Once again we made our yearly trip to Ft. Walton Beach for the days surrounding July 4th. I don't know exactly how many years we have been taking this vacation but it is what we look forward to from year to year. This year was extra nice because my Uncle Eddie and Aunt Angie and their girls and their families joined us. This year we were obviously worried as to how our trip would turn out do to the oil spill in the gulf. We decided early on that even if we had to stay at the pool everyday we were making our annual trip to Florida. Well, lets just say we had the prettiest water we have had in years and the best weather I can remember. The water was as clear as it could be but very rough and the weather was in the high 80s so we didn't even sweat while laying out. It was perfect other than how rough the water was. We really had to watch the kids even when they were just sitting to let the water come up on them. The undertoe was very bad and would pull you out and under very fast. As always the kids loved playing in the sand. Reagan had a great time playing with Carly Rhea and Hudson. She loves having little ones around to mother and play with. I teased Russell and Melanie that they needed to borrow her when they went on vacations because she could watch and play with Hudson while they had fun. Carly reminded me so much of Reagan in the sand. Not really sure if she liked it but wanted to play because everyone else was. They are both very cute, very sweet babies. We had tons of sand toys which made for several meltdowns over who got to play with what. The most popular toy this year was a little flower watering pale. Landon had picked it out at the Dollar Store one afternoon and it was a hit. Who would've known that one little watering can could cause so many problems. At one point we actually hid the thing so the boys couldn't fight over it. It is however very nice that they can play in the sand and get their own water by themselves so that we can soak up some sun. All the men went and played golf our first full day there and when they returned we went and ate at Crab Trap. Granny came down to visit with us for a couple of the nights and went out to eat with us. Somehow she avoided the camera so we don't have evidence that she was there, but she was. Other than the golf outing we were on the beach or at the pool the whole time. Reagan is a great swimmer now and Landon has begun to want to swim under water. He is getting better every time we practice. Aaron is also becoming more comfortable with the water and will be swimming in no time. The best pool toy this year was four torpedoes that I bought when I had to run to Publix one morning. We split them up and gave Landon 2 and Aaron 2. They would throw them in and Reagan would swim to go get them and bring them back. It is hard to imagine that one day soon we will be able to just watch them swim instead of having to swim with them.
I wasn't able to get nice family pictures this year because it was dark when we got back from eating out and that is the only night we had nice clothes on to take pics. Oh well, maybe next year. The slide show of all our pics is very long but it proves we had a wonderfully fantastic time.
