Every year Sully’s family goes on vacation together, and this year was bigger than ever: 25+ people in one house for a week, including 12 kids under 12. :O

I was SO excited but also a bit daunted, especially with being 34 weeks pregnant and remembering the traumatic ending of the last vacation. But it turned out to be a blast. Since I’m not posting as often these days, I decided to cram all the best photos into one post. Read on for plenty of cute kids and fun adventures!

One of the things I was most excited about was flying for the first time! I haven’t been on an airplane since I was too young to remember. All in all the flights went well, though the first one was pretty delayed. I got to hold my SIL’s newborn for part of the time both ways. ❤ There was a GORGEOUS sunset on the way there, but sadly I didn’t have a window seat so… no pictures. 😦 I got some cloud pics on the way home though! I see why people hate airports, but it was also quite fun and exciting!

After a late night and cramming 6 people into a 5-passenger car because of a rental issue, we made it to Florida. The house (the same sort of place we stayed last year) had a backyard pool that got used a TON.

Sully prefers ocean swimming to pools, so he just sat by the side and read… until someone squirted him with a water gun and he retreated inside, haha.

My SIL Meredith (who is also pregnant – with twins!) stayed by the pool for hours and hours with her water-loving kids. Megan and Harrison helped their nieces with a “chicken fight” which was quite entertaining.

The progression of battle. I love the last shot.

Sheridan and Eleanor joined in for a triple fight.

Love this picture! Caroline, Megan, and Harrison performed an impressive feat.

We also went to the resort pool on occasion, but I wasn’t allowed to take pictures with my camera, sadly. I got one just before we went through the gates (bottom photo).

We also spent a lot of time inside the huge house – playing games and video games, crafting, and reading books. Isn’t this photo precious? Nana Joy and some of her grandkids. ❤

I kept my camera lying around and let other people use it, so some of these pictures are from Megan and Sheridan! I think Megan took these and they are some of my favorites.

Some of the “grown up kids” just chilling.

One of the highlights of vacation, for the girls at least, was a fun craft table where we spent many hours making bracelets, coloring, and drawing.

Megan came up with the idea to start an “art gallery” of all the pieces we drew. And I got a picture of some of the many bracelets we created. Megan and I made a couple for our husbands too, hehe.

Sweet Ellanie ready for some lunch.

It was tricky to plan this vacation in between pregnancies, since three SILs (including me) were pregnant this year! Michelle brought her 4-week old baby along which I think is so impressive, my goodness. Baby Emery was the star of some super sweet pictures and cousin interactions. ❤

I had fun reading to some of my nephews. Ft. a pool ponytail and necklaces my nieces made me (including one that says “BFF” ❤ ).

Harrison brought his guitar for the talent show we had one night. Sadly no pictures from that, but it was epic! He also serenaded us at random times. I think Megan took these. 😉

On July 11th we of course had to visit the local 7-11 for free Slurpees with some of the older cousins. We also enjoyed ice cream sandwiches and, for “those with more refined taste” as the Alexanders like to put it, yummy ice cream every night. It’s not an Alexander vacation without daily ice cream!

One evening Sheridan put together a glow night at the pool! It made for some cool photos.

The long exposure shots didn’t look quite as epic as I hoped for, but I did get a couple of neat ones.

Remembering the prevailing sickness last year, Sully formed a Cleaning Club with the kids. 😛 They had a blast running around spraying rooms with soap and water. Unfortunately, Sheridan and Sully both got a fever during vacation anyway. 😦 But it was a vast improvement over everyone getting the stomach bug.

Every family takes a turn making supper for the whole crew on these vacations. Megan and Harrison made a DELICIOUS meal of lemon butter chicken with rice, green beans, Mediterranean salad, and homemade rolls. Harrison contributed kneading power for the latter and got many compliments on his house-husband skills. 😛

Another thing that kept the kids occupied for hours was these sand kits! Kind of like kinetic sand but a bit stickier. Super fun to mold and play with.

Two sweet blond-haired brothers. ❤

The little boys get along so well; it was so cute to watch them play together.

Henry was deep in concentration for his sand fortress or whatever he was making.

Aww, I love these shots. Jensen and Jonas talked and waved to Ellanie through the glass door and it was adorable.

One of my top favorite pictures from the entire vacation! THE CUTENESS.

A few last phone pictures and adventures. A slightly weird selfie of Sully and I at the resort pool, Ellanie “reading” Goodnight Moon, and our epic Disney adventure! Almost everyone went to Disney Springs one night and then took the bus to the resort section.

We wandered through various places, finally making it to the Contemporary Resort, where we watched the fireworks show from DisneyWorld from the balconies.

After trying out more free modes of Disney transportation, it was getting very late. On the bus ride home, a bunch of the kids fell asleep and had to be carried back to the car by four strong uncles. Honestly this is one of my favorite memories from the trip. It was almost too cute to handle.

Phew, that’s a wrap! I left out some pictures and adventures, but we covered a good amount of the trip I think. I adore the Alexander family and it’s always fun to spend time with them. Thank you, Tim and Joy, for such a wonderful vacation!

Have you ever gotten free Slurpees? Or had a pool chicken fight? 😛

***Allison***

P. S. Most of these photos were taken with my Nikon D7200 camera and a 35mm lens. Edited with Lightroom.