And it's over...

Vacations are always too short, aren't they? We arrived back home about 1am this morning, but had a wonderful 10 days with the Bells and Harveys! After the nasty weather on the way down, the rest of the time was really nice. Not too hot, but pretty comfortable. Yay! :)

Our annual "1st pic of the beach" photo-op. 

We didn't do anything touristy this year really, but we did have a couple of new experiences. First, we rented a pontoon boat and spent half a day cruising the waters and checking out the sea life. I don't know why, or how to explain it really, but I hafta tell ya...the pontoon boat was one of the most relaxing things, lol! About half way through our boat ride, I could have curled right up on the floor and napped. The rest of afternoon I was just as sleepy. It was really nice though. We didn't see a ton of sea life, but we did see dolphins and lots of fish, and we docked at a little island and strolled around for a bit. All in all, a great day!

Most of our group, as we took off for the day. Tracy was navagatin' and Scott was photoggin'. :)

The most relaxed I've seen the hubs in a loooong time.

Dolphins!! :D

The other new experience we had was finding a new restaurant. I know that doesn't sound noteworthy, but it was absolutely incredible! So much so that even though we went on Thursday, we delayed our trip yesterday to eat there again before heading home! Meg O'Malley's is an Irish restaurant and pub in Melbourne, and I can easily say that it's my new favorite restaurant ever. Sucks that we will only visit it once a year, but it's so freaking good we would plan an entire vacation around eating there, lol! We all had something different both times we visited, and we sampled pub fare such as Bangers and Mash, Shepherd's Pie, Fish and Chips and more. Sooooooo good.

The kiddos, waiting for their food more patiently than the adults were. :D

The hubs and I, and the "Wall of Guinness." He giggled like a little child... ;)

We also celebrated a birthday while we were down there. Q turned 15! We had dinner at Longhorn's, and a Walmart cake at 10:00 at night. Do we know how to party or what?

There are hundreds of photos I need to sort through, and I really, really, REALLY hope I actually get to them and post some before Christmas. Now, it's back to reality. Work, school, soccer and summer stuffs!

The boys technically school year round, but it's lighter in the summer. We are pretty much on our summer schedule as of this week. Lighter T4L, a summer program from VSC to keep their spelling sharp (games like definition match are fun practice for both spelling and vocabulary), and Bailey's reading about some summer activities for teens over at LHSHS.com. Braeden is also going to play around with a new homeschool science curriculum for elementary grades. Neither of the boys can have too much science, lol.

OMG...speaking of science...we just found out that BOTH Adam aaaaaand Jamie, from Mythbusters, will be at Dragon*Con this year!!!!!!! We all squealed like we'd lost our minds when we heard this. The boys met Adam a couple of years ago, and it was most definitely a Con highlight for them. Jamie doesn't really do public outings like that, so to say they are excited is a huge understatement.

Now I've rambled. It's because I'm stalling. Heh. I hate unpacking, just as much as I hate packing. Gah! Ok, off to try and be responsible. Try. TRY. ;)