Monday, April 26, 2010

A Little Break from the Rat Race

I know, two trip posts in a row-how obnoxious and boring. But, at least I'm blogging, right?

We had a five day weekend (only in Brazil) last week and so we traveled with Ballerina Girl's and one other family to a sleepy little beach town an hour and a half out of the city. We rented a large 6 bedroom house where we could spread out and play. The house came with a cook, two maids and a "house boy", so we weren't exactly roughing it.

One of the things that I least like about where we live is the almost-suffocating-at-times apartment living. There's no, "GO PLAY IN THE BACKYARD RIGHT NOW BEFORE I LOSE IT!" when I'm feeling frustrated with the kids. Every place the kids spend time has walls and gates and locks so they have zero freedom to do much of anything on their own.

So, when we can get out of the city and let the kids run wild, it's a real treat for parents and kids alike.

And run they did; between the 3 families we have 9 kids who got along superbly well all weekend and NEVER even turned on a TV or a computer. Pretty amazing, I think.

We kept ourselves busy riding in our little boat:


climbing rocks (Margarita's favorite):










looking for ocean wildlife (Guapo's favorite):







playing on our (mostly) private beach (we had to scare one other family off the beach on Saturday, but other than that we were alone the entire time):







chitchating in whatever shade we could find (moms' favorite):



playing in the pool (pushing was outlawed about 30 seconds later when the first injury occured):




blowing bubbles for the bubble blowing contest (Julio was the winner):




playing game after game after game (bananagrams, backgammon, mancala, war, scum and several kid invented card games):




brushing up on our archery skills with dad:





eating, eating, eating; here's Ballerina Girl about to roast a marshmellow for smores (I know. You're wondering why such a pretty girl would wear such an ugly sweatshirt. I wonder that myself.)




and...enjoying the magnificent view from the deck:


We feel so blessed that we have friends here who are willing to travel with our big brood-it really takes a special kind of friendship to be able to spend 24 hours a day together for multiple days.

Sometimes our families aren't even willing to travel with us. :)

9 comments:

Janice said...

Looks delightful. State side vacations are never that cool.

andalucy said...

That really looks like heaven, but when are you guys coming to Spain? My kids would LOVE that. We could leave the kiddos here at the house while we went out sightseeing. I'm sure most of them would be alive when we got home.

Margarita looks tall! I suppose she comes by it honestly.

(I've never read East of Eden so I'll put it on my list.)

Abby said...

That looks so nice. I want a vacation.

I would TOTALLY travel with you guys, for the record.

Susan Waldrip said...

It looks delightful! Glad you all got a break -- together.

Ballerina Girl said...

beautiful last picture...
BEAUTIFUL sweatshirt ;)

BG

Kari said...

Wowie! Awesome break! The purple sunset photo should be a postcard--did you really take that? It's amazing. I think heaven is really being "almost alone" on a beach. People might say I'd get tired of it, but I don't think I ever would.

NicoleB, Egypt said...

Ah, that makes me wanna go there asap.
(Despite all the kids :P )

That looks like a magic place and I'm glad you all had such a great fun time.

You know, that's the first time I see a pic of BG that's not one of the older photos :) ?!

Super Happy Girl said...

How is it legal to have this much fun?

PB said...

Houseboy? I've always wanted a houseboy.