures on the beach! Always a fun stressful time getting everyone around, dressed, and to smile at the same time. But I think they all turned out great.

I love this one

personal favorite

Cousins- poor Halle

blurry, but a nice older man took it and we didn't have the nerve to tell him it was blurry. :)

When you go to Florida with 19 people (majority of those being children) you tend to eat at home rather than eat out. Of course this is much cheaper and we love mom's cooking. But we usually ALL go out to eat at least one night together. This year we went out a couple times. I can't really brag about being in Florida and eating all the yummy seafood because I do not like seafood. I eat chicken every where I go.

The first night we went out was a little smaller. My sister Sarah and her family had not arrived yet so we only had a party of 13. We ordered a huge plate of nachos and it was my first time to try alfredo pizza. I thought it was great.

Even my step-sister Casey got to take a break and come down with us this year.

The Big night that we all went together we headed down to the "Beach Monkey." Garon was NOT at his best behavior and Nini ended up taking him outside for a big part of the wait. You could see Nini and Garon outside our window running around...and before we knew it...all the kids wanted to go out. I ordered chicken immediately and all I know is I was surrounded by buckets of crab legs everywhere and Grady all of a sudden wanted to order FISH! ugh!

Garon would not get his picture made with the gorilla.

Here is some of the dancing that was taking place.

And Craig still holds the title for eating the most crab legs!

Dan, the boys, and I decided to go out one night by ourselves. This is my favorite place to eat pizza. In fact, we ate it 3 times while we were there. Yes, it is that good! We usually order in but thought it would be fun to go and check it out.

I may not get yummy seafood but I still enjoy getting out for pizza and chicken!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Beach Bums

We had another great trip on our family vacation. This year mom decided 19 of us wasn't enough people and added more family members to attend with us. :) My Aunt Allison and Uncle Steve, their kids, Brynn, Avery, and Ella all joined us and stayed a few doors down. We had a blast.

This is the beautiful townhouse that Gary and Mom just bought. It was never a dull moment or a quiet one. But that is what we love...the chaos of it all and just being together.

I was thrilled about how well the boys survived on the trip down. Last year was amazing and I just knew with Garon being one now that it could be risky. He proved me wrong. Garon did awesome. He got whiny when we hit Pensacola (20 min. left into the trip) and Grady started getting excited. He expressed his excitement by kicking the seat. My seat!! We deferred the seat kicking my shouting "who can see the beach first" and that worked out great. When we finally made it Garon was so excited to see that his legs still worked. He just ran around in circles and laughed out loud.

After settling in we decided to hit the beach and become beach bums. We were really good at it to! Garon loved the sand and the ocean. He would laugh out loud every time a wave hit him. Even if it knocked him down! Here is my beach bum relaxing in his chair.

Here is Mom, Halle, Landon, and Grady. Mom is shelling. It is her favorite thing to do and you wouldn't believe how many shells she now has. The kiddos were intrigued and wanted to try it out theirselves.

Grady was just relaxing in the sand.

This was another great trip for the books. I love my family and I love getting to spend this time together with all of them. Thanks again Mom and Gary for more wonderful memories!