Florida Trip

We left for Florida on Saturday, June 23rd in the morning.  We had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta and then took a smaller plane over to Pensacola.  When we got there, the kids were pretty much done. They were actually pretty good on the flight over, which was a relief.
The weather that week was iffy. There was a tropical depression brewing in the gulf and no one knew which direction it was headed. Thank goodness it ended up hitting the peninsula of Florida and just missed us. The first few days, we weren't able to get in the water because the surf was dangerous and the riptide was strong.  But the water was soo warm! Weird how the storm created such a warmth.

We met Shaun's family there who had flown in from Vegas. All 13 of us bunked together in this beach house. 

Even Phil made it out to vacation with us (wouldn't have been the same without his smiling face)

The view from the balcony straight to the ocean was unbelievable.  Good thing we didn't have to witness a storm from that view.

On Monday, we went to Alligator Alley in Summerdale, AL and spent the day roaming around checking out the crocodiles and alligators they have either grown there from eggs or rescued.

Looking at the Pigs - Woo!! They were stinky!

Everybody checking out the Gators

Some were hatched same time as Brentley ;-)

Shaun and Jacob checking out the gators underneath the walkway. Kind of eerie walking out on this walkway knowing there's a whole lot of alligators running around free beneath you.

Jacob and his Uncle Jerry

On Tuesday, we all went to Gulf World Marine Park in Panama City so that the kids could experience swimming with a dolphin.

There was quite a bit for all of us to see there as well. I think Jacob especially liked watching the dolphin show and seeing all the exotic birds and flamingos up close.

On Wednesday, the rest of the gang went into Alabama to see the battleship in the bay and then take a tour of a plantation while we, (Shaun, the boys and me) stayed at the beach house and had a fun day playing in the sand and in the kiddie pool we found downstairs.  Jacob didn't care to get into the ocean, but we found that we could fill it up with ocean water and he would sit in it and play with Brentley. Shaun and I even ventured into town and had seafood and clam chowder.

We went out to eat one night at this Crabs place down the road and the food was pretty good.  Shaun ordered the special which was Red Snapper and he kept telling us how good the fish was. We ordered this...

It only took about 5 of us to eat it all. =)

In between the coming and going there was quite a bit of playing in the sand and water too...

On Thursday morning, the boys went and caught us some RED SNAPPER.  It's what's for dinner! Everyone who tried it really liked the taste of it. It's not a very fishy fish and it was quite meaty.  It reminded me of Mahi-Mahi but flakier.

Then on Friday, the crazy people (everyone but me and my babies, Susan and Mark) went out on a boat to go Para-sailing. Yep. They are crazy. Here's Shaun going with Grayson and Hunter.

~It was a pretty fun little vacation with family.~

Love me some Cindy!

Hanging out on the Balcony

Family Picture

*Our Little Family*

On a side note...the flight home was another flight to Atlanta then to Salt Lake. The kids did fine on the first trip, but on the second, Brentley cried. a lot. While we were in Atlanta, we were trying to figure out why he was being so fussy and found out that his first tooth had broken through the skin and was coming out.  Good timing, tooth. Thanks a lot. Let's just say, we are not hoping to fly anywhere for a while. That was not very fun coming home.