suzy: St. Pete Beach Vacation

The Stark boys- Paul, Eric, Dylan, and Tommy

We spent our Spring Break in St. Petersburg Florida with Eric's family. We had a fantastic week despite some pretty rotten circumstances. We arrived on Saturday after a ten hour drive. That wouldn't be so bad if we weren't expecting to get there in 8 hours. We have the lovely Georgia DOT tp thank who thought shutting down 4 lanes on 75 for construction was a good idea for the morning departure of spring breakers. I didn't care too much though. We were in Beth's Lexus and the kids were perfect the whole way.

After 2 days of listening to Jack wine and cry and complain we realized he wasn't well. We took him to the doctor and he had strep throat and mild pneumonia in hhis lungs. Eric and I quicly felt guilty for the verbal abuse we had distributed over the last 48 hours. We thought he was just being difficult. The next morning, Kaitlin ran a fever so we took her to the docotr and she had strep also. Long story short, we spent the firt 4 days in a condo with sick kids. The weather was nice, but we couldn't really do much so that bummed me out. There was another minor incovenience. The condo next to us was under construction and we listened to a guy drill wholes in the floor for 4 days!!! FOUR DAYS of drilling. Yes, do you understand how annoying that is? Two sick kids...on a beach....stuck inside a vibrating condo with nowhere to go. Uhhhhhh!

Regardless of this we managed to have a pretty good time just hanging out and seeing his dad, step-mom, and brothers (Dylan, 14, and Tommy, 9). It was so nice to be on the water (thank you grandma Stark for letting us stay in your condo!), and it was really nice to not worry about the daily grind and just BE with my family.

But most importantly (hehe), I enjoyed having one picture perfect moment after another. I was very pleased with the pictures considering how little I took compared with other vacations. I wish I had the time to edit and post ALL of the pictures....especially the ones of the whole family playibg football.

Tommy and Jack

My kids FINALLY feeling better!!! By the way...these pictures in not in order. They did not feel better until Thursday. This was our last day.

Jack...chillin'

Kaitlin...not feeling well....in a daze on the beach

Kaitlin posing for the camera....being her usual, goofy self.....gotta love her!

Jack receiving much needed advice from Dylan on the game of football

My brother in law Dylan, the heart-throb

This picture just screamed black and white!

Can you even believe this sunset? Rediculous. God is so beautiful. You can tell by the pictures he paints. I don't know about you but almost nothing makes me feel as good as watching the sunset on the beach with my family. Watching the sun go down is a spiritual event for me.

Sir cuteness...bein' cute. Gosh I love his red hair!!

Dylan and Kaitlin with our niece Hollis. There will be a whole Hollis montage posted tomorrow. I just did not have time today. I took so many pictures of this child I think she was scared of me. I couldn't help myself. Everyone who knows me knows how much I love little bitty people!

The birds...oh the BIRDS! Eric and I could not get over the birds on front of the condo. It was like a concert of birds all day. They stalk you and bicker at each other all day long. We loved watching them. At one point Eric and the kids brought bread out to the beach to feed them. After one throw....they learned that they were in grave danger. A thousand birds were COVERING my family. All I could do was laugh and grab my camera. And as luck would have it, my battery died right as I went to snap the moment. I was SO mad. It was hysterical to watch my husband and kids hide in a panic under a 2 ft umbrella while a thousand angry birds tried to eat them! Jack got a big kick out of chasing them away.

How cute are they? This was Friday when Jack was better but he still wore out quickly. Do you have any idea how many times I applied sunscreen to this child? I was a nervous wreck that he would burn with that skin. We spent all day Friday on the beach. It was wonderful.