While Kelly Ripa contemplates a completely empty nest in the not-too-distant future, the former soap opera star also remembers when she was in the throws of raising her tribe. On Thursday, the co-host of Live with Kelly and Ryan visited the past by sharing an Instagram snap of her growing family, circa 2001.
The crew was visiting Hawaii, and, going by the look on her kin’s good-looking faces, they were loving America’s paradisiacal 50th state.
While there, the New Yorkers took time to document their trip, with Kelly presumably taking the picture featuring her husband, Mark Consuelos , and two of her three children. Michael is now 22-years-old, and Lola is 18-years-old. Their third child, Joaquin, now 16-years-old, hadn’t been born yet.
At the time of their Hawaiian vacation, Mark was about 28-years-old and Kelly was about a year older than her spouse. His raven-colored hair was styled into a high crew cut, while Lola’s locks, which were light brown, had not yet grown in all the way. Michael sported a classic bowl cut, which looked really cute as he offered a sweet smile for the photographer.
The young boy rocked a traditional Hawaiian shirt, while his sister wore a romper made of a print that was reminiscent of her brother’s button-up top and matching shorts. He had on black-and-white sneakers while she seemed to have foregone any footwear. Mark wore a short-sleeved t-shirt as he crouched down to kid level. To complete his casual look, the former All My Children star wore brown sandals.
The lush background for this throwback photo told the tale of Hawaii’s allure. Manicured step gardens had been groomed and were flourishing as palm trees swayed very close to what appeared to be the sea.
Kelly’s 2.7 million followers were quick to take note of her latest Instagram post; within less than 20 minutes, more than 15,600 people clicked “like” on the post while nearly 200 folks commented on the update.
Some used emoji to indicate how they felt about Kelly’s most recent social media share, while others wrote words.
“Ohhhhh. The babies! So much cute!!” gushed one follower, who add a red heart emoji.
“I’m genuinely surprised you two don’t have 15 children,” stated a second admirer.
“OMG this is so sweet!!! Dem babies!!!” exclaimed a third Instagram user, before adding a heart-eye face emoji.
“You need to go back & recreate this picture. I’m sure the kids wouldn’t fight you on it,” suggested a fourth fan.
