Vacation? What Vacation?

Aaaaahhhhh...the beach.....a vacation.....a good read in the sand....hanging poolside, feet in the water....just soaking up the rest & relaxation, right?

WRONG!!!

When my family goes to the beach, it's competition, it's sweat, it's grit, it's determination, it's ambition, and it's F-U-N!

Think "Dan in Real Life" on steroids. Their family did the group togetherness...family aerobics, talent show, games. My family does all this...but with a higher purpose in mind. Trophies & Medals are at stake!!!

The week starts off with a trophy presentation for the winner of the NCAA March Madness bracket winner. This year, my 5 month old nephew Max won. It was amazing, really, to see a rookie picker take the trophy this year. He gets to keep the traveling trophy until next year when a new winner is crowned. Everybody else received runner's up certificates.

The next night, we began Beach Olympics. The teams were decided beforehand and were "evenly distributed". My brother Keith was the head of the IOC so he had planned ahead with multiple activities/competitions that involved all members of each team. There were 5 teams of 4: The Celtics, Mad-JX, Beach Bum Bombers, Superstars and the Crocs.

Each day of vacation, there were several different activities that we had to do in order to earn points for your team. Jump Rope contest, Water balloon toss, Football Throw, Sling Ball were just a few of the activities that could win your team points. Medals were awarded to the winning team on the last day of vacation.

MAD-JX the winning team. In his victory speech, John said, "At first, I didn't have a lot of confidence in my team, but it turned out good in the end."

Thursday night, we had an "Unconventional Talent Show". Participation was mandatory, but somehow my brother David found a loophole (he's the newest attorney in the family) and sat it out. We had dance routines, songs, a poetry reading, juggling (Keith called his entry "various asundry"), trumpet playing, "Peek a boo" from Will, and a SNL-styled parody of the movie "Akeelah and the Bee".

"Clayla and Bethla and the Bee"

Dramatic Reading: "The Road Less Traveled"

Dad sang "It's a Sin to Tell a Lie"

Craig & I singing the "Family Ties" theme song (very sincerely, I might add)

Trumpet & Dance combo

However, just so you don't think there's no depth to us, my mother did coordinate a "Virtue of the Day" activity. She assigned several people a virtue/topic to do a devotion on and this was to inspire "virtue spotting" the next day as we watched for people to demonstrate these traits. For instance, "Patience" was the virtue for the first day as we all traveled to Destin. "Kindness" was mid-week. Two of my nephews also got baptised in the pool!

Add to what you've already read a luau, outlet shopping, swimming, playing hot box on the beach, white & khaki family pictures at Seaside, LCR tournament, a play at Watercolor resort and you've got one full week!
After all that, I always say we need a real vacation after the family vacation to rest up.

Thanks for a fun week, family! Let's do it again next year!