Sunday, September 25, 2011

Final Vacation post....hey, I took over 200 pictures, what can I say?


Here is our beautiful Chayce about to eat at Fudpucker's

 
My beautiful Mom aka Mimi



My babies outside of Fudpucker's


Our first family picture while on vacation

Before we left for Florida, I had planned for us to have family pictures taken on the beach.  I decided on white and khaki for our wardrobe, so did nearly every other family we saw taking pictures on the beach each evening at sunset.  My mom took pictures of us and I think she did a pretty awesome job, especially considering she's not a professional photographer.  We did forget to get some shots but overall I am very happy with what we did end up with.

    











He didn't want to take this one, can you tell?




Of course, we had to get some shots of Mimi with some of her grand kids.




Oh, and when we thought it couldn't get any more amazing, on our last full day there, dolphins showed up right in front of our house and put on a little show for us.  It makes you realize just how much God loves us, all the beauty and wonder that he surrounds us with on a daily basis.  When you least expect it, there it is, right in front of you.    




Florida Vacation 2011...Part 3



We spent so much time in the ocean and in the sun.  The first day out at the beach was perfect, not too hot, a sweet little breeze keeping us just cool enough.  We didn't need a whole lot of relief from the heat, but every day after that it was pretty hot.  Not crazy hot, like our lovely Texas summer heat but hot enough that if you weren't under an umbrella, you were needed to take frequent strolls into the ocean which was so refreshing!  Cool water, so much so that it would at first take your breath away and need a couple of minutes to get used to it.  My girls and I only went to the pool once, for a warm evening swim, after that we didn't feel the need to go back.  The ocean was our oasis!

 
Chayce and I ended up getting semi-matching swimsuits while we were there...pretty funny!





One of the many beautiful sunsets we got to witness while in Florida.


More beautiful pictures of our amazing dancer Chayce.  It was so much fun taking these.  





Showing Ranger love even in another state!




Another catch

My two handsome guys, headed out for dinner.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Florida Vacation Part 2

We ate at Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co., it was pretty good but kind of overpriced.  We also ate seafood at Fudpuckers and it was amazing (as usual) and our bill was cheaper there.  I'm making a mental note! 

Chayce Gump

 I couldn't resist getting this picture!  

Channing Gump
Brother sister love!!

The kids were so happy to be in Florida, not much bickering or picking at one another.  Too much fun to be had, lots of swimmimng in the ocean, catching waves, searching for sea creatures, digging in the sand and of course baseball on the beach.  We literally spent about 6 hours a day on the beach (on avarage), it was so relaxing...nothing to do , nowhere to go, just sitting and relaxing.



Chan on the balcony, can you tell she just woke up?

Every morning, I would go out on the balcony and just sit and listen to my ipod.  It was so theraputic and relaxing, just watching the waves along an empty beach.  I miss that!




We had the most amazing breakfast at a place called The Donut Hole!  If you are ever in Destin, I highly recommend it.  It is super busy (because the food is SO GOOD) but well worth the wait.  You seat yourself when a table becomes available and you HAVE to get some donuts to go.  We ate breakfast there and then grabbed some donuts for the next morning's breakfast...A-MAZING!    




Here we all are at The Donut Hole

 

One of the MANY crabs we caught!  There were really no seashells in Destin so my mom and I decided to look for other 'treasures.'  We made a great team, I would find most of the things and then she would catch them.  It was so exciting and fun because we never knew what we were catching until she got the net up to the surface.

 
A spotted sting ray, it was in waist-deep water, partially showing it's body.  To me it just looked like two dark spots under the sand but this is what we came up with when my mom pulled the net out of the water.  We were so excited!!  




Isn't it amazing?  As you can see, it did not have a barb.  Some of us even touched it, I did not.


In the beautiful water, checking out what Mimi caught

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Florida Vacation 2011...Part 1

We had an AMAZING, RELAXING and MEMORABLE vacation...just how they should be don't ya think?

12 hours in the car, two or three stops, I can't quite remember but we were so ready to get there.  As soon as we pulled up to the house we stayed in, we just wanted our toes in the sand.

The back of our house, beach-front named Maison De Soleil




Our first picture on the beach


The house we stayed in was CRAZY AMAZING!!  It looked something along the lines of a house on MTV Cribs.  Four floors, an elevator, beach-front, the back half of the house was basically all glass.  My aunt Debbie and her husband Eric invited us to go to Florida with them and we were so thankful.  As a family of five, we would not have been able to stay in such a nice place!
The view from our balcony
Camden on the third floor
Chayce letting a tiny hermit crab pinch her nail
Daddy and Camden relaxing in bed

A beautiful shot of Chayce dancing on the beach







My Aunt Debbie and her husband Eric
Camden and Mimi
Chayce the mermaid
We spent alot of time kayaking as well.  Something I never imagined myself doing because I am so scared of ocean creatures.  It looked like fun and so I chose to step outside of my comfort zone and go it.  I am so glad I did...I brought home great memories from it! 
An amazing shot of James and Chayce on the kayak, look at that water!
James and Chayce



Channing and her second cousin Makenzi


Daddy and Camden relaxing on the balcony