WW: Annual Vacation Shirts!

Every year, I design t-shirts for our annual family vacation and we all wear them as we drive down to the Outer Banks.  It's an obnoxious tradition that we adore.

This year, however?  Things are... different.

Well, for one, we're not going to OBX.  We've decided to stay local and head to Ocean City, NJ.  We used to vacation in OCNJ all the time, but for the past 9 or so years, we have enjoyed heading down to the fabulous beaches of Corolla, NC.  And honestly?  You can't beat the gorgeous houses. But this year, however, there aren't as many family/friends going for various reasons, so we decided to stay local.  And, while I'll miss OBX tremendously, I have to admit that I'm really looking forward to the one hour drive to OC with 3 kids as opposed to 7-9 hours {depending on traffic & bathroom/food stops} to get to OBX. {Mamas, are you with me on that?? I thought so.}

So, yeah.  We have a change of scenery this year, less people going {17 as opposed to 28, give or take a kid} but, obviously, the biggest and most heart-breaking change of all is...

My dad won't be there.

This is our very first family vacation without him.  It hurts my heart to think about him not being there to collect shells with the kids, cook pancakes in the morning, jump waves with Carter, eat Pringles on the beach... hurts. my. heart.

So, yeah. We thought a change of vacation-scenery might do us some good this year.  We'll see.

With all that change, I questioned whether or not we should even do our family t-shirts this vacation.  When I brought it up to my family, they thought about it too and together we came to the conclusion that... yes, of course we should keep up this tradition. Not only for us, but for the kids.  They love having matching t-shirts and they wear them proudly. And so do we.  Why not continue something that makes us happy?

So, with that, here are the shirts...

Did you notice the wave? =)  My sisters and I just didn't feel right leaving my dad off the shirt this year, so we wanted him to know that he's still with us... always.  The quote, obviously from Finding Nemo, has been somewhat of our motto this year.  Just keep swimming.  It also works well for the beach though too, right? The hashtag is just a little stupid inside joke.  We think we're funny. ;)

So there you have it... our annual family t-shirt. We leave this Saturday and we can't wait! Vacation can't come soon enough for this family. We need it.

<center> <a href="http://www.jennifromtheblog.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i44.tinypic.com/2jae260.png" /></a></center