Family Beach Trip 2012

This past week was the much anticipated Annual Dorr/Byrd Family Beach Trip. Weeks before the trip, Kenny and I had packed, made our list of things we wanted to do and places we wanted to eat, and in our minds we were already in Florida driving down 30A. We drove down one afternoon and 12 hours, 4 stops, and 3 packs of Orbit gum later, we arrived in Birmingham. (Blowing bubble competitions can be thrilling and take up more time than you ever imagined.)We had about 24 hours in Birmingham before we headed to the beach. Kenny went to Ozark to see his parents and I stayed back in Birmingham to see 5 of my friends I hadn't seen in for-e-verrrr. It was good to see my sweet friends. It's hard though because it makes leaving that much harder. Anywhooo, the next morning we headed out for the beach! I don't even know how to describe how  the trip was. It would take a novel to tell you everything we did, so just trust me when I say it was awesome. My family has changed a lot in the last two years, two new family members (3 if you count Chaco:) ), we live in another state, Jake is moving to another state, Julia is one year away from graduating, and it has just been a huge time of transition. It has been weird for my family because we are really close; but this week was perfect for us to just focus on the 9 of us, together under one roof, and simply enjoy one another. And that is just what we did.

 

It took us all of two minutes to unload the cars, put on a swim suit and head to the pool. We spent hours taking underwater pictures, laughing and playing. We picked up right where we left off. Luke and Jake took over the role as family comedians and made us laugh all week long. Enjoy a video of them below. 

It wouldn't be a family beach trip if we didn't play hours of volleyball. So we set up the net wherever we could find a spot and pretended we were competing for the gold in London.

 One night we went into Panama City for a little karaoke. We googled a place that we could go as a family and we pulled up to this hole in the wall. All 15 people there were like family, calling the waitresses by name and singing with them. We were obviously the outsiders, but we were fine with it. Nothing breaks the ice and says, 'thank you for letting us sing too'  like some Chris Brown, so that is exactly what we did. I think it really brightened the mood considering everyone else was singing slow, sad country songs.

 

Two days were rainy so we decided to make a family music video. We had such a blast making it and if you haven't seen it, here it is below. And even if you have seen it, watch it again. This might be my only chance at getting Taylor Swift to notice me/see that we could be best friends.

Someone once told me my family is like a vortex. We get sucked into our own little world and I realized she was totally right. We do our own thing and have a blast doing it. We are too loud, we have no problem  acting like fools around others, we'd rather be together as a family than anything else and that's just how it has always been. We speak our own language, we are talking 24/7 on group chat and we are probably too involved in each others personal lives, but I wouldn't have it any other way!

All that to say, it was a wonderful, crazy, action packed, and yet somehow relaxing week. Kenny and I are suffering from post beach depression right now; our minds and our hearts are in Seaside, FL. Next summer's beach trip has never felt so far away! 

I hope everyone is having a great summer, who is excited that football season is 28 days away??

RTR