Florida - Thursday already? How can that be?!

Thursday was our favorite day so far.  Check it out and you'll see why.  The day started out dark and rainy with big thunderclouds rolling in and huge waves crashing into the shore.  We thought this was the perfect morning to head over to Seaside to make our annual ornaments.  Miss Betty went with me, Gigi and the three kids.  She was so much help!  J's ornament won, hands down!

 

First, the kids chose their ornaments to paint.  J and L both chose the same shape as last year.



After painting hers pink, we painted her hand purple and made a fish out of her handprint.  Very cool!

His turned out great!  Check out those thumbprint crabs and fish!

U

After painting for about and hour and a half, we hustled back to Santa Rosa Beach to join the rest of our group.  The rain had gone away and the sun was here to stay. 



Maria and Andrew were brave enough to take on the ocean waves in this tiny kayak.  They did good for a little bit and then got smashed by a big wave.  Big props for trying it out, though!



Definitely our most fun beach day so far.  These five guys brought their A game!  Plenty of beer and good times.

My cowboy and our posse.

So cute in their bright suits!

I love how the girls just enjoy their aunts and uncles so much. 

Life's just better at the beach.

Even though it wasn't sunny, we donned our beach hats for a little while.

J man played all afternoon with his two new buddies.  By the end of the day he was covered in sand from head to toe.  The epitome of the Sand Man.

This should be on a postcard for Florida.  Relaxation at it's finest.

Later that afternoon, Adam and Boom played wiffle ball with the kids.  They all took turns hitting into the ocean.  Combining two of his faves, Jackson was in heaven.

Of course, there were more sand castles that needed to be built, too.

After getting all cleaned up, it was time for some family beach pictures.  I think we cleaned up pretty well:)

Me and my beautiful mama.

Gigi and Boom with their three little munchkins.

Good times on his shoulders.

Love it.

Aunts and Uncles with all the kids.

The B204 Crew.

My FAVORITE one of them all!

I'm sure one day these young 'uns will have some rugrats of their own to bring to Florida.

But until then, Lila Lou will soak up as much attention from them as she can get!

We ended the night by going to the Louisiana Lagniappe for dinner.  My mom and Miss Betty were so amazing and offered to watch all 7 kids for us!  Yes, 7 kids.  And we were really grateful.  It was our best Florida meal to date and we had so many good laughs with everyone.  No one asked me to take them to the potty during dinner, I didn't have to get on to anyone for running around or getting under the table and I didn't have to tell anyone to use their inside voice, either.  It was pure greatnesss.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mom, Dad, Betty and Ronnie!

Florida - Wacky Wednesday

Hooray for Wacky Wednesday!

I corraled the fam for a beach picture.  Love these peeps so much.

There was plenty more frisbee, football and water ball play...

as well as some good lounge time for Gigi and Miss Betty.

Madison was back to perfecting her boogie boarding skills, too!

One of the oldest with the youngest.  They played together for a few seconds and then he was back in the water.

 I was so happy to get almost our whole crew for this picture.  We had Uncle Andrew, Aunt Maria, Aunt Lyndsie, Uncle Scott, The Pointer Family, The Hays Family, The Rachavong Family, Gigi and Betty.  I'm pretty sure that the two Ronny's were having a pretty good time at the Boathouse when this was taken.

After all that time in the sun, the kids finally took a snack break in the shade.

After I got Lila down for a nap, I joined Taylor at the big pool to watch Jackson, Presley, Madison and Teagan swim.  It was a little chilly they said, so they kept running to the hot tub.

My guy.

Lila woke up right as we were heading back down to the ocean with everyone.  Uncle Scott was a good sport and escorted Maddie and Teagan out to the big waves.

Lila and Jackson tried their hand at sand castle making.  She really loved the beach SO MUCH MORE when it was cloudy.  And I did see her point.  No sweating, no sun in her face and just a nice breeze to keep us all cool.

More chillaxin' at the beach.

Boom came down for a little bit and went out to boogie board with Madison.

My dad had picked up these fun inner tubes at the store earlier that day, so Jared and I decided to try them out.  We felt a little goofy, but they were perfect!

(This pic is supposed to go after the alligator, but it won't cooperate!)  Our plans got changed a bit when we discovered that our ground beef had not made it through the power outage the night before.  No cheeseburgers for us that night.  We quickly got ready and headed out to Hurricane's instead.  It was another fab day in paradise.



We rinsed off and little Miss Alligator and I went up to the condo to get dinner started.  Cutest little alligator I ever did see.



Florida - Tuesday beach bums

All week we had been plagued by greenish water with tons of seaweed in it.  Tuesday morning we awoke to this clean water, though, and were beyond happy.

These two beach bums were all smiles and so were we.  I worked out early that morning with Hayley then came home and made cinnamon rolls, bacon and eggs.  It was the perfect way to start our fun beach day.



There was more ladder ball...



and digging holes with friends.  I noticed a few little boys that looked close in age to Jackson.  Their parents were sitting right next to us on the beach and so we started chatting.  Turns out two of their boys were ages 6 and 7.  The one to the left of Jackson is 6 years old, plays first base and lives in Frisco.  Perfect!  I was so excited for Jackson to have some boys his age to play with!

By late afternoon, the sun was hiding behind the clouds, which was just fine with us.  It felt awesome!

Taylor was such a trooper and took all three big girls boogie boarding until they had their fill.  Thanks, girl!  The current was really strong that afternoon, so they were fighting against it and the big waves.  Thank goodness we didn't lose a child out to sea:)

J man played some more frisbee with his dad.

And even though he's right-handed and throws a baseball and football right-handed, he throws a frisbee left-handed.  Go figure.  It seemed to work out just fine for him, though!

It didn't take much coaxing to get everyone off the beach and into the showers that night.  Why?  We were headed to one of our very favorite restaurants in Destin.  The Back Porch!!

It worked out perfectly for all of us.  The 10 adults got a table to ourselves, while the kids got their own table.  Genius.

I'm sure these two lovebirds enjoyed it being a litttle less chaotic...

as did the newlyweds:)

The Grandparent crew got the best deal of all with this beautiful window table overlooking the ocean.

I think everyone had a great time.  We walked out that night to music by the Beach Boys--Surfin' USA.  Lila started gettin' down and was cracking everyone up.  Maybe she really is a surfer girl at heart.

Florida - Monday at the Beach

Monday kicked off hot and really humid, but that didn't stop Boom, Jared, Jackson, Price and Adam from going golfing.  They were gone all day, but had a great time.  In fact, out of all the things we did all week, Jackson ranked golfing with the big boys as his #1 activity.  Now that's saying a lot!

While the boys golfed, us girls enjoyed hanging out at the beach.  Sitting in the soft sand, looking at the ocean with two of my very best friends.  Life is good.

Madison was cracking Temple up big time with her silly antics.  She was giving us such hearty belly laughs.  Baby Temple is growing up, too!

Mermaids Ariel and Belle.  Love this kid.

After naptime, the sun went away.  Fine with these two!  They still ran and played like crazy.

My hubby finally made it down to the beach and we had a fun afternoon with everyone.

Jared especially liked playing the roll of the Prince for a certain Mermaid Belle.

Uncle Price dug a huge hole and let the kids take turns falling into it, which they loved.



5:30 at the beach - our favorite time there!  What a crew.



We cooked soft chicken tacos for dinner that night and then headed to the Blue Mountain Creamery for ice cream.  These two monkeys were big fans!

Hooray for ice cream!

Vanilla ice cream with sprinkles for all three. It's the little joys in life that are the best.