"I Never Thought I'd Ever Say..."

This lovely bunch of coconuts, ladies and gentlemen, is the clan of children, blessed upon myself and my husband's siblings and spouses.  Six boys and four girls ranging in age from 7 to 17 months old.  I will introduce them (starting from the top left):  Declan, Bella, Taylor, Atalia, Connor, Owen, Cole, Josiah and Ruth and Liam sitting up front.  My husband has 3 siblings the oldest only 2 years older than himself.  His saintly mother birthed 4 kids in 3 years:  The two girls first, just a year apart from one another and then, a true "cherry on the cupcake," a set of twin boys the following year.  This made for all four of them  marrying and then having kids within a relatively short span of time.

Our family has been vacationing together every summer since 2008.  Every year we take a photo, much like this one, to help document our growing family.

Vacation 2013.

The day of pictures is a sweet madness we do out of love for our children and a need to see ourselves dressed up, maybe even with our hair and makeup done, in a photograph, annually.  (Something about a nice family photo that says "Oh, we have our shit together!")  The family always tends to draw lots of attention when we take these photos.  This past summer a neighbor who lived next to our vacation house overheard the bustling crew outside and offered to take the big family photo for us.  The year prior to that we stopped in the White Mountains in NH alongside a scenic area and a small crowd watched us take the photos and showered us with compliments about how lovely our family is (and how my brother in law was wearing shorts instead of jeans and was throwing everything off)....Sorry Eric I had to!

Vacation 2012

At any rate, this article is not about our collection of family photos.  The vacations we take each year have come to be a place and a time where we reconnect and reflect on our family and our children.  Vacations, as I mentioned before, were born in 2008.  There were only 2 babies in the family at that time.

Family Photo 2008

In 2009 there were 4 babies.  Two of them (Bella and Taylor) were weeks old (if that)!  2009 was a special vacation because it was our last one spent with my late Mother In Law, Mary.  She died just a few short weeks after our vacation of Breast Cancer at the age of 51.

Vacation 2009

She's a woman I feel robbed of my time with to teach me the best of woman and motherhood alike.  A woman whose absence is felt by everyone in her family....a lot of the time.  She will undoubtedly be the topic of many future articles so I won't digress to deeply here.

On that vacation in 2009, as we were absorbing what we knew would be our last few months with her physically in our worlds, we tried our best to keep it together.  We chased the 2 boys around, took them mini-golfing, moms were up all night nursing newborns, battling mastitis and the adults did our best to not step on each other's toes.  In the midst of the chaos and the heaviness, two very significant memories were born on this vacation.  One was quite cruel and is detailed below.  The other is of my sister in law, Renee, mom to Cole and then newborn Bella, yelling out "Cole!  We do not put chicken in our diaper!" as the kids chowed down on McDonald's one afternoon.  Maybe because of the tension and emotion trying hard to weigh us all down or maybe because it just really is that funny, we broke out in hysterical laughter. Only two couples on this vacation had children so, admittedly, the two couples without kids lacked the real understanding of why that conversation was so funny. It was hilarious nonetheless as we listened to the other parents list example after example of things they had said in a moment of panic, frustration or confusion then stopped afterward to ponder the words that just came out of their mouths.  'Why was it necessary to just declare that?'And there began the first conversation of "Things I Never Thought I'd Ever Have to Say..." (which, co-incidentally, is the title we have agreed upon should this collection of obnoxious declarations ever be published as a Coffee Table book).  Eventually with all four couples blessed with those lovely kids you see up top we still don't quite know why we have to exclaim the things you will read below, but we know, after ten kids, that they are said often and repeatedly.  On the one hand we wonder if we've collectively lost our minds.  On the other its a healthy and much needed validation that our kids are normal and our parenting, well, decent at least ;)

Note*  This will be an ongoing collection.  What you see here are but a few examples.  Myself and my three sisters and brothers in law will have rights to add to this post whenever they are able.  I will re-post as new "Never Thought I'd Evers" are added.   As often as possible we use photos of our actual children for these.  


The "YOU CAN'T EAT THAT" Series

I mean, really? caught on film eating a pine cone.
This is one to keep handy for his future girlfriends.  

 "We do not eat pine cones." 

Although, with a face like that, why not eat some sand?  

"Or Sand." 










                      

                                                                                                       

The "YOU CAN'T DO THAT" Series

JUST the way it looks....-_-

"You CANNOT push your brother off of the coffee table!"  











"Do NOT run over the baby with your PowerWheel."

Two kids never looked like they were up to LESS good on a
PowerWheel. Declan's wearing nothing but his underwear
and Atalia is drinking!  Our family rebels right here folks.

  












                                                                
                                   
                                         

The "YOU CAN'T FIT THERE" Series

Nope.  Not gonna fit in there, Liam.  

Why do they think they can fit into things like this?  Or, maybe it's just my kids...hmmmmmm.

*_* Really?

SOMETIMES THE ADULTS ARE TO BLAME

"WHY IS THE BABY ON THE ROOF?!" 

image courtesy of geekologie.com 

This was the cruel memory that came out of 
Family Vacation, 2009 except, well, Cole really was on
the roof.  It was a skylight overlooking the kitchen.  It had a VERY SAFE balcony and a deck surrounding it.  Eric took Cole and lifted him so only his little, baby head could be seen through the skylight.  He thought it would make Renee laugh. -_- Needless to say, it ended up not being very funny in the moment.  In hindsight we all find it quite hilarious.  But this is a statement we felt confident we would never have to yell out again...Until Declan and Tali were born.  

Uncle Joel and Uncle Nathan hard at work confusing our
children on the concept of flight. 

"No, you can't fly on your 
own.  Only when your uncles are throwing you..."

"No, you cannot jump off of the train like your Auntie!" 


The photo to the left is one of some of the family (on our 2012 vacation) at StoryLand in New Hampshire.  This smiling picture was taken just moments after we boarded the train and began snacking on some apples and juice boxes.  During this time we were given clear and concise rules and expectations to be followed by all passengers aboard the StoryLand Express.  One of those expectations was that no one, for any reason, should exit the moving train.  Well, mere minutes later, after an angry toddler (Declan) threw his sippy-cup from the train, Auntie Renee (way up front looking back at the camera) decided to leap rebelliously from the moving train to rescue said sippy-cup. Yyyyup.  Stopped the train. Lectured by the "Conductor."  Her 3 year old screaming "MOOOMMMY!  DON'T GO!" as she rolls 007 style onto the lawn. Forty-five people staring at her as she stood in the grass waiting for permission to re-board the train.  Conductor, quite literally, yelling into his radio-speaker at her:  "WE DO NOT JUMP OFF OF TRAINS! DID YOU NOT HEAR THE RULES?!" I'll never forget her standing there, holding that sippy-cup and, after his loud lecture via speakerphone was over, looking hesitantly at us all and asking "so, am I allowed back on the train?"  And an elderly couple whispering to her "Maybe you better just get in the back honey."  Oh my, I do love this vacation. The memories we make.................

A very pregnant, Me, and a very curious Declan asking,
"I jump like auntie Ney?!" 

Meanwhile, two days later on an ACTUAL train....













STAY TUNED to this post folks.  It can only get better from here. As always, Thanks for reading <3

-K