Florida - Beach Olympics

                       We had high hopes for Thursday, but woke up to double red flags again.  

Oh well!  We can still play at the beach!

The girls stayed busy playing in the sand...

doing some cartwheels and other tricks.

Cami made more sand cupcakes...

and Jackson played with his beach bud, Brayden.

 Jackson and Lila played ball with their daddy.

The sun peeked it's head out every now and then, just long enough for us to think that it was going to stay!

We talked it over and decided that it was finally time to have the Beach Olympics.  Jackson had been literally begging for it all day long--I think the real Olympics inspired him to compete...as if he wasn't already competitive enough:)

We had the Sharks vs. Pirates.  Argh!

Baby Matthew was all smiles watching his sisters compete against one another.

Each family came up with one event.  The bean bag toss into crab nets was our first event.  

Go Jackson!

The Crab Walk was next--it was close, but the Pirates won that one, too.

Cameron had finally been won over by the sand--so much so that she wanted nothing more than to keep playing during the games:)

The Sand Bucket Relay was the third event.

Go Finley!  The Pirates won that one, too!

Water Gun Relay was our next event.  And it was worth double points.

Although the pirates tried hard, they lost this event. 

The score was 3-2 going into the Wheelbarrow Race.  The stakes were high!  It was close, but the Pirates beat the Sharks.

All ten kids tried their best, though, and we were proud of them!  

The Pirates were pumped to take home their trophies, though.  

We all went to dinner together that night at Hurricane's--yummy food and more fun with our friends.  We sat on the covered patio and watched the USA women gymnasts win big once again.  Go USA!!!

Florida - Washout Wednesday

On Wednesday morning, we woke up and the tide had turned.  There were double red flags, indicating it wasn't safe to get in the ocean--the waves were really high.  It had been raining during the night, but stopped mid-morning.  We thought this would be the perfect day to do a little shopping in Seaside.  Have lunch on the beach.  We got to Seaside and then it began to rain.  We had no umbrellas, because who remembers to bring those when you're going to the beach?  Not me!

Lila bought this fancy purse, J bought that strange candy he's holding and Maddie bought some shells.  After that, they were over shopping.  We stayed decently dry, but the kids just weren't having it.  They were miserable going in and out of these stores.  It was starting to take a toll on all of us, so the dads made a plan.

  They would feed the kids ice cream and let us moms go shop.  A win for all!

"Ice cream with sprinkles on the cone?  Before lunch?  I love that idea!"
We ran into two stores and then came back to much happier children.  Then we walked over to grab lunch across the street.  As we were getting there, it began to really rain.  And Jared was in our car taking a conference call.  And I had to carry Cameron.  And this place was not a sit-down restaurant, which meant we had to stand in the rain to be in line to order our food.  No thanks!  We high-tailed it back to the car.  Showed up soaked.  I told the kids to be super-quiet on our drive home and we made it back with everyone's sanity.

Cami took a nap, the big kids watched a movie and Jared's 30 minute work call turned into 2.5 hours.  But it was monsooning outside, so it was all OK!  Later that afternoon, this guy came out of hiding and we got to hang out:)

The two littlest took good naps and woke up happy.

That night we went out with everyone to Elmo's Grill.  The atmosphere was perfect for us.  Live music and a dance floor that the kids could use to get their wiggles out any time!

Dancing with this sweet girl--I'll take that any night of the week!
Our washout day ended on a high note for sure.

Florida - Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Root Beer!

 We kicked off Tuesday with a pirate cruise out of Destin Harbor.

It was overcast and felt so nice outside!

 

About to set sail on The Buccaneer!

There was plenty of entertainment right off the bat--the pirates did a fantastic job of keeping the kids' attention.  They also called out Taylor and had her come do little dance:)

Everyone embraced the pirate spirit--especially Madison!

And the dads, too!

The girls and I enjoyed hanging out and soon became the souvenir holders of all of their loot.

The kids had water gun fights...

got to swab the deck...and even go downstairs to look for treasure.

Having their faces painted might have been a favorite activity, though.

These cool kids could get used to a pirate's life--well, at least for a few hours!

We went to lunch with everyone at AJ's.  Such great food.  After that, we headed back to Santa Rosa.  Afterall, the beach was calling our name:)

These girls soaked up the sun on their boards...

and in their new boat.

Happy girls for sure.

Cheers to the beach life!
I'm so happy that Lindsey and her family finally decided to take the plunge and join us this year!

We had a sweet afternoon at the ocean and dinner at the condo that night.  Olympic watching and crab hunting followed, too.  Another fab day!

Florida - Marvelous Monday

Good morning, Santa Rosa Beach!  We kicked off Monday with a yummy breakfast and then got ready for another great day at the ocean.

Three out of our four were very happy to beach bums.
That little stinker in the middle was having none of it, though.

Too bad!  There was SO much fun to be had at the beach!  These girlies caught little minnows and collected all sorts of shells.

We made Lila into a mermaid again...

and then decided her sun hat would be the best accessory to complete her look.

"There's sand on my gatorade!" Happiness was not Cami on the beach.  I know, sweet girl, this scene is just so darn rough.  

Meanwhile, Presley and Chloe were having a ball burying themselves in the sand!

And Lila, Brooklynn and Madison were tearing up those waves on their boards.

After Cameron finally calmed down, I could relax a bit and enjoy hanging out with my main squeeze.  We enjoyed the beach the rest of the day until it was time to get ready for dinner.

The Pointers and Longs took their family beach photos that night.  Lila and Madison couldn't resist putting on their fancy beach dresses, too.  I know we are biased, but they are all just so beautiful.

Sweet cousins.

This view!

We finally got our whole crew dressed and ready and excited about dinner.  No small feat.

We ate at Whale's Tail.  It was on the beach and let the kids order shakes and fun smoothies, so it was perfect for us.  Presley and Jackson just looked so old sitting next to all the other kids!

All eleven did pretty good, too.  They chatted with each other and let us do the same.

Eventually this little rascal made her way down to sit in my lap.  She loved her strawberry shake.  Happy girl = happy mama!