Beach
house in Destin, FL.
|
At the end of our planning time, it turned to be a total of
30 family members packed in one large house for a week. The house had 3 floors,
9 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms, a splash pool and deluxe kitchen. The location was
set about a 2 block walk away from the beach. All seven siblings, spouses, and
nieces and nephews except for 1 showed up.
There is something to be
said about spending quality time with family. I am blessed to have family that
I can say we get along well together. The old adage says, “the family that
prays together, stays together..." I would like to add that the family
that prays together, purposely plans together will intentionally stick
together."
This year, my husband's
siblings (all six of them, with spouses, children, and moms) planned a trip to
the beach together. For this year's trip our destination was Destin, FL since
it is roughly 5-6 hours from those of us who live in Atlanta.
We started discussing
our family trip at the end of January at a birthday dinner we were celebrating
for a niece and nephew. Some of us have traveled together before but usually we
all rent our own individual condos or places to stay and meet up and do something’s
together. The tricky part this year was we were planning to forgo staying in
separate family condos to rent one large house near the beach that would
accommodate all of us. This would require more sacrifice, and more selflessness
in order to have that many adults, children and "cooks in the
kitchen." :) And we would do most if not all things together.
What an amazing time! It
could not have been a better vacation. Due to the fore planning of my husband's
sisters, a meal plan, schedule of daily activities, rules/regulations of the
trip were sent out prior. They even ventured to create a vacation website for
the purpose of communication with details like address, arrival time, rental
rules, and menu with lead cooks, bathroom schedule, and activity list. It was
like having our own personal cruise director. There was nothing left to
chance but laughs. When you put that many people in one house together whether
they grew up together or not, laughs are to be expected. I must admit it was
one of the best vacations we have ever had. It was so fun.
I did not have
worry about the details of what we’re going to do each day because it was
already taken care of. I could just wake up and check the schedule and show up.
We did so much. We participated in water sports: jet-skiing,
para-sailing, snuba diving, kayaking, boating/fishing and snorkeling, and land
activities: family devotions, mini-golf, go-carting, bumper-boats, laser-tag,
teenage club hang-out, bonfire on the beach with roasting marshmallows, beach
activities, picture taking, karaoke, scavenger hunts, poolside big screen
movies, fireworks on the pier and more. We had a blast! I came back refreshed
but also a little tired from not just sleeping away the vacation.
It was so serene to
watch all the "kids", from ages, three to twenty-five, playing in the
soft sand and jumping the waves of the aquamarine water with their aunties and uncles
and grandmas in tow. Seeing my children and their cousins who are roughly in
the same age groups give or take a few years, interact was incredible. There is
nothing like seeing the bunch of smiling, happy faces. They were completely
engaged the entire time. We prayed and ate together for most meals. We all were
assigned a role in helping with a meal and only ate out twice. We even
completed a 750 piece puzzle of Times Square, NY that my 8-year old niece began
and by the end of the trip a group of us finished. Way to Go, Team!
With 30 people all under
one roof, it seems like a family reunion, when in reality it was just a great
family vacation for us. My husband and I always wanted to make sure that our value of
family was instilled in our children. We are establishing the value that no
matter how old they become or busy their lives are that they put their family first.
We have imparted this
value in them from young each year by taking either a vacation or even
stay-cation locally. So when we realized the siblings decided to
come together for one big vacation, we jumped on the opportunity to keep
building our family culture. It was a first for all of us, but certainly not
our last~
| Destin Family Vacation 2014 with all of the gang! |
