Florida

Andy's sister Rebecca and her family invited us to join them at the beach in Destin, Florida. We were all very excited to go - especially the little 3 who'd never been to the ocean before. 

 Unfortunately it was a wee bit cold.  On the first day we were a the beach by 8 am because a rain storm was forecast for the afternoon.  We played for about an hour in the water and sand and then ended up at the resort pool to warm up in the hot tubs and swim some more.  We were done with both by 10am.

 Charlotte, Emma, and Matthew spent a lot of time at the beach like this!!! it was only in the low 60's with freezing water and a really cold wind -- so I don't blame them much.  Charlotte ran right to the water with Katie when we first got there, while I was busy doing something else.  No one was holding her hand and she got knocked over and found it so unpleasant that she was terrified of being near the water the rest of the trip.
                                    
A lot of good fun was had digging in the sand, or making castles.  Aaron and Nathan kept digging tunnels in the sand.  Joshua liked to bury himself.  Aaron and Marian liked to build sand barriers to keep the water from getting their creations. 

 In the afternoon it was rainy and drizzly the whole time so the kids mostly played inside.  They loved to play on the balcony too. Dan took Marion, Callie, Aaron and Katie to a chimpanzee movie and Nathan and Joshua hung out while most of the rest of us took naps.  Then in the evening Dan took a bunch of kids to the pool again and Nathan and Aaron went to the beach again.

 Sunday we didn't want to break the sabbath so we mostly stayed inside and we had a playdough mania party.  I'm glad I brought all the playdough and fun toys so that all 9 kids could be entertained.  Uncle Dan and Joshua were taking a walk. Aunt Rebecca, Nathan, Katie and I played half of an exciting game of 5 Crowns.  Rebecca won but said it didn't mean as much since Dan Mc, and Dad Fox weren't there to beat. 

We did go on a walk on the boardwalk on Sunday and went to the beach to just take pictures.  The kids did pretty good with the temptation, although most of the pictures aren't worth keeping.  I wanted a good one of each kid individually - I think I was 0 for 6.  Our family one didn't turn out too bad.  It's a shame we left Andy behind working nights. Maybe we can photo shop him in!  I can't believe how much the kids are growing up.  I wonder how many I will end up "looking up" to?

 We went the beach and pool again in the morning on Monday and even though it was windy and chilly still we stayed until almost noon.  Then the big kids and I went backafter lunch, Joshua and I stayed another 45 minutes or so and then headed back.  I was definitely out too long because I am still paying for it with a bad sunburn. 

 We went on a Dolphin cruise on Monday afternoon. I figured my kids LOVE dolphins and Andy was working overtime...  It was a bit tricky taking 6 kids by myself - especially 3 little ones, but it was worth it!  These gulls followed behind us because they knew they were going to get fed.  We got to throw Fritos to them and they more often than not caught them in the air.  About 100 birds were trailing behind us.  It made me think of Finding Nemo "mine, mine, mine."

We did get to see a bunch of dolphins too. Some were kind of close, some were farther.  When we were in the clearer water you could even see them below the surface.  We got to see them jump completely out of the water, and wave their tails -- I think Katie's wildest dreams came true -- ok maybe not -- she didn't get to swim with them.   Nathan's wildest dreams came true too because he got to man our really nice camera.  I had enough to deal with, without carrying a camara around.  Matthew and Aaron even got to stear the boat for a few minutes.  There were some glass windows on the bottom of the boat we could look through too, but all I saw was sand -- and it made me a bit quesey to look.  I'm sure we made quite the spectacle of oursleves, with so many kids, besides Charlotte and Emma had long sleeve pajama shirts on over their dresses and Matthew had a blanket tied around him so that they didn't freeze -- oh well maybe next time I will think to bring jackets even though the weather channel forcast says it will be warm.  I should know better, since when we travel we seem to wreack havock on the weather wherever we go. 

I'm so glad that Dan and Rebecca are so cool and invited us to join them.