Vacation from H***: Part 3

13 years ago my moms family, the Millers, decided to gather everyone up and go on vacation together. We nicknamed it Vacation from Hell (VFH). 5 years later we did it again in 2003. After that, there were a lot of us that were in college and getting married and had so much dragging us in different directions, we never thought we could all get together again. Then last May at my cousin Megan's wedding, everyone kept saying how much they wished we could do another VFH. So the planning began, and of course I jumped in to be in charge. It took a while to get that many people organized but in the end we got 34 out of 39 family members in a 12 bedroom beach house for a whole week.

Bear with me here. There is a lot that happened in that week and it is really hard to condense it down to one blog post.

Our amazing house. Not only did it fit all 34 of us but it was the perfect vacation where you get to stay somewhere that you could never afford in real life.

Our lovely setup at the beach.

My cousin Callie's baby, Knox. The funny thing is that Callie is 6 months older than me, she got married married 4 months before me and now our little guys will be about 7 months apart. We love him so much!!

Lounging in the tent. You can see pastey Ben over on the left and me in a chair (look for the beached whale).

Mom and Margie chatting while watching everyone frolicking.


Girl talk in the ocean with Katie and Kelsey. Veronica was there too, just not in the shot.


Knox and Dane on fajita night.


Larry and Ben (he did not need a fake mustache).


Nolan got a wee bit drunk and we found him upstairs passed out like this. He woke up when I came in to take this picture.


It was Trevor's birthday so some of us went out to celebrate. There are 4 of the children-in-laws, 8 of us grandkids and 4 grandkids-in-law but none of the original Millers. Losers!


Nolan had this shirt made for his mom a while back but she decided to wear it for his birthday.

This was quite the popular game with this family. I am not sure if you can follow the rules but you hit a beach ball back and forth to each other and if you are responsible for hitting the ball out of the fence, you get yelled at ("SEE YA!!!") and made to go get it.

We tie dyed 62 things. Quite the undertaking!

I have a shot of the 3 of us from the first VFH and I figured after 13 years, it was time to update it. Of course, I look humongous next to these two gorgeous ladies.

Night time edition of "See ya". This turned into a crazy night but I am glad I was there to witness (and videotape) it.

On our last night, we had a talent show and everyone wore their tie dye. It was awesome!

The restaurant we ate dinner at our last night. Some people wore their tie dye to dinner and it was people I never expected to ever see in something like that.

The sunrise on the morning we left. So pretty but so sad.

Quite appropriately the road you turn on to get to our house.

I did get a pretty nasty cold on our 2nd day that lasted through the trip, and a sunburn that made me incredibly uncomfortable. This, and being out of routine, concluded with Ben and I coming home with swollen legs and feet. I never realized how awful that could be. Thanks goodness is went away after a couple of days at home.

All in all, it was an amazing trip and we can not wait to repeat it in a few years. I love my huge, crazy family and they are definitely part of what completes me.

(I might be uploading some of our formal pictures we had taken while there, and maybe an incriminating video if the internet cooperates with me. Check back later for those.)