If only every day was a day at the BEACH!

We had so much fun in Pensacola!!! After our first 12 hours, Ken and I wanted to buy a beach house. Keep in mind I was talking to a woman on the beach who was a local and asked her how much the beach house next to our hotel that was for sale would be. She said it was pretty reasonable probably around $500,000. So of course we wanted to pack up and move to Pensacola in a week! Well, the next day we called the realtor. Make that more like 1.8 million!!! So to say the least--we will not be moving to Florida anytime soon.
But, if we were this is my favorite Beach House:

We stayed at Marriott's SpringHill Suites. It was a great hotel for families. There were three pools. One of them was a kiddie pool and they even heated it!
Hotel from the Beach You can rent these chairs and umbrellas for $30 a day.

The rooms were nice and new. There wasn't a seperate bedroom but the bed area had a half wall between that and the living area. And there was a balcony.
View from our Balcony. We love that full Oceanview!

The kids loved it so much they had to eat their breakfast on it. The reason I love staying in places that have a free breakfast included is:
A. Going out to breakfast for our family of 6 costs about $40.
B. It's nice to not have to hassle with getting everyone up and going and ready to leave the hotel for breakfast. This morning Ken took a couple of kids with him and ran downstairs to get us food, while I was able to take it easy. It's sooooo fabulous!

I think our kids are way too used to staying at Hotels. When we explained the reward system to the boys and how with Dad traveling so much lately we were able to stay at this hotel for free, the boys instantly said they hoped their Dad would get to keep going on business trips. That wasn't quite the effect we were hoping for.
Ken and the boys Boogie Boarding The water was about 60-65 degrees. Not super cold but there was a good wind, and that made it freezing. At least for me and the girls. The boys were able to catch some good waves. And they saw a number of surfers.

It's actually quite easy to bury someone in the sand. I always thought it would be harder, but it only took us 5 minutes max. So first we buried Dad.


Then moved onto Nathan and Darin.

Then they got up and shook it all off and Ken buried all three of us! The funny thing is that Rose was loving covering everyone up with sand. When Ken was doing it to me she kept shouting at him to STOP. Eventually when Ken didn't, she threw herself on top of my chest and said, "No. Don't put sand on my Mommy."
Rose isn't in the picture because at this point she is wailing on the ground at Ken's feet. It took her about 10 minutes to calm down after I was unburied!

FREEDOM at LAST!!!

Oh, did you think I meant for Ginger??? That would be Freedom for Mommy! Going on a two week trip with an almost 18 month old isn't impossible. It's not totally terrible either.
But it's certainly filled with me:
A. Cleaning up a hotel room she has terrorized.
B. Being constantly clung to with every new situation that is not a single bit scary or dangerous in reality.
C. Chasing after a toddler that is constantly giggling and running away in any actual scary and dangerous situations.

Ginger loved walking all over the beach, getting up and down on the beach chairs, playing in the sand, and especially eating the sand. And I loved not having to chase the tornado all day long! I was able to just lay back on the chairs and watch her do 100 yard dashes back and forth. Well, except for the few times...

Ken was on a mission this weekend to get our girls to Fall in Love with Him!!!

He has been worried about how his travel the past few months has been affecting the girls

And he's been worried how having two toddlers constantly clinging to their mom is affecting me

So, our whole trip he poured himself into winning their litte hearts

I would say: "It worked pretty good!"

No wonder we call him our Smiley Boy

And here is our Cuddly Boy. I realized something on this trip. It is really hard for us to get good pictures of Nathan. Which is surprising because he is quite the cutie. But when we think about it, about the only time he isn't bouncing, jumping, hopping, running, or just in general vibrating is when he is cuddling you. This is the clearest picture I took of him the whole weekend.

And our Dancing Girl

The boys dug out a hole that was as deep as they are tall. They even recruited a few boys to help them. They spent a ton of time digging this hole if we let them they probably would have tried to dig to the center of the earth overnight!


Towards the end of the day Ginger got so tired of walking around. She looked a little drunk. I went and picked her up and before I even took 2 steps she was out in my arms. She slept in my arms for a good two hours.

Rose insisted; "I'm not tired! I don't need my diaper changed!"
Ken laid her down on the beach chairs and she fell asleep before he even had a chance to change her diaper.

It was very relaxing holding my baby and watching the waves!


Day Two

As we were walking on the beach Ginger fell asleep while riding her Daddy's shoulders. I don't think any of our kids has ever done this before. Those waves are awfully hypnotic though!

Rose loved picking up feathers from the birds.

We saw a few Jellyfish that had washed up. Of course the boys freaked out so much the first few times that it made Rose freak out everytime she saw one too.

Darin, Nathan, and Rose loved making Sand Angels as we walked on the Beach!


My Favorite Picture It was a wonderful weekend!