The Lake with Old Friends

April was my pot luck college roommate. And that was no accident...she has been such a blessing in my life. I was in her wedding, and was right beside her as she gave birth. We are great friends who share lots of great memories. I LOVE her. We don't get to see each other as often as we'd like but when we do it is always like old times and like we haven't skipped a beat. We decided it had been too long so we got together the other day. We went up to her Moms house. I haven't seen Beverly in forever and that was great too!! The kids loved playing in her pool, walking through the lake, and fishing. And I love that they got to rekindle their friendship. I love her kiddos!! Hopefully we won't let as much time go by before our next visit.

VBS

The kids just finished a week of VBS and they loved it. This was our fifth year at this VBS. Every year we invite more friends and we have quite a few of them that do it with us now. This was Hadley's first VBS and she LOVED it. So much so that one day she was crying and holding on to her teacher for dear life when I came to get her. We had a great week and they treated all the families to a chick fil lunch on the last day. :)

Each day they had a different theme. One of the days was crazy hair. Ellie and Hads rocked the Medusa look and G the Hawk.

Family Beach Pictures

One night every trip we take family shots on the beach. Here are some of our family pictures from this year. Despite the strong wind, I think we got some great ones!!

And here is our whole crew....

Florida 2011

I always call it Destin, but really we stay past Destin and play in Seaside. We just got home from another amazing trip to Florida. We LOVE Florida. We always wish we had another week when we leave. It went by too fast. This year we went with the Dale Family and like usual, we had a blast.

We left at 4am on Saturday morning....

The kids did NOT go back to sleep...but we made it to Destin right at 2pm. What can I say..I am married to a wanna be race car driver.

We pulled into the same house we rented last year that is right on the ocean.

It has windows all across the top and bottom floor...always a fantastic view. And I love sleeping to the sound of the ocean.

Here is the view from our back porch:

It is Heaven on Earth. Too us anyway.

Here are a few (or a lot of) pictures of what we did all week...

We got dressed for dinner every night. We ate WELL....

Can't go to Seaside and not get Frost Bite Snow Cones....

And you have to run around Seaside Park.

The girls met a new friend on the Beach. Emma Lael. Ellie has still not stopped talking about her. Her mom has a blog and I am now following it. Their family is amazing and I loved talking to her mom who adopted Emma Lael from China this last year.

We ate Ice Cream...

And had more than a few of these...

Football...

Got Buried...and then requested some shade...

Looked for fish and sea creatures to catch in our nets.

Played Cards most nights. We taught the Dales how to play 31...pretty sure they are addicted.

Loved on this little guy who we cracked jokes about all weekend because he is seriously the best baby on the planet. Frank kept telling him to stop being so loud. Half the trip we forgot he was with us. But when he was around, he was all smiles.... We loved snuggling a little baby again.

Boogie boarding and tubing the ocean...

Kayaking. We would go out FAR. WE would go to the DARK blue and watch the 4 foot sharks and sting rays swim under us. It was awesome. I wish I had a picture of when I practically forced Allison out. She was making excuses for us to go back in left and right. I thought she'd be happy to face her fears...but no. Sorry Allison!!

More playing in the sand. More relaxing. More loving Florida. It was just FABULOUS!!!

And a road trip wouldn't be complete without this scene. Yes, I am standing out of the sunroof taking the picture. After 11 hours in the car...30 minutes from home we get pulled over. Welcome home and hello defensive driving.

It was a wonderful trip. Family beach pictures to come.....