This is our fifth year in this borrowed beach house, but only the second time E has been able to come. Technically he was there for 24 hours last year, but I did the 2 day drive by myself so that doesn’t count as being there. He drove this year, the whole way, and I got to sleep and hand stuff to the kids in the back which is the perfect start to vacation. It turns out Linc is an amazing road tripper and his presence barely slowed us down, so the driving was well worth the end result.

Kiawah is amazing. It’s an incredible vacation just because of the setting, but the key to a true dream vacation is to have more bathrooms than you have adults. Never having to wait for a bathroom or use a bathroom on the same floor where everyone is eating or worry someone is hearing you in the bathroom or having to take a cold shower because everyone else used up the hot water is an amazing luxury. It’s why rich people are so much happier than regular people. Bathrooms.

Bathrooms are especially key when the main sources of beach house entertainment are eating and drinking and drinking. We’ve gotten pretty good at our menu and consolidating our shopping down to two big trips and then only a few smaller trips for emergency supplies (like limes, and another 5 pound bag of sugar since we managed to use the first one up in less than 36 hours). There was cake and more cake and an apple crisp and Lowcountry Boil, which is seafood and corn and sausage, and Bo Ssam, which is huge plates of pork with rice and lettuce and ginger sauce, and one thousand cocktails, which is the appropriate number of cocktails on vacation. We ate until we could barely move and then we played cards, because even though we were on vacation we are all responsible adults now and can’t get falling down drunk at 2 pm. I like cards better than throwing up anyway.

I took thousands and thousands of pictures, culled and edited them down to several hundred, and I uploaded exactly 100 photos for this post. I know that’s a ridiculous number and I ought to feel bad about my self-indulgence, especially because even though there were 7 adults and 6 kids at the beach house 99% of my pictures of just of my children. But I don’t. While we were in the kitchen, trying to remember specifics from previous years, one of my friends pulled up pictures from a previous year. I was surprised she still had them on her laptop, but she said actually she didn’t, she just looked at them on my blog. So it’s my duty to document this glorious vacation for posterity. Or at least so I can show the kids in a couple months and remind them that they are some very lucky children.

Previous years: 2011 2012 2013 2014

There is a hair in my lens. It makes that shadow in the top right and the line just left and below center. If I print anything I will take the time to clone it out, but for now I don’t care enough. It ONLY shows when I photograph landscapes/sky at 28mm.

It looks like I spent the WHOLE week at the lake. Which I guess I did.

Sunday:

Lake food

Lake view

Lake naps

Monday:

WATCH OUT FOR THE PINK FLOATY IT WILL RUIN YOUR KID

Love our BityBean in the water

Party countdown is on

Tuesday:

Lashes

Loaner wrap is super cushy

Star Wars, kids playing, me editing = mom life

Wednesday:

This baby is finally learning to sleep in his own room

He doesn’t know how to use that phone yet. Probably.

SO GOOD

Thursday:

Linc’s bouncy house makes him popular with the girls

When he can’t find his own blankie, brother’s will do

They are both very pleased with themselves

Friday:

Linc slept in his room. I woke up to this on my vidoe monitor.

Someone should watch that baby near the water

Gorgeous evening for a walk

Saturday:

Wore my lobster wrap down to the lobster docks

Double chocolate cake for lunch

Cards for dinner

My goal for this week is to get the kids to bed BEFORE 10 pm every night. It’s finally getting dark almost early enough for a real bedtime – no one will sleep when the sun is still up at 8:30. But I need 2 kid free hours after they all go to sleep and right now that means I’m still awake at 11:45 pm. Why can’t kids and grown ups switch? I will go to bed at 7:30 every night and they can stay up until whenever? Oh right, because then nothing would ever get done.

This week’s agenda includes two farmer stands, more lake, a horse barn, blueberry picking and car repairs. One of those things is less exciting than the others.

One of the reasons I keep up my photography business, if only on a very very part time basis, is because it gives me a tiny bit of truly disposable income. I can spend that little bit of income on whatever I want, whether it’s new photography equipment or getting my hair done or an investment in something else. That last one is what I did with my first quarter income from 2015 – I invested it in my family in the form of a membership in the Amos Lake Beach Club.

So far, it is proving to be a very worthwhile investment. The lake has shade, so much shade that I don’t have to wear sunscreen. The lake bottom is mostly sand and no rocks. There are picnic tables and grills so we can sit and play cards and stay for dinner. It is approximately 15 minutes from my front door to the parking lot. There are swings and climby things for the kids, fish so plentiful and fearless you can catch them with popcorn and a net, and there are almost always other children there for my children to play with but it is rarely crowded.

To be honest, I was sort of dreading the summer and all the free time we would have to…stare at screens and ignore each other. I am not good at saying no to iPad time when it’s only 10 am and the kids are already whining. The lake solves the “should we pack up and go somewhere or stay home and relax” problem. We can do both! At the lake! And we can bring beer! I enjoy my family the way I imagine people are supposed to enjoy their families when I am at the lake with a beer. I mean, I love my family all the time, because they are my family. But there are definitely moments where all I want in the whole world is the freedom to go do something FUN that doesn’t end up being incredibly stressful. But when you’re relaxing only 15 minutes from home, it’s easy to relax. As long as no one breaks their leg (KNOCK ON ALL THE WOOD) there are no emergencies at the lake.

I feel really really lucky we can live the #lakelife this summer. It’s going to be good for all of us individually and good for all of us together.

More than half of this week’s photos are of sleeping children. It’s cold. It’s snowy. They were all sick. It’s effing February.

Sunday:

Still in bed when the sun comes up is UNHEARD OF these days

Eyelashes

Bedtime only happened because of this.

Monday:

I came downstairs Monday and they were already dressed for school…except it was anothiner snow day.

Baby Model

Modeling is hard work

Tuesday:

More eyelashes

Sick sickies recovering from the barfs

THIS ONE thinks he’s going to crawl. He is wrong.

Wednesday:

He’s shocked we actually left the house

Check up time!

Jealousy

Thursday:

MOAR NAPZ

MOAR SNOWZ

That splash is Evan

Friday:

Jerk baby sleeping in my spot.

There is SO MUCH I love in this picture

Playing with toys like he’s a real person

Saturday:

Those are hearts. It’s a lot harder than it looks.

Ice skating party with the ice queen

Aaaaaaand we out.

There was another blizzard this morning. I’m starting to feel very Little House on the Prairie – the one where they live in the town and it snows SO MUCH they have to climb out their second floor windows. That is a real possibility if we don’t get a thaw before we get more storms.

The kids are already off Monday/Tuesday for President’s Day and I’m suspicious they will miss Wednesday because of snow. I think I’ll spend the rest of the night googling flights to Florida or Bermuda or California, since if I am trapped in the house like this until April I am going to loose my marbles. This is when orders to Hawaii start looking really, really tempting.

There was a lot of babywearing this week because the weather was bad and we didn’t go many places.

AND THEY JUST CANCELED SCHOOL FOR TOMORROW. Is it spring yet?

Sunday:

My first baby whose head isn’t the least bit flat

All natural teether

GO PATRIOTS

Monday:

Brotherly love

Superbowl hangover

Still loves the neck floaty

Tuesday:

How’s my hair?

2.5 hours like this, while I did ALL the laundry

Good dog Brutus

Wednesday:

Spirit week: Wacky Day

Baby’s First Button Down

Is it clear yet that a) I love back carries and b) I REALLY need a good anti-aging moisturizer?

Thursday:

When you have this much snow, you have to actually REMOVE it, not just plow it.

Spirit Week: Storybook Character Day

My Lego Star Wars game brings all the boys to the yard

Friday:

Spirit Week: Fancy Day

MomFest Rainbow Playdate

OBSESSED

Saturday:

This one is my new favorite

My eyes do that exact same uneven thing

How he is managing to sleep like that I have NO idea

We taught someone else Hand & Foot so now we can play ALL THE TIME.

I am going to finish this, publish it, feed the baby and then go to the grocery store at 9 pm because that sounds way better than going with all 3 kids in the snow tomorrow. Uggggggghhhhhhhhh. Seriously, can it be May now?