The wonderful vacation (all pictures taken by my phone)

We seem to do so much better when we are thrown into things.  This trip to the beach was a wonderful week.  We played and rested, while enjoying the best beach weather ever!  The weather was in the 80s all week, with a couple of afternoon showers.  The seaweed was almost non existent.  And the water was beautiful.
We spent a lot of time with my brother's family.  My cousin's family was staying at the same resort, as well, and it was fun to run into them at the pool or beach.  And my parents came for a couple of days.  So the kids had so much fun with playmates. 

We enjoyed long hours on the beach and in the ocean, and many hours at the pools.  This resort has a water slide down on the sand, lots of pools, and a restaurant and bar right by the pool.  So really, you could spend an entire week and never get in your car.  There is also golf and tennis, which we said we were going to do.  But the kids love the water too much.  And now that we do not have a pool in the backyard I also wanted to take full advantage of it myself.

Some of the other highlights of the week were mini golf, the water park, looking for crabs, fishing, and good food and shopping.  Andy and I enjoyed a date night on Thursday, while the kids spent the night with my brother's family.  And then on Friday we had his children over for the night and they went on a date.  Those nights were very special and sweet.

For our date we drove through Rosemary Beach and Seaside, and finally ate at a restaurant in Grayton Beach.  This area of Florida is spectacular.  So much beauty in the beaches, architecture, art, and city planning.  It was a feast for the eyes!  If you are ever in Grayton Beach, try Pandora restaurant.  It is not the most lovely in the decor, but the food was outstanding. 

On our night to keep all of the children, we took them out for pizza and mini golf.  We didn't get them in bed until after midnight.  Oops.  But isn't that the fun of being with your aunt and uncle??  One of my nieces was begging to go back to the condo and go to sleep before the night was over. :)

Although our trip went off without a hitch (except the night that my brother ran out of gas, but let's not count that night), we still came home with a hilarious memory.  We seem to be magnets for these types of things on trips.  Andy went out on the pier to fish one day.  He had the rare treat of seeing a very large manatee swimming around the pier, which is very unusual for this location.  All the people on the pier noticed, and many were amazed.  There was one family that began yelling, "Shark!  Shark!" down in the water, and running for shore.  They were of a different ethnicity and not quite able to say the "r" sound, just for extra perspective.  So Andy yelled, "No, no!  It's okay.  It's just a manatee."  The man looked dazed and confused and then began frantically yelling, "Sea monster!  Sea monster!", with the accent, remember.  His whole family ran out of the water in a jiffy.  It made Andy's day.

The boys are ocean lovers.  But this girl prefers the sand.

The beach on our first night while we were waiting for a table at Sharky's.

Sunset

The kids loved this water slide that was set up on the beach in front of the resort.

The bay by Boondock's restaurant.

My sweetheart

Greyce and Lydie- attached at the hip

More beautiful snapshots

Anna and Lydie

Our view on our date night of the sunset in the car on the way to Grayton Beach

All the girls hanging on Uncle Rick in the pool

Lydie finally discovered that she can swim with her head under the water.

The cousins and the kids the night we kept them before dinner.

And playing mini golf.  So fun!!

On our way home we marvelled at the fact that this vacation was completely unexpected and fell right into our laps.  It was such a gift, a treat!  And we came back a little tired from the traveling, but so refreshed.  It was the perfect way to begin July!  Praise the Lord for such sweet gifts!!