Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Florida 2010

On June 25th we left to go on a much deserved beach vacation. My parents, brother's family, and two of my sister's boys went also. We knew with 6 kids and 5 of those in carseats that it might take a while to get there. So we opted to drive to Hattisburg, MS since it is halfway or a little more. My dad had to work for a few more hours, so my brother's family and our family went ahead of them. Left at 10:30 and made it by 4:30. We stopped one time for gas(I think) and one for food. The kids did great. Vittoria and I went to grab some dinner for the family while the guys had the kids at the pool. This pool was very murky but you could smell the chemicals so I assumed it was clean and they just didn't get the right chemistry. Oh well the kids had a blast. Julian showed Liam that is was okay to jump of the side of the pool and so since then Liam has been doing that. Landen and Preston rode up with my parents so they arrived around 8 or so and played with our kids some more. They did not want to get out when it was time. Anyway so we decided to leave around 9am the next morning , so everyone went to their own rooms (moms was across the hallway and matt's was next to us) We all slept really well after the car ride and swimming. I was having this random dream about being able to hear one of my nephews calling for me and crying for their mom...when I woke up it was 5:45a.m and I could hear someone outside our room crying for their mom and calling "Aunt Linsey" I was so out of it and couldn't get our door opened b/c Joe had locked it up top and I didn't know it. I ended up figuring it out and having to shut the door completely on Julian. He was shaking and crying asking where his mom was. I noticed their door was opened a little so decided to see if they were in there. I turned on the light and no one moved...so I said "HELLO?!" and they all sat straight up and were so puzzled as to why I am in their room with Julian who is crying. Anyway he was fine and we all learned a great lesson about locking the chain lock at the hotels. We all ate a free breakfast the next morning and were ready to leave around 9:30am . I can't remember how many times we stopped but it wasn't to bad and made it into Florida around 1:30. Mom and Dad treated all of us to lunch at the Back Porch in Destin. Ahhh it was so good. Then it was time to go to our condo which was back a few miles in Ft. Walton. We got there and the place was amazing. 3 bedrooms, 3 bath, huge kitchen, huge "playpen" back verada, and washer and dryer in the room. The view was incredible. We hurried down to the beach so the kids could play while dad and mom went grocery shopping for one day. Liam and Chloe loved it. Liam had been before but he was only 1 so I am not sure how much he really remembered about that trip. Chloe was in my tummy when we went so she had never seen the ocean. Of course the pool was the biggest hit as usual with most kids. Liam learned to be brave by watching his other cousins. Not only was he jumping off the sides ,but started doing flips!!!! I was blown away with how fast he was doing things. So all week it rained off and on ,but it keeped all of us from getting sunburned so that was a blessing. Between 6 kids and 6 adults and no sunburns that was a success in my book. On the last day we had sun the entire day. Chloe had woke up around 5:30 so I decided to go walk the beach with her and watch the sunrise. I took my camera down with us b/c I needed to take a picture of a name in the sand for someone who was being taken off life support that day. We have known Brady since I could remember (he was our neighbor in Bryant) for many many years. So I took the picture and ask God to please let me find a big shell so I could send it home to his family and I was in awe of what I saw in the distance at that moment. I don't have a picture of it but it was the biggest shell I have ever found...bigger than my hand. It brought tears to my eyes and still does. So after Chloe and I got back up to the room mom said lets go get donuts for everyone and take a few pictures of Chloe at the beach in a dress that her MawMaw had bought her. Even though she was cranky we still got a few really good ones. She never went to sleep that day until around 2 in the afternoon, but was in a great mood so I guess it really didn't matter. So that day Joe and I stayed on the beach until 4 and then got ready to go out to dinner just the two of us. We went to Pompano Joe's and had a great dinner and then went to get some ice cream. When we got back a storm was about to blow through but ran into all the family and my mom told me Liam really needed to show me something in the pool. So he and I ran out there and guess what he was doing? Swimming underwater with his eyes opened. Landen and Preston showed him how. I was so impressed. He kept telling me that Julianna was going to think he was so brave(she is our neighbor here , he swims 2 or 3 times a day at their pool). Before we left for Florida he wouldn't go under unless he came up crying and now one week later he was doing everything they could. We left Saturday at 5:30am so we could make it home by dinner. We did around 5pm so Joe , the kids, and I stayed and played and ate dinner and then around 8:30 left to drive to Clinton. It took me about a week to recover from the trip but we had a great time and made some great memories. Here are some of the pictures from our trip.

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