Summer Vacation

For the last 6 years of so, we have traveled to the Seaside (30A) area for a week of beach vacation.  I have difficulty flying and we all love this area so it makes for a great family vacation.  Some years my sister and her family join us.  This year, they could not.

Since we know our family dynamic is going to change a lot next year when Will leaves for college, I told Dave that I think we should spend two weeks there this summer. We debated it for a while as we wondered about the expense and whether we would get bored.  I searched the area we stay in on VRBO and found a house we had stayed in before.  I called the owner and got a GREAT rate for 2 weeks.

Hands down this was such a great decision.  We always have fun but this vacation definitely ranks as one of our best ever. And for that reason, I will likely post too many photos.  Also, since we were gone 2 weeks (and added a stop to New Orleans on the way home) they will be spread out over a few vacation posts.

For the first 5 days, my childhood friend, Stacy and her family stayed with us.  They live in Florida so we don't see them as often as we'd like.  Our families get along so well.  Stacy has a heart of gold and she is so much fun.  She makes us all laugh.  Her girls are the kindest, most thoughtful girls you'd ever meet and her husband, Larry is so nice and easy going.  We just love being around them.

Kylie, Larry, Stacy and Kassi.  I cannot even tell you how much we love being around them.

 These photos were right before we went to our favorite Cafe 30A for dinner.

All the kids together.

 

We spent most of the day everyday at the beach.



Will, Kate and Kassi.

 The water was perfection.

Harry coming in from kayaking.

We brought our kayaks and the boys took them out and went fishing a bit too.

A few years ago, I bought a camera that can take underwater photo and video.
It was a fabulous purchase.
The ocean was so clear that it almost looked like pool water.

As always, there was a lot of this going on too...
 

Kate never stops tumbling.  She can do an aerial now but she would not try one on the beach for me.






Kate bonded with Mr. Larry.  He introduced her to the fried bologna sandwich.  She had never had one before but she is a fan now!

Harry and Dave playing frisbee in the ocean.



Kylie and Kassi, the sweetest teenage girls you will ever meet.

Kate's favorite part of the day is when the ice cream truck comes down the street right after lunch.  She starts asking at 9:30 am what time is it and when will the ice cream truck come:)  No joke!

Kate and Kassi.  Kate loves these girls so much! 

She calls them her cousins but she told me she really feels like they are her sisters.

This last photo sums up what happens when we are around the H family...

My lens was foggy as we had just walked down to the beach from the AC.  This was going to be the first photo of our first full day.  See the two photo bombers.  I love it.

More soon.

The teacher

Harry is great with Kate.**  He can be a bugger sometimes too--like yesterday when he told her we leave to go home tomorrow!

He teaches her a lot of things though and he is very patient while doing so.  Harry spends a lot of time on vacation skim boarding so Kate decided she wanted to learn how to skim board too.  It looks easy but trust me--it is NOT!  Dave, Will and I have tried it.  Since we value our limbs, we did not continue.

So, Dave, Harry and Kate went shopping for a beginning board for Kate.

Then, the other morning, Harry set out to teach Kate.



He was so incredibly patient.  He started at the most basic point --just getting her comfortable stepping on the board.  Then she practiced that for a looooong time.






Next, he just had her toss the board.  They just skimmed it back and forth to one another for another long bit of time.











Finally, she was ready to throw, run and jump on.  She had a few tumbles but she got the hang of it.  And now she and Harry spend hours at the little tide pool skim boarding.





And Kate is determined.  She is the only girl out there most of the time with a handful of boys.  She has made HUGE improvements.  And yesterday two 12 year old girls asked Kate to teach them how to skim board. And she did!!!


And here is a tiny bit of video from the afternoon of day one...






And now she is trying little tricks....








**I don't want to give the impression my kids are perfect or that they never fight.  I think they fight less than most kids but they do criticize and bicker sometimes too. They are very normal.

Little Traditions and dolphins

I am sure all families who vacation annually at the same location do this too.  But we have these little "traditions" at the beach.  There is a silly thing we cook for breakfast one morning (and we only do it at the beach).  There is a favorite restaurant or two we must visit each time (Cafe 30 A, Red Bar, Sugar Shak).  We almost always have pizza on the beach the last night. And then there is the ice cream truck.  The kids have always LOVED that the ice cream truck comes around our little beach neighborhood right after lunch.  In fact, this year, when Kate got some money from Mimi and Aunt Dooney for her birthday, the first thing she said was she would use it for the ice cream truck!

She "treated" her brother, Harry with some of her birthday $.

{It might seem silly to many of you but we don't have the ice cream truck in our neighborhood at home so this is a beach memory for my kiddos:)}

And even though we have a few things we do every year, I also like for us to try some new things on vacation.  This year, I booked a dolphin boat ride to Shell Island.  I used this company, and I requested Captain Brian because I had read excellent reviews on trip advisor.  Since there were 5 of us, we got a speed boat to ourselves which was really nice.  You go out on the boat looking for dolphin and once you find some, you jump in the ocean with them.  It is totally hit or miss though and you have to be prepared for that.  For the first hour, we did not see any dolphins at all. We saw tarpon and a sea turtle.  We snorkeled and went to Shell Island and got a few really cool shells. And even that was all really fun.

Look how gorgeous the water is here!!!

Then during the second hour, we saw dolphin.  Kate jumped in the water but the current was strong and it is hard to swim with the life vest on.  So, she did not get up close to the dolphins.  Will did though.  Harry almost did.  But then I got really seasick and it was time to go in.  These are not trained dolphins that people swim with at resorts or aquariums (which I am sure is really fun too).  These were wild dolphins in the ocean.  It was really cool.

Will got nice and close with this dolphin!

The dolphin in the last two photos above is "Chester."  He is a very playful dolphin that hangs out in a particular spot and we saw him swimming and playing with some other people close-by.  Will and Harry tried to get to him but they were caught in a bad current and could not move (between boat wakes and the waves).

If you are ever in the 30A area (or Panama City), I highly recommend this.  It was really fun.  And our Captain was great.  He tried really hard to make sure we all had a great experience.

After the dolphin ride, we had lunch in Panama City at a place on the beach.  Then we headed back to Seagrove and hit our beach....

Well Dave, Kate and I did.  The boys napped.

Dave and Kate dug a big hole...

Then Kate sat in the hole and made drippy castles....good times:)

Finally, Harry (and his sous chef, Kate) made us Harry's world famous quesadillas and guacamole for dinner.  We do not eat very healthy on vacation week;)

It was another great day.

At the Beach

We are taking our annual Seaside beach vacation a little earlier than we usually do this year.  It is just us here this week. My sister's family always joins us but they could not make it this week and we miss them so much!

We are having beautiful weather so far and it's been fun.  Of course, every year is a little different due to the ages/stages of our kids.  This year, Will gets up kind of early to go fishing (5am one morning).  That certainly did not happen last year! Harry alternates between fishing and skim boarding and trying to catch blue crabs.  And Kate is looking for friends at the pool and beach and this little lake off the beach that all the kids love.  It is kinda gross but all the kids hang out there. And Kate makes friends quickly:)

I always get a photo of Kate coming down to the beach on our first full day....

I cannot even express how much I love his bathing suit. I buy most of Kate's suits very inexpensively on Zulily, Target, etc.  But when I saw this one, I had to splurge.  It is from Albionfit and it is so well made and so beautiful.


Will and Harry are doing a lot of fishing...

Since Sunday was Father's Day we needed some beach snappies with the world's most awesome Dad.

Dave is an incredible father. He is so patient and loving with our kids.  He knows where to draw that perfect line between being a fun and "friend" kind of Dad and being in charge and shepherding them into being great adults. We are very blessed to share this life with him.  He always puts me and the kids first. Always.

People ask me sometimes why I don't mention my Dad on the blog.  My parents divorced when I was about 13 and I don't have a relationship with my Dad at all.  In general, I have been fine with that but I do think it is kind of sad that he does not know what incredible grandkids he has. That makes me appreciate the kind of father Dave is even more. I was lucky enough to have a fabulous step-father for about 20 years but he passed away from Parkinson's disease just before we adopted Kate.

Moving on, here are few shots from the first day we got here.  We arrived late afternoon and had the BEST lunch at the Red Bar in Grayton Beach!  Then we had a few hours at the beach that day...

Total coincidence but I love how our sand toy bag coordinates perfectly with Kate's suit:)

Dave and Will went to the grocery store and I unpacked the house and took Kate and Harry to the beach.

Kate and Harry caught a blue crab in the lake/tide pool thingy.  And they cooked it up and ate it.  They loved it.

These two have such a special relationship. I love it.

Dave and the kids on Father's Day....




 And then I jumped in for a quick shot too...

Yesterday we swam with dolphins in the ocean.  I put a shot on Instagram.  I'll post more soon.
Internet is very weak in our beach house but I'll try again tomorrow.