August Florida Vacation!

I'm pretty sure that I put off vacation posts because I have a billion pictures to go through.  Consider yourself forewarned!  I will try to put up minimal captions, but the captions are kinda the point of blogging for me.  So.... if you make it through this one, congrats.  If you have places to be, then leave now.  :)  Hurry.  Go.

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When everything went CRAZY at David's work, we postponed our trip for a week so he could go.  However, after a week, he wasn't near finished saving the space program.  So, we had to go without Daddy.  :(  He and I had already gotten the girls some new "vacation prizes" for the 9 hour drive, so one night when he was (surprisingly) home for dinner, they got to open their presents for the trip the next day.  Here is Reagan with Woody and Bullseye.  She cried some serious happy tears.

 Brooklyn kinda liked her new Elmo and book.

 At this time, she was going through a "put everything on my head" phase.

 These will be all out of order because they loaded funky and there are WAY too many for me to fix them all.

B looooooooooved the sugary sand in Destin!

Cousins in their matching hair.

 Corbin really got into the boogie boarding thing.

Grandmommy and Brooklyn LOVE their hangout time on vacations!

 

 Nothing to say.  :)

One of my FAVES.

Gotta enlarge some of these... this place is just BEAUTIFUL and the big photos show it better.

 Another favorite.

 This needs explanation.  Adam is VERY thorough when it comes to sunscreen.  He was helping Missy, and I made some smart mouth comment about photographing their foreplay.  The faces they each made were PRICELESS.  :)

 SO thankful for Puddle Jumpers.

Cutie pie.

Adley, Missy, Corbin, Reagan, and Adam.

 The next few photos show how Brooklyn spent a lot of her time:

 Shell-hunting.

 Football!  Adam admitted he would throw it JUST in time for Corbin to catch it and get drilled by a wave at the same time.  Fabulous parenting.  :) :) :)

 SO glad Grandmommy got to come with us!

 There were a billion birds this day, and they are waving to them.  Brooklyn LOVES birds.

 Mom is signing "bird" with Brooklyn.

 Showing off a great shell-find to Grandmommy.  Another favorite.  :)

 SO sweet.

Granddaddy getting in on the football action.

 B really liked sitting right at the water's edge too.

How many favorites am I allowed?  This is another.

 Burying Corbin in the sand!!!  This NEVER appealed to me as a child, but he was SO excited!

 Missy wrote his name across him for the pic.

I couldn't believe it, but Reagan asked for it to be her turn next!

 

 B and Granddaddy laughing at those crazy kids!

Greatness.

 Adley's turn!!!

Despite Reagan's look right here, they were LOVING this!  So fun!  I meant to put in the one with her smiles, but uploaded the wrong one.  Oh well.

 

 Picnic lunch.

 I promised R we would make a sandcastle together, and we finally got around to it the last day.

 "Hi, Mommy!"

 Our last day the water was SPECTACULAR.  It was hotter with less clouds, but made for the MOST GORGEOUS day!

 Over a couple of days, she got much braver with the waves.

 The water here is so pretty.  Clear as bath water.

A little sand exfoliation is great for the skin, right girls?!

 Mainly took this picture to show the GORGEOUS beach.  None of us had been to Destin before, and I will DEFINITELY be back!

 That evening, the view from our balcony.

 Opposite direction.

 Sure wish Daddy was there for this picture, but love it anyways.

 We got cleaned up one night to go out to supper.  Gotta love the matchy-matchy.  :)

 I made the kids all matchy hooded beach towels, but the only pic we got was out of the bathtub rather than the beach.  Cute though!  Except for Brooklyn who was having NONE of it....  Adley did her best with the headlock.

Out of orders...

Wave jumping!

 How my nephew and niece have gotten so big, I will never know.  But great family photo!

 Exfoliating with Uncle Adam.  I bet he LOVED this.

 I can't even express how much my brother's love for my girls makes me smile!

Take One.

 Take Two.  A bit better, but not much.  That's our condo building in the back, the yellow one.  It. Was. Fabulous.

 I obviously have a hard time resisting the wedgie pictures.

 SO sweet.

 Brooklyn woke up early from her nap and got to hang out with the big kids for quiet time/VeggieTales watching.

 We attempted a Grandparent photo on the balcony, but the hurricane force winds make it difficult.  Plus, the humidity kept fogging up the lens.  This was as good as it got.  Still cute.  :)

 Brooklyn made BIG strides with the elevator.  She used to be TERRIFIED of elevators, but Missy wore her therapist hat with her this trip and gave her some successful exposure therapy to elevators.  Notice, no screaming!!

 Dorks.

 LOVE my SIL.

Greatness.  I hope I get to experience Great-Grandparenthood.

 Not sure about this face...

 Adley eating her extra spicy gumbo.

 Checking out the marina with Granddaddy.

Whew!  That was like 80 photos, or something close.  Worth it... such a great trip!

Almost caught up with the summer!