All in the Family

Day 7 and the last day of our vacation has arrived. The morning has been filled with packing, cleaning, and saying our goodbyes. You may have noticed that no actual descriptions or real photographic evidence of our beach time have been made available via this blog. So, it turns out that a nice secluded beach vacation is often accompanied by inconsistent Internet availability. The end result? I'm a little behind. Let me make it up to you . . .

Once landed in Tallahassee, Sarah and I settled in for the aforementioned 5 hour wait for the family. My multi-talented little sister spent a significant amount of this time attempting to fix my suitcase that the airline had thoughtlessly broken on our trip. Sarah was unsuccessful despite a valiant effort. We decided to spent the rest of our time more efficiently - we headed to the bar!

We were eventually rescued from boredom (or in SJ's case, an "open-mouth" nap) by the arrival of our Missouri family. And then we were on the road!

We joined up with the rest of the gang . . . vacation already in progress.

We rapidly joined in the fun. Commencing with eating, drinking, and beaching. For any that may be reading this blog that have known me for 10 plus years you may recall that the sun and I usually don't get along. No matter how hard I try to limit my exposure, no matter how hard I work to apply my SPF 50 evenly. No matter. All my hard work down the drain - I still ended up with the craziest sunburn since Florida '97! Sorry, didn't photograph this one for posterity:)

So, we left the beach for a day. Ate a little seafood at the Marina. Did a little shopping in a neighboring town. And of course, lathered on the aloe vera!

We eventually went back to the sun and continued to eat like kings and drink like fishes. One memorable and highly entertaining evening we decided to play a classic Haller family game we call spoons. Do you know it? Here's a little taste . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blcBBX7HnWk

After we got a couple games under our belts things got a little on the competitive side. It must be said: I rock spoons. Normally. I blame my fall from the top and the oh-so-excellent margaritas my cousin Julie kept-a-coming. So what do a couple of girls used to winning do? (Julie also ingesting large quantities of assorted beverages and also early out of the game. Connection?) Loser shots! The whole family got in on it . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gmtfFI9_tg

Twin sister Carrie ended up the undisputed champion of game night. As a kindergarten teacher you can tell how much she values good sportsmanship . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJjjHRYjd4s

Seemed to be quite a bit of lounging around the next day . . . :)

The rest of our days were spent much as the previous: sun and sand, food and drink, family and fun. We played guitar hero. We read Harry Potter. We had a ball!

So,family. How about it? Same time, same place next year? Meet ya there:)