FL Stay-cation

We're in Florida to spend a week with my family at my parent's house. They are calling it a Stay-cation. We traveled over 12 hours to be here, so it's hard to think of it as a genuine stay-cation, but we're having a good time so who cares what we call it. (As a side note, is stay-cation going to be another one of those weird words that ends up in Webster's dictionary in a few years because it has become part of the everyday vernacular? Clever, but I hope not.)

Back to our trip...we're all here: my parents and the 7 kids who still live at home, both my adult brothers, and my married sister and her husband and baby. It makes 19 of us in all (plus 2 dogs). We have taken thousands of pictures between all the cameras in the group, but I didn't think to bring my camera cord, so if you want to see a few more pictures of the most adorable beach babies you'll have to check out my Mom's blog.

Sunday was a restful day of worship, including a 2-hour nap for me. A great way to start out any vacation. That night my parents (who are becoming quite the spontaneous entertainers) told all of us to feel free to invite a few people over after church. There are 19 of us and most of us have friends. A "few" turned out to be about 50, which was no sweat for my parent's house or their pantry. It was a good chance to see who were our true friends since everyone who came had to brave hurricane-force winds and lightening. But a fun time was had by all and the power never went out.

Monday was my Mom's birthday so we packed up and went to the beach. A generous friend let us use her beach house for the day, which really made the day since, A) we had babies who needed naps and B) there were intermittent thunderstorms all day. It was such a comfortable place to hang out and no one seemed to mind when it was raining. We celebrated my Mom's special day with a Shrimp Salad and Lemon Basil Chicken Salad and a Double Caramel Turtle cake. I used a dark chocolate cocoa powder and if you haven't tried that product than you haven't lived.

Yesterday was Project Day, because it wouldn't be a vacation for the Pittman's if we didn't have at least a little productivity going on. And Project Day is bleeding over to today because we all got tired of working and distracted by the little kids and the pool, and decided to finish our mending/sewing projects (for the ladies) and construction/bathroom reconstruction (for the men) later. We spent hours in the pool yesterday, just as I had envisioned, and the adults even had a little diving board contest...can't say I've attempted a front flip in years (pregnancy is limiting) and it showed. The projects will have to finish up by lunch time because the ladies (including MF) have a pedicure appointment at 1pm.

There's lots more to report, and pictures to show, but it will have to wait until the end of the week. I'm missing the morning yoga class as it is (lead by my very own husband) so I'd better run.