Day 5

I woke up and 10 and missed breakfast again!

The weather wasn't on its good side last night and practically caused the ocean to get upset and create monstrous waves! The weather carried a little into the morning, so no going to the beach when we got up. Today was Friday, meaning tomorrow is Saturday and that's our last full day here in Florida. :(. When the weather finally cleared up, we all headed down to the beach to lay out for awhile and do the normal beach activities. Today I was on a mission to build something out of sand that was better than yesterdays! My first thought was to build a huge sea shell with a starfish behind it and a sand dollar on the side. I worked on constructing this for quite sometime. After about an hours worth of work, I started to realize that it was looking more and more like a sun and moon. So I just took this idea a ran with it. I finished to sun, carved the moon and constructed a star. The total sand process took me about 2 hours. When I finished, I wasn't happy with the outcome. It had not turned out as planned so I just said whatever on that picture. Tomorrow I plan to make a lizard. :). We all went back inside for lunch, and yes I had a PB&J. We didn't stay at the house for long, we were all very anxious to get back out to the beach. The waves were great and so much fun to play in. Roslyn had brought her paddle ball set out and we played for a while. I played against Roslyn and Uncle Guy. After playing, we went out into the ocean to play in the waves. One waves was so large, it wiped me out, took me underwater, pushed my face in the sand, flipped me twice, feet over head, and threw me onto the sand. It was very painful and my chin has sand cuts all over it. I was kinda worried because it was bleeding and I didnt want to call any sharks toward our area. This whole wave thing happened not only once, but twice. OUCH! I had had enough of the waves and the ocean, so we went back to shore and played more paddle ball. This was by far my favorite beach activity. Around 2:30, Maggie, Lauren and Myself headed to the house to get ready to go to "Fired Up". It was a local pottery store where you could go and paint whatever you want and they will fire it and you receive it the next day. After going down there, we realized that place was waaay to expensive. It was $36 for a coffee cup. psh! That rediculous! So Maggie and Lauren headed down the road to an ice cream shop and I went back to the bookstore and bought the second book in the Maximum Ride series. When I got home, everyone was getting dressed in there white shirts and kahki shorts. I went upstairs, showered and got dressed for beach portraits. On the way to the beach, it started raining, oooo no! It continued to rain or drizzle the whole time we took pictures. Colton actually cooperated during the pictures, so we got some really great ones. We took way to many pictures to put up on the blog so youll just have to ask me for copies of them. When we returned home, it was supper time. Bianca had cooked Shrimp Skampy. It was very delicous. We cooked waay to many noodles. We could have eaten noodles for every meal and still have some left over. Aunt Laurie was looking in the refridgerator and I opened the freezer to get some ice for my drink. She stood up and banged her head on the bottom of the freezer. Every person in the house was rolling on the floor lauging. Lauren added her little comment in by saying "O you'll be fine the hair cushioned most of the impact". That also made it very funny. O I forgot to tel this. While we were at the beach, Aunt Laurie was chewing some gum and "pop" out flew one of her fillings. She said well I thought I just had a big peice of sand in my mouth but then she said "well no it kind feels like a rock". It was very funny.
Now im up on the 4th floor relaxing in the hammocks writing my blog. This has been an awesome week and I am anxious to see how my last full day will be tomorrow.
Goodnight!
:)

Day 4

Good morning walki talki!

Around 8:30 this morning, Maggie and Lauren decided to play a little joke on my by putting the walki talki beside my head on my pillow. They then gave a walki talki to Jacob and let him scream "Everybody wake up!!". Well... IM UP!!
Breakfast consisted of frosted Cheerios and chocolate milk. The weather was not supposed to be on its sunny side again today so it looks like more shopping and indoor activities. I started reading my book last night and by chapter 2 it has pulled me in. The whole book has 184 chapters so I have a lot of work to do.
At the mall, of course I had to go to my favorite store ever, Abercrombie and Fitch. They had really cool short on sale, so Dad bought them for me. Dad got a new pair of Volcom swimming trunks and Colton played in the water fountains. While we were at the mall, the weather turned beautiful so we left there and headed back home to go to the beach.
At the beach Dad and I laid out for awhile until Roslyn, Bianca and Gabe came out, and then I went out into the water. The waves were larger today than they have even been, so it made the beach trip much more fun. After playing in the waves for awhile, I returned to shore and started to act like a kid again by playing in the sand. First I constructed a sea monster weaving in and out of the sand. It looked really cool and did not take much time. Then I ventured out closer to the water and started on my masterpiece. This thing to about 2 hours to make. A HUGE skull and crossbone! By the time I was finished I was exhausted. My arms were killing me from digging up that wet sand and constructing that thing. Tomorrow I plan on making something much larger and much more detailed. I love a big challeng. I think I got a better tan sitting out there playing in the sand than I did laying out. Note to self: Be a kid! We stayed at the beach for quite awhile today, so maybe I got a couple of shades darker.
After the beach, we all came in and settled down for a little while. Bianca and I left to go play tennis and stayed out there for about 2 hours. Whew, was that a workout?! After we got home, Uncle Guy had grilled hamburgers and they were delicious. We also had baked potatoes that were also very good!
Things settled down in the house and everyone was nestling down. The kids did there thing and the adults did theirs. Today was a very relaxed day, and I cant wait until tomorrow! Im not writing a lot tonight but I will put quite a few pictures up!
:)

Day 3

Rise and Shine its 9!

Waking up at 9:00 is a lot better than 10:00. Sure its only an hour but that makes a difference when you get to eat breakfast and relax. Today's weather is a bit overcast so we sat inside for a while. Maggie, Lauren and Aunt Michelle rode there bikes down to the coffee shop and Aunt Laurie, Mrs. Liz, and Roslyn went down to a nearby flower shop. Today was going to be a relaxed, shopping and do whatever day. It was a 60 percent chance of rain today but no one seemed to mind because there were plenty of activities to do other than go the beach. Mrs. Liz started looking on the internet for our Dolphin Cruise that we would be taking tomorrow.
The weather was starting to clear up so we all headed down to the beach to play around for a little while. The waves were very large and powerful today at the beach. There was a strong undertow, so it was quite difficult to stay in the same spot. The current took you wherever it wanted to. I seriously think I got whiplash out there in the water. The waves were crashing into me so hard, it threw my head back every time and my head was KILLING me. The rain was starting to drizzle down a little bit so we gathered our things and headed back to the house.
It was lunch time. For lunch we had Pizza Rolls and French Fries. Yum! Everyone sat around the kitchen and living room and ate their lunch. Maggie, Kai, Lauren and Aunt Michelle headed back out to the beach in the storm. They hadn't been out for long when they came strolling back in the door. Dad and I decided to take a little drive down to Panama City and do some shopping at the mall. First we looked around for some watches in the Nike store but didn't find much. Then we ventured out farther into the mall looking for me some new "Sanuk" shoes, well excuse me sandals. We finally found a pair in Ron Jons Surf Shop. Dad also found several swimming trunks but decided not to get one. Im not sure why but he didnt.
When we returned home, Pop had arrived and he greeted us at our car. The first thing he did was say hey and complimented on the new shoes of mine. We got inside and Aunt Laurie was tossing the salad for dinner. Pop was getting ready to go to the beach, he had not yet been out there. Colton was getting a bit irritable so Mrs. Liz laid him down for a nap. Dad was fixing Mrs. Liz sunglasses and Lauren was reading a book. It was pretty quiet around the house, for now.
Aunt Laurie was queen of the kitchen today. She scurried all over preparing Salads, Spaghetti, French and Cuban bread. After the bread was finished cooking, she reached in the oven without thinking and grabbed the bread pan. Ha. You know what happened next. She threw the pan on the counter and screamed "O my gosh that is hot as du du.". It was hysterical. Lauren and I laughed for 15 minutes straight. This not only happened once but twice. You would think she would have used something to block the heat but no..
Since today was the only day that Mamaw and Pop would be her together, we were supposed to take pictures on the beach. No one was really at the house so that was kinda put off until Saturday. I think saturday will be a better day to take them anyway considering there a couple of things I want to do but it requires people to lay down and sit in the sand. Everyone would be more cooperative if the sand was dry, so
It was supper time! Mrs. Liz was the first in the kitchen and the first to make a mistake. ha. She scooped the noodles onto her plate and fixed her salad. She was sidtracked and poured Thousand Island dressing on her noodles instead of her noodles. It was very funny. I piled my plate full of salad, bread and spaghetti. By the time I was finished, I was stuffed! Bianca and I planned to go play tennis later on so maybe I could work off all that food. It had rained a little today so maybe it wont be to wet to play. Colton missed his nap, so Dad gave him his bath and dressed him in his night clothes to get ready for bed. He was very irritable. I think his ear was beginning to bother him because he kept pulling at it.
Random moment. I am so sick of watching Spongebob on TV. I dont exactly know the channel keeps getting back on it but it does. That show never goes off. Between Spongebob and The Penguins of Madagascar, I will never watch cartoons of television again. GEEZEE!!
There was not much to do around here since it was raining besides go shopping. Dad and I took a little stroll on the bikes down to Seaside to look for Mrs. Liz. Come to find out she was back at the house. When we returned home, Aunt Laurie asked me if I had been to the book store in seaside yet, I had not. Mrs. Liz, Aunt Laurie and Myself walked down to the book store and looked around for awhile. I got a postcard with a beautiful sunset in the middle of it that I was going to get everyone to sign and then I would frame it. I also got the first book of a series that I have been wanting to start since school ended. The Angel Experiment. The book is about six kids who have no home or home. They are running for their lives. They all have the ability to fly, and that is just the beginning of there extraordinary powers. They don't know who they are or where they came from. The question to them is to same mankind, - or destroy it? So yeah I am anxious to start reading it.
Things settled down in the house and people were starting to chill. With a chance of rain in the forecast for tomorrow, We are planning to make a trip down to Destin Florida.
Goodnight!
:)

Day 2

I missed breakfast!!

Buzz.... Buzz.... Buzz.... This is what I heard at 10:00 this morning when I should have heard it at 8:00. My phone sometimes has a mind of its own and this morning it decided that I need to sleep an extra 2 hours. ugh!. So yeah.. I missed breakfast. When I got out of bed I went downstairs to find everyone headed off to the beach. Back up stairs I went to change into my swim suit and grab my towel and brand new sunglasses. Off to the beach I went.
The waves at the beach were much bigger than yesterdays but no one complained because it was the perfect conditions to catch a wave with our boogie boards! Maggie, Lauren and Myself headed out into the beach to just chill for a little while. We made it a little further than the first sandbar but stopped when the girls had difficulties touching the bottom. The water felt great. I headed back into shore to catch some sun before I got hungry. I had only been laying out for about 30 minutes when I heard/felt my stomach rumble. Its time to eat. Back at the house, once again, I whipped up a PB&J sandwich and quickly scarfed it down.
Baby Colton had his unfortunate taste of the beach today. His happy little self decided he was going to rub sand in his eyes. uuhh ooo. What an ordeal this became. Dad, Mr. Save The Day, ran to the nearby drug store and purchased saline solution for the baby's eyes. Now putting the solution in his eyes was the tough part. With Mrs. Liz holding him down, Me holding his eye open and Dad squirting the solution in, Colton did not have a good time, at all! No more trips for Baby Colton to the beach.
After eating and taking care of baby bro, I was ready to go back to the beach. I grabbed my towel, glasses and goggles then headed off. At the beach I laid out again, trying to get as dark as possible, went out on the kayak and floated around on the boogie boards. This time, the kayak adventure was a little different. I went out with Maggie and Lauren. They wanted to go past the second sandbar and just stop. ha. The waves were larger and the boat flipped a lot easier. I was ready to keep paddling and get back to shore before I came face to face with some sea creature that I did not want to. Floating on the boogie boards was a lot of fun. The undertow of the ocean kept pulling us out farther and farther and it was quite a task to get back to shore. While we were on the boards we saw a HUGE and I stress the word huge, shadow swim behind us. I don't know what it was and was not anxious to go find out either. I will just leave that a mystery.
Ha.. ok well... I'm hungry again so everyone headed to the house to get lunch. Lunch consisted of White Cheddar Mac and Cheese, Broccoli smothered in Ranch, Ham and Cheese sandwiches and Chips and Dip. It was very good. I was stuffed and knew that I need to go down to the tennis courts and purchase tokens so we could play later. So off I went down the road on the bicycle to the courts. I reserved courts at 5:00 this afternoon for Bianca and I. It was then 3:30, so we had a little extra time before we were scheduled to play. So we sat in the living room and watched spongebob while Kai fascinated himself by making a quiz on Facebook called "Do You Love Lamp?". ha. Dad, Mrs. Liz and Colton went down the road to some shopping centers to look around for awhile.
Me and Bianca played tennis for about 2 hours and boy was it a good workout. Bianca is a great tennis player with a backhand that I am jealous of. Ha. That is one thing I really need to work on, my backhand. Forehands are a strong point of mine, so I do all I can to run around the court to make the shot a forehand. Beside Bianca and I, were two really great players, who we would just stop and watch for a while. Wow! They were really great!
SUPPER TIME! It was kinda "fend for yourself" night. Kai and Gabe rode down the road for a bite to eat and I ran to the Seagrove Village Market and grabbed a hamburger. I take that back, a HUGE hamburger and seasoned fries. YUMMY!! :). Then for dessert, a Cookies-n-Cream ice cream cone. My favorite flavor of ice cream.
Roslyn and I set at the kitchen table and she showed me the book that she made. In this book she has "doodled" for 7 years about summer vacations. Wow she is a great artist and has beautiful penmanship. She shared some funny, scary and exciting memories with me on vacations that I unfortunately missed out on. Including; Roslyns fear of "dead" frogs, How Parker was choking in the pool and Jacob screamed out a whimper and everyone freaked out and said "omg jacob is sad" poor Parker. Just let him drown. ha. Every morning they would wake up and immediately go look for sharks because they were on the 2oth floor of a hotel. Her book was really an interesting artifact that brought back memories for everyone.
It was getting late and everyone was settling down except for Parker and Jacob. They were determined to go crab hunting on the beach. Jacob, Parker, Roslyn, Kai, Gabe, Aunt Laurie and Myself headed off to the beach in search of some pinching crabs. What fun! Dad and Mrs. Liz sat in the living room watching a new medical show, "Mental". Mrs. Liz showed great interest in it. She works at a Mental hospital. Dad seemed a bit interested also.

While sand crabbing, I decided that catching the crabs with the net was a slower method. I then began to catch them with my hands.. BAD IDEA. First I caught a medium sized crab. No problem. Then I saw a big crab that I was anxious to capture, so I ran out to catch it. I dove into the sand and slapped my hand on top of the crab. Snap! That durn crab pinched me in the palm of my hand and drew blood. That little bugger hurt. Back to the net method I went. I figured I could either donate a pint of blood to the United Blood Services or speed up my rhythm. I chose the latter. After catching all the crabs that were necessary, Roslyn had a bright idea that we would all stand in a circle and dump the crabs in the middle. The point of this was to see who could stand there and let the crabs crawl all over them. Ha. Kai was a crab magnet. It seems that every crab ran right over his foot. The monster of all crabs didn't move when we poured them out. He sat motionless in the middle of all of us. I reached out and touched it with my net and it shot up and ran right over Kia's foot. We headed back to the house and made Margaritias for the adults and watched TV.

Today has been adventourous and exciting. Lots of sun was gotten and lots of fun was made. Waiting anxiously for tomorrow, I am getting hungry and sleepy. Goodbye for now!

:)

Day 1

Rise and Shine its BREAKFAST time! :)

I awoke this morning around 9:00 AM, not to early but to late either, came down stairs to find the family all gathered in the kitchen scurrying around fixing breakfast. Of course, I had cereal. An all time favorite of mine, froot loops! After breakfast everyone slipped into there swim suits and gathered there beach necessities. Colton had the most stuff to carry to the beach so a total of 3 trips were made. The last trip was the worst in that it consist of hauling the kayak. A big 2 seater ocean boat that we rented from a guy that said "naw its not so heavy" ha that was an understatement for sure.
At the beach, we all swam for a while and did the usual "beach activities". Later I began rumbling through the sand and looking for buried treasure, ha well I was looking for shells and other interesting things. Along with many beautiful shells that I found a dead crab that was HUGE! It was kinda nasty but nothing less than interesting. Later I found a live sand dollar and it was "red". So of course I kept it. I think its dead now, but it will make a great souvenir. Roslyn, Gabe and Myself then ventured out into the ocean on the kayak. This was by far a very big hit. Crossing further than the second sand bar in the ocean, we were a good distance away from shore. All I could do was paddle and hope not to flip over. YIKES!
I was starving by this time, so we returned home for a mid-day snack. What did I eat? PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY sandwich. yum. This is my favorite snack and I will probably go through at least 2 jars of peanut butter this week. So after eating 2 sandwiches, I sat out by the pool and watched Jacob, Parker, Maggie and Lauren Ashley swim. I was not about to get in the pool after the big discussion of Parker and Jacob peeing in the pool. Dad and I then went in search for a bike that had a stroller on the back for baby Colton. Found it and then returned home.
By this time, everyone was ready to go back to the beach. We went. Kai, Gabe, and Myself went out in the kayak and this time went much farther than before. Where the water was a deep blue, we stopped rowing and just sat out there. Quite eerie if you ask me. The waves were starting to pick up and we did all we could to keep the kayak from flipping. Not an easy task. We started heading back toward shore and actually did flip on the last sandbar. ha. When we returned to shore, Aunt Laurie, Mrs. Liz and Roslyn were waiting to get on the boat. They went out and had a good time and then returned with no difficulties. Lucky dogs. If you know me well, you probably are not surprised to hear that I became hungry again. Yup, you got it another peanut butter and jelly sandwich was on the way! :)

After my 3/4 day snack, Dad and I took another bike ride into Seaside to look around in the shops. Dad bought me a new pair of sunglasses and I must say, they are very cool. The look not only makes them great, but the name, gascan, makes it even better. I love them. When we returned home, we went back to the beach to retrieve the kayak. This time Roslyn backed her vehicle up to the beach walk and we loaded it up. This was much easier than the haul to the beach this morning.
ITS SUPPER TIME! I guess you can call this my favorite time of the day. Thanks to Aunt Michelle and Uncle Guy, we enjoyed delicious pizza! My favorite, meat lovers was the first pizza I dug into followed by cheese. Wow I am super stuffed from the food maybe a run down the beach or a few laps in the pool will do me some good.
Hopefully we will be able to go and play tennis tonight as I am super anxious to do so. Dad seems to be worried that we will get kicked off the courts for not being a resident of Seaside, but im not worried about it. I think we are just gonna go tonight when no one else will be out there.
Whew! we just got back from playing tennis and boy was it toasty out there. We were going at it good until night fell and we could no longer see. We tried to put quarters in the light machine but it only accepted tokens that you buy from the pro shop. Tomorrow morning we are going to purchase tokens so we will be able to play with lights tomorrow. Bianca is a great tennis player and I am looking forward to playing again tomorrow.
To end day 1, our family, well the adults in the family sat around the living room playing Trivial Pursuit 80's Edition. WOW! boy that was hilarious. The family that was supposedly lived the 80's knew absolutely nothing about the 80's. We ended up completely cheating by just giving people pieces of the pie. ha. we knew absolutely nothing about this!
I'm pooped for today so I am going to bed, tomorrow brings more beach, shopping and tennis! Its only the first day and it feels like I have crammed a week of vacation in this 16 hour time period.
Goodnight world!
:)
My Sand Dollar

Ok.. This is so random but after trivial pursuit, well partially during it also Aunt Laurie had some random hilarious moments. First of all there is a vanilla candle on our kitchen table that every time Aunt Laurie looked at it she blurted out o that looks like a glass of milk. Ha absolutely hilarious. It may not seem funny now but when your delirious like we are and have been playing the game for a hour, it was pretty darn funny.

Then we got on the subject of how sunburnt Aunt Lauries feet were. They were so burnt, they reached the point of swelling up. ha. Even though its not funny, at the same time it was hilarious. We even started talking about how she was going to have to wear socks to the beach tomorrow and that even added a funnier ascpect to the story of thinking how she would look in socks on the beach. ha.
Im seriously going to bed now.
Night!

Arrival Day!

Whew!!
We finally made it to Florida around 3:00 pm. Which was a little earlier than we had expected, not a bad thing at all. Upon arrival, me and my family scoured the home looking for our nightly nesting area and claimed it before anyone else could, we were not in a big hurry to do this as we were the only ones that had arrived at the home at the time. Dad, Mrs. Liz and Colton called the room with a large king bed and plenty of room to put the play pin. I already knew which room I was getting, it was the room with 4 beds where all the guys would be sleeping on our trip; Kai, Parker, Gabe, and Myself. After unloading all of the luggage and placing it in the correct room, we really took the time to view the home, and what a beautiful place it was. On the first floor was a master bedroom with a king bed, laundry room, kitchen and a beautiful screened in pool. Moving on to the second floor, was the kids bedroom, 2 bedrooms for family's. On the third floor was one bedroom and a bathroom. Walking outside of the third floor bedroom was a balcony with a winding staircase leading up to a gazebo with 2 relaxing hammocks overlooking all the treetops and a view of the ocean. I could tell by the home this was going to be a great vacation.I then took out my camera a snapped a few photos of the beautiful home before it became, um.. not so beautiful.
Jacob was the first one to hit the pool and test out the water and his results we not the greatest but he did not seem to mind that the water was kinda cold. Maggie and Lauren also started there vacation in the pool. I was very tempted to jump in myself but there were things that i had to get done with such as unloading. After unloading all the luggage and getting everything "livable", Roslyn, Bianca, Maggie, Lauren, Gabe, and Myself decided to take a little walk to the beach. One word- Astounding! Bluish Green water, perfect white sand and sea shells washed ashore, all added up to one thing. The perfect vacation. When we returned home, it was supper time. Granted this was the first day and no one really "cooked", so we had chilly dogs, surprisingly delicious! After dinner, Maggie, Lauren and Myself left in search for the Seaside Tennis Club. Tennis is a passion for me. Come to find out, Bianca is also into tennis, so I now have a tennis buddy for the week. Walking waayy further than needed, we finally found the courts. We headed back to the house where Aunt Michelle, Guy, Kai and Parker were about to arrive. We all set in the kitchen talking about past Florida trips, and let met tell you, A BIG HOOT! ha.
After reminiscing, my dad and I went out for a little bike ride. We went down the main road into Seaside where we visited the tennis courts and then strolled around the shopping areas available in Seaside. We headed back to the house to find our family playing a game of "reaction"! It was Aunt Lauries turn to grab the buzzers. She became easily distracted at something else when the red light turned green and Kai hit the button first sending a shock right through Aunt Laurie's hand. She threw that buzzer and jumped back so hard, thank goodness it was suction cupped to the table, or it would have been in Key West Florida! Once again, another big hoot from the family.
Here I am now telling you about my day, and what a day it has been. I am overly
anxious about what my first full day of vacation will be like.

GOODNIGHT! :)
P.S. Here are a few pics from out first day! :)