maybe i could start here....or there

i don't know were to begin

{eight hundred photos}

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we just got back from an amazing week in seaside, florida. 

it was our first family vacation in five years. 

{college and pesky jobs had gotten in the way until now}

our daughter is engaged. 

we knew the proposal was going to happen while we were beachside, but she had no idea.

we feel so amazingly blessed to be adding this incredible man to our family.

the first sunset of the trip...shot with my lens baby.

our daughter's fiancé is so talented. just look at how he captured the sun for her.

our son on the other hand, decided he would try to eat it.

another lens baby photo

the cottage we rented this trip was perfect. 

four bedrooms. three and a half baths. five huge porches. four screened.

one with a fireplace. it was heavenly.

i couldn't resist sharing this photo. i have no idea what they were talking about, but i love that i caught a candid shot, which is hard to do in a house filled with adults.

here's our son again, with his beautiful girlfriend.

the "four kids" literally played the entire week.

first jumping shot of the week. 

here are two fun loving girls from ohio, who asked, "why the jumping shots" after they saw me taking jumping shots of another family on the beach. i told them it's just what i do. 

they said they would love to jump for me and wow, did they ever.

the first water activity for the kids was yolo boarding, otherwise known as

stand up paddle boarding or you only live once.

our daughter's fiancé was given the "hardest board" to use and he spent just as much time in the water as he did standing up...but he was determined to master it....and he finally did.

the rest of them made it look terribly easy...in a way that i thought "i could do that,"

but unfortunately i don't love the ocean "way out there." 

instead i like the first two feet of ocean, where the little kids play.

here's my hubby taking a kayak out to see the kids. he's pretty much a kid himself.

and after going into the ocean with his iphone in his pocket {something we had worried one of the kids would do} well, case and point.

~

i hope you can handle a few more beach photos over the next week or so....there's just so many that are dear to me and i really want to share them with all of you.

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