Our beach vacation finally came Labor Day week! We had been anxiously counting down the days for months waiting for what we knew was going to be an amazing time. Wonderful family and beautiful weather made for an unforgettable week with our toes in the sand. We sprinkled in a few excursions here and there and some great food which made the trip perfect! Mimi, Uncle Chad, and Aunt Ashley were great sports all week long keeping up with the endless amount of energy our boys have.
Seriously, who wouldn't want every day to end like this...
Our mornings pretty much went from breakfast in pajamas to swimsuits for the rest of the day.
Aunt Ashley and Ethan getting ready to head down to the beach
Daddy's ready for the beach!
Uncle Chad taking care of us
Thanks for the delicious strawberry lemonade ;-)
We had the best set up!
HUGE props to Uncle Chad for bringing his canopy and to Mimi for the beach mats to put under it that kept our bags, snacks, towels, and phones from getting sand on them. But just in case we forgot something, all we had to do was walk a few steps up to the house :-)
We made sure we brought every possible toy needed to build sand castles
And this guy could NOT get enough of the beach...sand or water!
We made lots of trips like this to the water to fill our buckets. I would love to have counted how many buckets the grown-ups carried to and from the water. Thanks Mimi for this one!
Love them!
Every now and then we would get a rare moment that looked like this...
or this...
When we weren't down on the beach, we were in the pool. We loved having our own at the house and definitely made sure that we had special toys just for the pool, too! Mimi's "boat" float was a huge hit!
So were the Max Eliminators
There were several visits a couple of miles down the road to one of our favorite places throughout the week. We LOVE Seaside!
While we were eating dinner at Pickles, Ethan saw a monster truck drive down the road and this look stayed on his face for as long as it was in sight. Boys and their trucks!
An evening picture after our ice cream
Then we would head right back to our cozy spot on the beach for some more playtime.
Ethan was a water fanatic and was spoiled by everyone!
Ethan floating around with Mimi
Riding the waves with Uncle Chad, Aunt Ashley
Totally spoiled by Aunt Ashley
AND Uncle Chad
Riding the boogie board with Daddy
Uncle Chad helping him ride all the way in on the boogie board
Catching more waves with Uncle Chad on the float
Mimi's turn!
He wore everyone out and kept wanting more!
While Caden liked the water too, he was not as fearless as Ethan and preferred to be held when he played in the ocean
But this silly boy spent most of the week like this.
Happy as a clam to chill and snack all day long in his chair
Or get some lovin' from Mommy
On another day, while the ladies went into San Destin to shop and visit the spa, Daddy, Uncle Chad, and the boys met Grandad and Uncle CJ at Eglin AFB at the Armament museum. Anyone that knows our boys, especially Ethan, knows how much they love airplanes. Ethan, particularly, is into military planes right now so he was on Cloud 9!
His favorite plane, the SR71 Blackbird
Testing out the cockpit
Letting Caden copilot
Caden getting in on the action
And once again, we returned to our favorite place. We were armed with all kinds of beach activities and the guys definitely made use of them. Of course, the football came out first but after that...
The big boys played a little badminton...
Daddy taught the little boys the finer points of the game...
Ethan did some kite flying...
Some velcro ball toss action with all of the boys...
Then a different ball toss...
And last, some volleyball...
I love this picture of Caden!
Taking everything back up to the house at dusk on our last day was a sad reminder that our week was ending. We definitely made the most of our vacation and thoroughly enjoyed making memories that will last a lifetime.
So long to our favorite place on earth,
we'll see you again next year!
SRB 2013
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