Ryser Family Vacation

At the beginning of June the whole Ryser family went on the most fun vacation!  We went to a Club Med resort in Florida.  We just hung out with each other, swam, and ate.  We really had a fabulous time.  Every evening after dinner they had a little show or activity in the main courtyard.  The kids loved to dance to the music they played on the speakers.  It never got old to them!

Brooke was often found holding Stacy's darling baby boy Gavin.  She's pretty much the Gavin hog, and she's proud of it.

In the day time they had a kids' club by age group.  All the kids (except for maybe the three and under kids) LOVED going to kids' club.  They could do archery, swim, go sailing, roller blade, do different sports, and they even had a circus tent complete with a tight rope and a trapeze.

Here's Anna taking her turn.

And Brooke doing the same.

Most days in kids' club they also practiced for a show that they would put on as part of the nightly entertainment.  It was so fun to see what they had prepared.  I was impressed with the cool backdrops, props, and even costumes they had for the "shows." This is from the Pirate Show they did one night.

After the Pirate Show they served these fancy juice drinks, which the little ones enjoyed immensely.  It was SO HOT in Florida.  I think we were constantly thirsty.

Aunt Whitney giving Brooke a post-swimming hairdo right before heading to dinner.

This is most of the family waiting for the trapeze show to begin one night.

This show had the Club Med trapeze performers PLUS some of the guests who could actually do a trapeze maneuver worth watching.  This is Mark's sister Becca who was really good at her trapeze move! Go Becca! And luckily she looked good in the unitard.

Whitney and Luke.

Jaime and Michael.

One afternoon the kids did the cutest Hip Hop Show.  This is Ty during the boys' number from their group.

Lainie and Ellie.  Cute pink hats!

I love these pictures of Anna, Brooke and Alexis doing their hip hop dance.  Their camo pants and hats were glittery too.

This is the "Sandbar"where the kids (well, all of us) could get as many fruit daiquiris as we wanted.  They had, I think, six flavors and the kids were in heaven trying them all many times a day.  At least the kids' servings were really small.  They would also get pretzels and Goldfish to snack on between meals.  It was a nice set up because it was right next to the pool.  I can't believe I didn't get any pictures swimming because that's mostly what we did.

It was so nice in the day because we'd sign the kids into Kids' Club and then the adults would spend the morning at the pool chatting, swimming, and playing water volleyball.  Then we could go to a late lunch alone and have a peaceful, kid-free lunch.  We'd usually sign the kids out at about 2 or 3 and then swim some more with them.

One night after dinner they had a scavenger hunt activity.  Our kids came in second.  It was quite a lot of fun.  There were lots of items the kids were supposed to find around the resort like red lipstick, fake eyelashes, a CD, a plane ticket, etc.  Our kids were really creative because one of the things they were supposed to bring back to the judges was a flag from a foreign country.  All of the workers there at Club Med were called "G.O.'s" and they wore name tags with their country of origin on them.  Our kids borrowed a pin from one of the G.O.'s, which I probably wouldn't have thought of.  They were also supposed to find "something with Sponge Bob on it." We had nothing with Sponge Bob on it (for good reason), so the kids decided to call their team "The Sponge Bobs." There was a place to write your team name at the top of the scavenger hunt list.  They got credit for it and got the award for most creative team name! They got beat by one or two points.  They each won this mini paint set.

Did I say there was lots of dancing at Club Med and the kids loved it?

This is Alexis, Brooke, and Anna with Dwight and Jason who were two of the leaders for their kids' club group.  These girls adored Dwight and Jason.  They were a couple of really good guys.  If you'd see them at the pool with their group, each of them would be guaranteed to have five kids hanging on them at all times! They put up with it and made the day so fun for the kids.  The girls were sad to say goodbye to them.

The very last night they had a circus show.  Garrett and Michael were clowning around waiting for the show to start.  They kept doing somersaults over and over again on the gym mats.  Garrett's whole head was soaked with sweat.

The circus show was adorable! All the kids had a part in it.  The G.O.'s who were trained to do some real circus tricks were in the show too.  Here is Ellie getting ready to do her somersault with a little help.

Aren't the clown costumes adorable, albeit a bit short?  It's kind of a one size fits all deal but cute nonetheless.

Me and Anna after the circus show.  We had a really nice trip.  What a treat to get to spend a whole week with our fun cousins and family.  The kids talk about that trip and how badly they want to go back all the time.  It was a really fun resort and a perfect place to spend an vacation with extended family  Thank you Ralph and Sue!!!