Our Final Day at the beach

On Friday morning, Parker and I rode bikes with Ella, Brad and Megan, down through some of the town and we found this public access beach.  It was fun to see all the homes along the beach, and see more of the area.

 Right as we were getting back to our bikes, we looked out and saw a group of dolphins swimming really close  to the shore.  We just stood and watched them for quite a while. They swam all along the shore for as far as we could see.  It was amazing to see!  I had no idea they came that close!  It's hard to tell, but there are two dolphins you can see in this picture.

 It was already really nice out, so we hurried back to the house and got everyone ready to go to the beach.

 We were right by a cool sand bar, so the kids had lots of fun, wading out to it, playing on the sand bar, and jumping off the sand bar.  There were lots of jelly fish all around, and I was sure one of us was going to step on one before the day was over, but we managed to escape any injury!

 Macie and Megan hung out on the sand bar for quite a while.

 These two are the cutest little buddies!

 We ate lunch on the beach, and then I took Macie and Kaeson to get much needed naps the rest of the afternoon.

While I was back at the house with the little ones, they found all sorts of crazy creatures in the water.  They tried to take a picture of some of them, but they are hard to see.

More Sunshine and Happiness

Here are our pictures from Thursday in Florida.

 The kids running along the shore.

 Megan and Susan soaking up the sun.

 Kaeson jumping the waves

 Macie getting covered in sand.

 The cute kiddos!

 Mommy and Macie. This is a horrible picture, but we have to have one picture to show that I was actually there!

And I had to throw in a picture at the pool.  One of Parker's sweet friends gave him this water toy for his birthday because she wanted him to have something to take to the beach.

Parker's birthday in Florida

Parker is so lucky to have his birthday fall during Spring Break, so he always gets lots of celebrations! This year, I think, topped them all!  It's going to be hard to live up to a birthday at the beach!  

After dinner, we sang to him, and had Chocolate Scotcheroos (because that's way better than cake), and then he opened his presents from mom and dad, and his grandparents.

 After he opened his presents, we decided to go for a walk down to the beach.  Our camera was doing weird things, so none of these pictures turned out very good, but oh well.

A Day at the Beach

By the time we got back from the Gators, all the clouds had disappeared, and it was turning out to be a beautiful day, so we headed to the beach. 

Sorry about the picture overload, but hey it's my blog and I want them on here.

 Cool kid Kaeson on his way to the beach in his sweet shades.

 I can't get over how big Parker looks in this picture!  When did this happen?

 Macie loved the sand.  A little too much!  We couldn't keep it out of her mouth.

 Lance must have buried Kaeson like ten times throughout the week.  He loved it!  When we got home, he asked me to bury him in the sandbox in our backyard.

 When we gave Macie her binkie, it seemed to do the trick of keeping the sand out of her mouth, but it didn't keep her from crawling all over in it!

 I love this picture!  How cute are they?!

 Parker was so proud that he wrote his name in the sand!  Then he decided it was fun to practice other words too.  Later on he proudly showed me he had written "the" "cow" and "mom".  I'm hoping it was strictly coincidence that he went  from "cow" to "mom"!

 This was K man's idea of being brave in the ocean!  He loved to get close to the water but not in the water, and jump over the wave that didn't even reach him!  Later he started running up to the water and running away from the waves.  He said the waves were chasing him.  It's amazing how long one game can keep a two year old entertained for the better part of an afternoon.

 Lance dug a hole to bury Parker in, but Parker was not interested.  Then one of our friends suggested that they all get buried together.  Parker was less than impressed.  (That's Ella standing behind them with her shovel to show that she was the one that buried them.)

I had the tough job of enjoying the sunshine and cuddling with Macie while she took her afternoon job.  You know what they say, someone has to do it.

Seeing the Gators

Our first day in Destin was supposed to be cloudy and a little rainy, so we decided to use it as a day to see a little of what was in Destin, rather than get rained out at the beach.  They have an Alligator exhibit in front of a restaurant that is free, so we decided to go check it out.  They house 80 alligators there, and you can see them and feed them and they do shows where teach all about it. While we were there, they had a worker carrying a gator around.  It was creepy!  The kids weren't so sure about it at first, but eventually they all got brave enough to touch it.  You could hold it and get your picture taken with it, but only if you paid $10. So because we didn't pay the money, they wouldn't even let us get a picture of the kids touching it or the worker holding it.  Lame!

Parker and Ella.  As if a week at the beach wasn't cool enough for the boys, they also got to have their favorite friend in the whole world be there to share it all with.  Even better!  

 Here's a shot of some of the gators.  I was more than a little uncomfortable the whole time!

Arriving in Destin

Last week was Lance's Spring Break, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and headed south to Destin, Florida.  It was an AMAZING vacation!  The kids absolutely loved it and ask again and again to go back to the beach.  We are really hoping to go again sometime while we're here.  It was the perfect vacation for us, because we spent all our time at the beach or in the community swimming pool so all our entertainment was free. We rented a beach house with a few friends so we had great company as well.    They have the most beautiful white sands beaches and we could not have asked for better weather.  It was a perfect week.  I took a ton of pictures, so I'm going to break it up into a few posts.  Here are the pictures of the kids and their first meeting with the beach.

We got into town in the evening, so we immediately unloaded the car and headed to the beach to check things out.  It was a little windy and the sound of the waves made the kids pretty nervous.  I was worried that it would be a long week and they would hate the beach. They were only interested in playing in the sand and staying away from the water, but they still had lots of fun.  Parker warmed up to the water fairly fast, Kaeson preferred playing in the sand the whole week, but he wasn't scared of the water the whole time. And Macie seemed fine after that first night.

Daddy and Macie walking down to the beach.   Can you tell she was happy to be out of the car?

She was not impressed with the ocean!  

Lance carrying Kaeson out to the water.  

 Cute little Parker, happy to be at the beach.

Kaeson loved playing in the sand!

More pictures to come soon!

A Mario Kart Birthday

Last week Parker turned 5!!!  I can't believe I have a five year old!  For the first time ever this year, I let Parker have a birthday party with just his friends.  He invited all the kids in his preschool class and his Primary class, plus another friend from church and a buddy from his basketball team.  So we had thirteen kids in our little house!  It was crazy, but Parker loved every minute of it.  Luckily, it was a beautiful day, and we were able to go outside for part of it.  

Parker wanted to have a Mario Kart themed party. So the invites were Mario Kart, as well as the cake. We played pin the nose on Mario, and had our own little races outside.  Then we came inside and fed the kids pizza and cake and opened presents. It was exhausting to prepare, and throw, and I'm thinking we won't do it again for another five years!  But Parker was so excited about it, and he was so happy, so it was all worth it!  

Happy Birthday Parker!  We sure love that kid!  He is so sweet, and loving and thoughtful.  He is quickly becoming my little helper with just about anything.  He is a great friend to everyone, and he's (almost) always very kind to everyone around him.  He is the best big brother to both Kaeson and Macie.  He is growing up so much and learning a ton!  I am amazed at the things he understands and  the things he says now.  Not because I think he is a genius, but because I'm just amazed that he is old enough to understand what he does.  He is becoming quite the little reader lately as well.  It's such a joy to watch him learn and grow. I feel so lucky to call him my son!  We love you Parker!