The Ford Family: FLORIDA VACATION!

We were so blessed to have our friends Erik and Erin invite us on their vacation to Destin, FL. We had a super fun time! Here's the world's longest post for me so far...

This was Isaac and Olivia in the van by 10AM the morning we left! (I'll give them a little credit because we did get up at 5:45 for an early start)

The kids were all very anxious to see the view from the condo. Pool below and beach everywhere else. Way cool! They ran all over the place laughing and jumping on the beds...

THE BEACH! Love it! Elias getting his feet wet for the first time. The water was beautiful. On a few days, it had biggerish waves!

Isaac enjoyed digging in the sand. Justin dug a hole for him.

Elaina was a little skiddish of the water. Erik and Justin taking the kids in. Isaac liked it until he got splashed in the eyes. The rest of the week he stayed mostly on the sand and edge of shoreline.

Here's Erin and the kids watching Justin and Erik ride the waves. They were shouting "Go Daddy Go!" for about 15min straight. What cheerleaders!

Justin and Erik built the world's best sand castle.

The finished product.

Justin and Erik played ball too. If you look between the umbrellas, you can see someone else tried to build a sand castle just down from the masterpiece. During naptime while the Stringfellows held the fort down , Justin and I got to play frisbee, jump the waves, and take walks on the beach. Very good time.

This is what Elias looked like most of the time while under the umbrella. He never lasted very long. Justin and I took turns staying in the condo with him so he could get a morning nap. He was great the whole week long, even while cutting in his second tooth!

All of us big kids would have liked to stay on the beach all day, but this is where we spent a lot of time. The little kids ALWAYS wanted to go to the pool. Go figure. I took this shot from our balcony. Isaac really enjoyed playing on the steps.

Elias got to play in the pool too. It was shady early morning and early evening.

"He's even kicking!" says Olivia.

Olivia jumping to Erin. She was so excited that she could touch the bottom. She wanted to swim to someone over and over and over again, with her head under water. By the end of the week, her hopping under water became an actual swim! The girls had a blast swimming together.

Cheese.

More cheese.

Justin and I got a big kick out of this one. Erik made friends with a little girl, Carly. She wasn't shy about showing how much she liked him!

We had fun inside too. Here they were playing Old Maid.

Erin brought this toy for Elias. He liked it. We get to borrow it at our house for awhile. THANKS Erin!

I gave Elias a bath in the sink. He had fun grabbing the water. See the excitement on his face?!

This is where the kids ate. We quickly learned we had to have an eating schedule so there were no arguments. Olivia sits in the middle at breakfast, Isaac at lunch, and Elaina at dinner.

Elaina brought a iron-together-bead-project. The kids worked on them for a long time and loved it. Erin did the ironing.

We went out some too! This is us eating ice cream at a 'gelato' shop on the beach. There was a playground in the sand they got to enjoy after eating their gelato.

We all went out to eat at this place. Dewey Destin. A little greasy for me, but atmosphere was awesome.

The girls leaning over the edge of the restaurant from our table. Notice their hair. They had matching hairstyles a few times. Thanks Erin!

Family Memories

We walked out on the dock at the restaurant. It swayed some at the end, but the kids thought it was cool. This was a cute picture Justin took of the Stringfellows.

This is our only group picture of the whole trip! We are at a putt putt place. There was a slight rain shower on hole 11, so we went inside and played ski ball for a bit. Justin of course won. I won't say who came in last, but it wasn't me! ;-)

The kids had fun with it too. Although, Olivia fell and reskinned her knee and was out for a few holes. I love palm trees.

Justin and I had our 7 year anniversary while in Destin. Erik and Erin watched all the kids during naptime so we could go out to eat at the Crab Trap. (We watched the kids while they went out to dinner one night to celebrate their 11yr anniversary from a few weeks prior.) The place was delicious and right on the beach. We had lots of laughs while there. LOVE YOU DEAR!

The last evening we were there, we took some beach photos. You will probably see more of these thrown in to some other posts randomly. They were sweet.