We drove up from Miami to meet my parents along with my sisters (Allison and Kellie) and their families for a reunion at a beach house my parents rented in Stuart, FL. My brother Aaron unfortunately was unable to bring his family and join us due to work demands. We had been to this stretch of Florida years ago during COVID with just Aaron and his family and my parents and ever since then had been wanting to come back as it is unique with beach-front property out one side of the house and river-front property on the other side along the Indian River.
It was a relaxing trip even with four families, nineteen people, including eleven kids under one roof for a week. We spent a lot of time out on the beach.
Derek is flying a kite here, not just striking awesome poses.
Here he is being awesome on one of the cool rocks along the beach. Our beach house for this trip was the yellow one behind him.
Here's a better view of the house behind Karina and Grant.
It was great for the cousins to hang out.
On the river side there was a pool in the shade of all the trees there. August temperatures made this a good spot to cool off.
Derek recreated a Home Alone look wearing the bathrobe after a shower one night and thought he was so awesome.
He continued his awesomeness jumping into the waves.
Cousins relaxing on the porch.
Sometimes, like Miles, relaxing a little too much (I still don't know how or why he decided this was a spa day).
We roasted s'mores along the river one night.
This stretch of the beach is great for shells, so all the cousins made shell art creations with the shells we found.
The waves could get pretty strong.
They even knocked Grandma down and we had a hard time getting her back up (though part of the difficulty may have been everyone including her laughing so hard).
It was relaxing to sit and listen to the waves as the sun set.
Lydia and Brenna had fun together.
The shade of the palm trees helped with the summer heat.
We got to boogie board with the waves. Lydia got pretty good at it.
Tessa, Brenna, Karina, and Ethan digging in the beach sand.
Sunsets were over the river (with the dock) and sunrises were over the ocean. I enjoyed both.
We took lots of pictures during the beautiful sunsets.
Lillian is the newest cousin and has everyone wrapped around her little finger. Lydia prepared a handwritten cursive application to the Lillian Fan Club and presented it to Kellie (Lillian's mom). Kellie thought it was hilarious and gave Lydia immediate admission into the LFC.
Her application reads "Lydia S. Webber has most humbly & nobly requested to join the LFC (Lillian Fan Club). Is this application truly accepted? __Yes __No Sincerely, Lydia, S. Webber"
All eleven cousins that attended.
We took the kayaks out a couple times for exercise and enjoyment paddling along the river. I really enjoyed the chance to get out and felt I got a decent workout or two. I made it down to the gated community portion of the barrier island - there were some nice houses and properties there.
We also tried the water tricycle. This was a lot of work to pedal hard enough to get the wheels to spin fast enough to move through the water.
The kids took the kayaks out too.
Grandma brought some friendship bracelet supplies and the kids had fun tying and making bracelets. Lydia especially got into it and was frequently making a new one.
Tessa and Brenna liked having other girls around and spent some time helping Karina style her hair.
The kids spent some time burying each other in the sand.
One evening, Kellie's husband Spencer alerted us that there was a launch scheduled from Cape Canaveral (about 100 miles north as the crow flies from where we were). We managed to watch the rocket blasting off from our deck and with nothing impeding the view up the coastline, we got some cool pictures. The bright spot is the rocket.
Jumping into the surf.
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