Perdido Key, Florida

We just returned home after a GLORIOUS 11-day vacation with my family in Perdido Key, Florida. We have been looking forward to this trip for the past two years...and we will look forward to our next one for the next two years!! (We normally take a family vacation every other summer.)

A few days before we left, Rachel and I were telling one of our friends that we were going on a family vacation soon. Our friend made the comment, "I bet your family vacations are so fun...there doesn't seem to be any...you know... "drama" in your family! You all actually like each other!" 

I thought about that after she said it, and she is right! We are SO blessed with thirteen amazing family members who seriously ALL get along and love to be with each other. I've often thought about how grateful I am that Rachel and I both married guys who get along great and who also get along with our dad! Very thankful.

So the drive to Perdido Key is about fourteen hours. I was outvoted five to one on the timing of our drive...I wanted to drive during the day (because I know how TERRIBLY my kids sleep in a vehicle), but all the other adults wanted to drive through the night. So that's what we did. :) 

...and yes, I was right about my kids being terrible sleepers in the car. On the way, Abel didn't fall asleep until close to 4:00 am, and on the way home, I don't think he ever slept for more than a one-hour stretch at a time (sandwiched between other hours of pure crying). The other two didn't do much better.

HOWEVER...I am glad we drove through the night, because despite all the crying, I think it did make the trip go much faster. And we gained an extra day in Florida. So I guess I'm glad I got outvoted. :)

See that little space to the right of the car seats? 

That was my seat for the 14-hour drive. We were pretty packed into my parents' van. And I started getting a little bit claustrophobic around 3:00 am.

And here are my two little seatmates. Their faces pretty much sum up how they felt about being in their carseats for so long.

When we got there, we were AMAZED at how nice the condo was! It was a six-bedroom penthouse condo, which was so great, because that meant we could all stay together in the same place. And we had ample room (to say the least). I definitely felt like some sort of a movie star or something. I've never stayed in a place that nice! Here's a view of the pool from our ninth floor balcony.

The kids loved to look over the balcony...which kind of scared me. But we watched them closely to make sure none of them (ahem...Israel) tried to climb the railing.

Our kids LOVED being with their grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins for a week and a half. They were seriously in heaven.

The kids all played together so well. All seven of them.

Ivy and Layla were pretty much inseparable.

(As soon as I snapped this picture of them,

Israel jumped in as fast as he could and said, CHEESE!!!)

:)

Kaine and Israel were together a lot, too! It is so fun to see them start to become friends now that Israel is getting a little older. I think Kaine is happy to have another boy to hang out with!

And Israel and Daisy are the closest two in age (less than four months apart), so it's fun to see them starting to interact a lot, too!

One somewhat unfortunate thing for Israel with having SO many girl cousins (and a sister) is that he sometimes gets dressed like a girl by one of his doting female cousins. 

He humors them well, though. :)

There was a bay behind the condo, where some of the kids and Grandpa liked to catch lizards and crabs.

We spent a ton of time every day at the pool.

Ivy and Israel both love to swim around the pool with their little floaties on. This entertained them for hours.

Abel liked it, too! (Maybe not quite as much as the older two, though.)

Sometimes Israel got tired. So then he relaxed in a boat. Like this.

Here's a little video that pretty much sums up how a few hours of each day were spent. :)

And they all liked it so much that all the girls usually wore their floaties in our condo and pretended they were swimming after we were done actually swimming!

We also went to the beach quite a bit. Here's our crew making the short walk over to the beach.

The first day we went, Ivy cried the ENTIRE time. She hates to get dirty SO much, so a beach full of sticky sand on a windy day is pretty much the worst thing she can imagine probably.

However, by the last day we went to the beach, she had made a complete turnaround. She really had fun there! (However, she would only go to Aunt Rachel...she had the special touch with Ivy.) ;)

Abel LOVED the beach.

We had a hard time keeping him with us, sometimes. He's so quick!

And Israel enjoyed the beach as long as someone was holding him or holding his hand. :)

He got to go on a kayak ride with his Papa one day!

We ate at some great restaurants,

had some great views of the water,

 

had some tasty fried pickles,

found a really nice park for the kids to play at,

and ate LOTS of ice cream.

Some nights (even after we got ice cream at an ice cream shop), the guys would make us these huge ice cream floats with pina colada pop. They were amazing! And yes, we may have overdone it on the eating...just a tad.

We spent one day with Ivy's birthmother and birthfather...it was SO great to see them again, and we all had a wonderful time. Ivy loved all of the attention and couldn't stop talking about the day we got to spend with them. :)

The guys (my dad, Aaron, Nathan, and Kaine) did a lot of fishing in the ocean. 

They were trying to catch a shark all week...but didn't have any luck with that. They would go at night to do that. I thought it was kind of scary, but they weren't too worried.

They did catch some unexpected creatures, though. Aaron caught a sea turtle,

and Nathan caught a sting ray. (They threw them both back, of course.) :)

They also caught a ton of crabs with a net (to use as fishing bait),

and they caught enough fish out of the ocean to grill for all of us for supper one night. It was quite tasty!

They also tried some interesting techniques to get the meat off of some fish that wouldn't fillet well.

One night, my parents watched all seven kids so that Aaron and I and Nathan and Rachel could go on (separate) dates. Aaron and I went to our all-time favorite restaurant (Carrabbas), then to an artsy little coffee shop in downtown Pensacola. 

(Mine is a latte, and Aaron's is a shot of espresso served with a shot of club soda to "rinse" his mouth with.)

Then we went to a movie, which we haven't done in a very long time! 

Another evening, we celebrated Rachel's birthday and my birthday with some yummy coconut cream pie,

and fun gifts.

One of my favorite parts of the whole vacation was the afternoons. While the little kids slept in the condo, the guys usually played tennis or fished, and Rachel, my mom, and Halle usually swam or walked on the beach. So since someone had to stay at the condo with the sleeping kids, I reluctantly agreed. (Just joking. I LOVED this.) 

This was my station for most of the afternoons.

I would get a coconut bar, grab my book, and perch myself on the balcony for a few hours. THAT is my idea of a vacation.

I had a good view of the guys playing tennis while I read.

Another of my favorite parts of the vacation was every night after the kids went to bed, the six adults would sit and talk...we actually did a Bible study through the book of Romans together, which was SO great. We also played games (and found out just how competitive the guys in our family really are). It was very fun!

I'd have to say...it was my favorite family vacation thus far. Thanks to my wonderful 'rents, for taking us!!

My prayer is that we would never take blessings like this for granted...that we would see how blessed we are to even take a vacation, AND with people whom we love so much!