Beach Week Destin, FL 2011

Absolutely beautiful...I LOVE this picture...reminds me of when I was a little girl in the ocean with my dad!



Ummmm, we did this for about 3 hours every single day for 7 days..






watching their sisters play in the ocean...


Happy Fourth of July!




SURF-N!


Jenna...way in the sky....


How typical is this...girls looking the correct direction and the boys looking the opposite way....turned out kind of cute thought...


The girls....just modeling for mommy...but Jenna is 'all done mommy' taking pictures...hahaha


These girls played in this boat on the waves for HOURS...I sat in a chair and just laughed for HOURS...it was a precious time together...





I asked the boys to stop and look at each other...John David said, "Hey bubby" and James said, "Hey my bubby too"










He walked to the ocean and drug the boat back to his 'sand hole'...











We had a beautiful week together as a family at the beach this year. Nobody wears a diaper, needs to be breastfed, eats baby food, drinks a bottle, travels around in a baby seat....sad in a way but REALLY COOL to have BIG-(er) kids now. I miss the baby days a teensy bit, but I have pictures and videos to remind me of them. For now, we are really thankful our family has 'grown up' a little bit and can now travel to and from place to place with ease....what a minute...haha...did I say, 'ease'....I really meant it is getting 'easier'....definitely NOT with EASE...yet

So the highlights from the trip....
**Ice-cream cones from the nastiest McDonald's I have ever seen...@11pm!
**Sleeping on bunk beds, in closets, on couch pillows, on a fold out couch bed, and IN MOMMY and Daddy's bed!
**Ellie losing her first tooth...while mommy was at the grocery store and daddy was asleep!
**Celebrating Ellie's first 'lost tooth' with double decker oreo chocolate ice-cream cones
**Sitting out on the balcony listening to all the kids sing and 'perform' for Mommy and Daddy after dinner
**Mommy and Daddy running up the 4 flights of stairs outside our condo room at night while all the kids slept..
**Riding go-carts and trains and planes for 4th of July..
**Kids eating Burger King (eckkk) while Mommy and Daddy had crab cakes and blackened grouper from Buster's...
**Pizza by the pool and night swimming..
**Mini ice-cream cartons that each child (and adult) had on the last night...what a treat that was!
**Daddy floating in the ocean with the boys and Jenna for an hour while Mommy and the big girls did 'beach gymnastics'...
**Claire babysitting in the room while during nap time...for the 1st time!
**OUTLET shopping mall across the street from our condo!
**TCBY blueberry cream pie...ooooh yum!
**Daddy playing free golf..Mommy keeping the kids on the beach until 8:30pm playing in the sand, eating Cheetos and drinking grape juice boxes!
*Someone stealing our boat with ALL of our sand toys...and then someone else finding it for us!
**Pool friends from Las Vegas
**Ellie's crab..
**Claire's toe ring...
**The boys' swords...
**The black snake...
**Jenna's 'funky t-shirt'
**Strawberry wine and watermelon...
**Big Kahuna's Water Park on the way home...as a surprise...
**SO many beautiful memories our family enjoyed making together and one day we will look back and laugh at all the special moments we had during this season our family was in...