The Beach!

Well, as I hit "publish post" I will officially be finished updating the blog with images that tell the tale of our trip to Seagrove Beach, Florida during the last week of July. It was the perfect vacation and I hope these posts capture that - at least in part.

This was the walk to the beach...
And these are many of the wonderful, memorable, magical things that happened there...

And finally - a few moments in the sand...

Ahhh, the pool...

These photos need little explanation. Enjoy these pool moments captured on film...

Josie teaching herself to float ("Look Tio, Look Tio")...

Look carefully at everything going on in this one...

This is Josie doing "Peace"...

And here are several of Grandma & Josie's morning in the pool (I love these!)...

It actually would've been fun to log the number of hours we each spent in the pool. There were days when Josie was in there at least 5 or 6 hours. This photo seems like the perfect way to end the story of the pool - Josie getting a "high-five" from Louie after successfully going underwater and holding her breath. Yay Josie!

"QT" with family

Let's face it - the beach is great and having your own pool is the best - but this vacation really came down to quality time with the family. It's so important to us that Josie grows up surrounded by the people who care the most about her so this week to just all relax and "be" together was perfect. Here are some examples of good times around "The Lemon House" (actually "The Lemondrop House" but Josie abbreviated it for all of us)...

Josie helping Lyla with her breakfast (while we were diving...thanks for babysitting Grandma and Tia)...

The girls all playing together...

Big thanks to Katie who spent the better part of her week being followed around by an almost two-year old...

And look carefully at Josie's face, I know she's thinking "you're touching me again Lyla, back away slowly from my cheddar bunny snack-trap"... Yep, there were a lot of kisses and cuddles (although never enough)...

A little light housework...

Some good ole' clowning around (words can truly not express the wit, charm, and absolute hilarious nature of almost-13 year old Sam - aka Frodo & Harry - thanks for cracking us all up )...

And when all the playing and laughing and kissing was all too much to bear, there was a whole lot of this...

So, three cheers for family vacations! Josie is *still* talking about everyone who was there!

Food & "Fun"

Here's our crew: Cousin Sam, Tio, Lyla, Tia, Me, Josie, Louie, Grandma, DD, Aunt Pat, Cousin Katie, Pam & Uncle Denny...Whew! Long story short - this was the night we decided to get a drink during the heat of the day...
And these are the photos of the first and only night we decided to go out to dinner. The pictures sort of speak for themselves... While all is calm at the "grown-up" table...

Josie has to be fed standing up...

And Lyla pukes on the table, Katie & Sam pulled a prank on Louie and 4 hours later we were all fed but flat broke. Two key lessons learned for large family vacations: 1) if the gal on the phone tells you that there isn't a wait at Stinky's Fish Camp - she's lying just to get your business and 2) when there are fourteen mouths to feed - eat at home. :) So, the rest of the week we feasted on home cooked meals which worked out great!

Grandaddy grilled some delicious Alabama Farmer's Market Corn...

Grandma made enough lasagna to feed us for two days and Louie made an epic Mexican feast complete with homemade salsa that even Josie enjoyed. (In fact, this photo actually tells a side story. Josie ate more chips in one week than she's ever had in her life - every thing from tortilla chips to Katie's sour cream & onions. When we got home and returned to our normal routine with Carissa - Josie asked her for chips as her snack on Monday. We had to explain that was just a "vacation thing" which she seemed to understand. Thankfully.)

Diving in Destin

If you want to go Scuba Diving in Destin...
#1 - Rent a house somewhere closer than Sea Grove Beach, otherwise you will have to get up at 4:15AM to make it to the dock on time,
#2 - Giggle when they tell you the boat you are on was used in the filming of Jaws 2 just before you jump into 50 ft. of water wearing weights around your waist and a heavy airtank on your back,
#3 - Watch out for Jelly Fish!

"A dive is a dive" so I'm glad we made the trip to Destin to dive the jetty on our last day there, but it definitely could've gone better. The visibility was less than 20 feet. And while there were lots of cool crabs to see in the rocks, the whole dive felt like a real-life video game as we all had to dodge GIANT moon jellyfish that were everywhere! Poor little Katie, who was snorkeling above with Uncle Denny and Sam, even got stung. Considering the darn things were as big around as end tables, no wonder we heard her scream across the water from our boat. So, unlike Hawaii, there are no glorious underwater turtle photos here, but there are a few of us all relaxing on the boat post-dive.