Kruger/Lindauer Beach Trip

I have such amazing memories of the trips Maw took our entire family on years before she passed.  I do not know many people who have been fortunate enough to go on vacation with their entire extended family.

It has been about 7 years since we took a family trip like that. But thankfully, my Aunt Kathy planned a trip this summer for us all to be together again.  Of course in the last 7 years, we have grown by 10 kids and a few more spouses.... and the 8 that came before that are all a lot older, and going to camps and involved in activities so it was much harder to find dates that worked for everyone--but Kathy did her best. And everyone that was able to make it, came to Port A! It's funny because we all (with the exception of two cousins and and one set of Aunt/Uncle all live in Austin and we see each other often) but we were all so excited to see each other for an extended time with nothing to do but hang out together.

She found this amazing 10 bedroom house to sleep 27 of us... 4 people (2 couples) stayed at the hotel that was just across the parking lot from the house.

We were the first to arrive, but everyone trickled in quickly and got settled in. I made buckets for all the kids for when they arrived with their names on them and had them all laid out on the living room table.

The boys just could not wait and got changed, and they jumped in the pool within a few minutes of getting there. More cousins joined in as they got there. We had 10 little kids (9 boys and 1 girl). We had our own pool in the backyard!!

We spent the first afternoon hanging out at the house and getting settled in. We went swimming, played shuffle board, ping pong, and chose our bedrooms and unpacked.

We ordered pizza and salad for dinner and then we all headed out to check out the beach. The house was just a tad too far for us all to walk back and forth to the beach, so we rented a golf cart for the weekend which ended up being a lifesaver!

It was really amazing to see all the kids there together, playing, loving each others company.  Just to be able to spend that much time with everyone was truly magical. I kinda felt like my heart was going to explode the whole weekend.
This is by far one of my favorite pictures my cousin Zach took on the first day....

I know it doesn't look like much, but to see these two deep in conversation, and to see the look on Eli's face just melts my heart. I know exactly what they are talking about---fishing....and I know Eli was absolutely loving it. He told me the other day that he was "soooo lucky because Pop loves to fish."
We also got to catch other moments like these...my Uncle Danny holding Eli hostage, no doubt, and the look on Kathy's face when we convinced her to take a shot of the last bit of vodka in the bottle.

Of course we were some of the first awake every morning, so we spent the early mornings outside to try and let everyone else sleep despite the boys loud voices and running around.

Our afternoons were spent down at the beach. Every one kinda came and went throughout the day as it worked for their kids schedules. Friday morning Blaine and 4 other guys went fishing for the day and caught our dinner for that night.

The buckets were a huge hit, and all the boys were catching little fish and crabs and making their own little ecosystems within the buckets. Eli did not put his net down for one minute!

Between trips to the beach, we did a whole lot of hanging around and laughing at the house together, which was just as much fun! There was not one minute that the kids were not playing and having fun together!

We had a huge puzzle out on the table that everyone helped with the whole weekend.

All the little boys got together and formed their very first club--The Fishing Club.  Eli was the leader, Owen was the 2nd founding member, just behind Eitan. They made membership cards and passed them out.

They held their first meeting Friday night on the back porch, where they had their first speaker, Noah, who described, in detail, the account of the fishing trip out on the boat earlier that day.

My dad had promised my boys that he would take them fishing again on this beach trip. Word got around and instead of it just being my dad and the boys, it turned out to be a lot bigger group....the entire Fish Club came.

It was great having our own private pool. We certainly took advantage of it and you can't beat the convenience of it!

Our last night there, we had an amazingly delicious meal made by Jared and Brian at the house. It was a nice, low-key, relaxing (well, relatively speaking) evening.
Jared made up a story for some of the boys before bed time that they all loved before heading off to bed.

All the "adults" sat around and had some boring serious debate...

And we capped off the night with a little game of Cards Against Humanity with my parents and Aunt and Uncle...they learned a few new things that night....tons and tons of laughs were had that night!

My heart was really so full the entire weekend. I am so blessed and fortunate to be a part of this family. My wish is that all these little kiddos, and those that were not able to make it, stay close as they go through life together and have each other to lean on.