FLORIDA!

We went to Florida! Since we did the Black Hills last year, we felt a beach vacation was in order for this year. School got out on the 24th, and on the 25th we loaded up the van and drove to Panama City where we picked up Grandma Sally. From there we headed to our final destination - a beach house on Cape San Blas. A beautiful, unspoiled peninsula tucked into the panhandle. For those with a map, it lies between Panama City and Appalachicola. No theme parks, Walmarts, fast food restaurants...just miles and miles of white sandy beaches. Ahhhhhh.

We had some time to kill in Panama City before we could check into our house. We found a public beach and if I were to title my photos, this one would be called "PURE JOY." We made a trip to Florida when Tony was 18 mos. old so he doesn't remember the beach. He was beside himself with glee when he first stuck his toes in the Gulf of Mexico.

Here's the kids getting SOAKED without their swimsuits on...hurray, we're on vacation!

The kids just couldn't get enough of the beautiful white sand. They were pretty much covered in it all week long...you should see the inside of my van. ugh.

Much of our 7 days was spent doing a lot of this......

...and a lot of this. We'd park ourselves on the beach in the morning and stay until sunset.

On the other side of the Cape is a shallow, calm, bay. We spent a day snorkeling....I was AMAZED at how quickly the kids took to snorkeling. They had a blast finding sea urchins, hermit crabs and Liv scored big time when she found this star fish. What fun!

Olivia and Chris looking for treasure.

Tony found what seemed like hundreds of hermit crabs....each one was as exciting as the first to him.

As most of you know, Tony is our nature FREAK. He was in awe at all the palm trees in Florida. Just like the hermit crabs, each one he saw was special....if I had a dollar for every time he said "Look at the palm tree!!!!"

Olivia is our Sea Turtle lover. She has a vast collection of Sea Turtle items at home. She was thrilled when we happened upon a REAL sea turtle nest that was marked by the University of Florida Sea Turtle Research Team. It was quite a special thing for her to experience.

Tony has a strange fascination with Swamps...he had even declared earlier in the year that he wanted a "Swamp Birthday Party" this year. Imagine that cake. Anyways, he and Chris went on a Kayak Swamp Tour. Unfortunately they didn't spot any alligators, much to Tony's disappointment. However, during the week we had the pleasure of experiencing geckos, pelicans, egrets, dolphins (swimming right near the beach!), hermit crabs, jelly fish, shells, shells and more shells....the kids were in hog heaven!

This is a view of the sunset from the deck of our house....worth the 20 hour drive to see this each night.

Hey, I WAS on this trip...as "keeper of the camera", you don't see much of me. That's alright, I enjoyed capturing all our memories...although all those sit-ups I did were for naught. :)

If you haven't visited the ocean, put it on your list of things to do. It's humbling.

One of our favorite things to see were the beautiful sand dunes along the Cape. Perfect place to capture our family before we head home.

On the way home we stopped in St. Louis to visit "The Arch." What a COOL thing to see!!! We were all impressed with this amazing structure and are glad we took the time to see this.

Well, that's it. We had a wonderful trip and it was made even more special for the kids since Gramma came along. We are all beach bums at heart...how we ended up in the midwest is beyond me.