Florida Family Vacation 2017

We had so much fun in Florida this last week. I wish we could have stayed longer but school is starting on Monday and Chris had to get back to work. So we enjoyed three full days of the beach and the sunshine and just tried to maximize our time. We left Mountain Home Sunday afternoon and drove the entire 10 hours to Pensacola, FL. We arrived at the Harber's house around midnight and transferred the kids from sleeping in their car seats to sleeping on an air mattress. Then Chris and I passed out in their guest room. 

We woke up the next morning and got to play with Adrian and her kids before heading out for the day to play. We went straight to lunch at one of our favorite beach side restaurants. We enjoyed a delicious seafood lunch and the kids played on the sandy playground while we waited for our food. 

We also ordered a virgin pina colada to enjoy in the beautiful sunny Florida weather. 

Bailey really loved my pina colada and so we shared the majority of it. 

Benson chilled on my lap while his older siblings played on the playground. 

Everyone ate so well because we all LOVE fresh seafood. 

Also, I LOVE FLORIDA CHRIS. Florida Chris doesn't have any stresses or worries. He's relaxed and happy. He's carefree and fun. 

After lunch we drove down the road to the beach and set up our little camp. We brought our little beach shelter and it was perfect. 

Benson had his first ocean experience. He didn't hate it. He didn't cry. 

He didn't love it but he didn't cry, so we are calling it a win. 

Tanner immediately grabbed his boogie-board and hit the waves. It was pretty windy so there were so decent waves. 

Bailey took to the waves too, but she just let the waves push her around and played. 

Tucker immediately started digging holes in the sand and filling his bucket with water. 

After I got Benson to sleep, I joined Tanner out in the waves for some boogie boarding. I'm getting to old for this, because I got banged up pretty good. But Tanner loved having me out there with him and loved when we got to ride the same wave to shore. 

When I came in for the waves, Bailey took off to boogie board with her brother. 

She's getting pretty good and rides the waves all the way in almost every time. 

Chris and Benson took a nap together under the beach shelter. 

Tanner discovered he could surf  the white water on his boogie board  all the way to the sand. The waves would push him in and he could stand and hold his boogie board with the rope. It was pretty fun to watch. 

Seriously how cool is this? 

Even little Bensy enjoyed some fun in the sun and sand. 

Tucker grabbed his kick board and attempted boogie boarding too. It was pretty funny to watch. 

We also played in the sand and buried some kiddos.
Tucker loved getting buried!

Bailey wanted to be buried too. 

These two kids crack me up. They were so happy buried under the sand. 

We had a great day at the beach. No tears. No fits. No fighting. It was so fantastic. 

We were able to relax in our beach shelter and eat snacks, play in the water and sand all day and no one melted down. It was awesome. We LOVE the beach so much!

Tuesday morning we went to the beach to take our annual family beach picture. 

I took some pictures of each of my older kids. It was too hot and sunny to get Benson out. 

But these kids were fun to photograph. 

After pictures at the beach we drove over to Destin, Florida with Adrian and her girls. 

We met at "Fudpuckers" for lunch. It's a fun alligator themed restaurant and my family loved it.
Tucker and Bailey ate "gator bites" and Tanner ordered fish. Chris got a gator burger and I had fish tacos. We all enjoyed our food and the kids loved that their dishes came with little toy alligators on the plates. 

After lunch we went downstairs and explored the aquarium full of baby alligators. 

Do you see all those little alligators?  So gross. 

Then we went over to "Gator Beach" and got some gator food and fed them. 

Oh man, do you see all those alligators? So creepy. Alligators are the worst. 

But we did have a great time feeding them. My kids loved it!

I was kind of a nervous wreck the entire time, but Chris watched the kids carefully and I held Benson in the front carrier so he was safe. 

Even I took a turn feeding the alligators. 

Bailey was so funny, she kept hugging the stuffed alligators. 

After we finished feeding the gators we got to hold one and have our picture taken. This picture cracks me up. Tucker didn't want to touch the alligator but at the very last second he grabbed the tale between his fingers and grinned at the camera. lol. 

After "Gator Beach" we went to the Destin outlet mall. I did a little shopping while the kids chilled in the van watching a movie with Daddy. Then we went and got some ice cream. We ended the day by meeting some of Chris' BOLC friends for dinner. These guys were in Chris' graduating class from Virginia and are currently stationed in Florida doing EOD training (explosives training). Chris was so thrilled to get to see these friends again. It was a great day and we were all exhausted after wards. 

Wednesday morning Adrian and I did a little shopping while Chris watched all the kids. He's such a good sport. Adrian is 7 1/2 months pregnant and has four little kids at home, so she needed a break. 

We brought home lunch from our favorite wood fire pizza place in Pensacola and we all enjoyed a delicious lunch together. 

Then Adrian put her kids down for naps and we took off for another day at the beach. 

Tuck had the best time playing in the waves and running in and out of the water. 

I love this little guy and his sandy face!

Benson spent a lot of time in Daddy's arms. He was happiest there. 

 Tanner and Bailey hit the waves with their boogie boards again and had a blast. 

Tucker and I built an awesome sandcastle. 

He loved the water tunnel. 

He kept putting his arms through it and feeling his hands meet. It was so funny. 

And then he had a great time destroying the thing.  

Around 6 pm we finally decided to head back to Adrian's. We cleaned off, packed up and then said our goodbyes. We drove about 5 hours of the way back on Wednesday night and stopped for the night. 

We arrived home today and went straight to the kids back to school open house. It was back to reality really fast and it was a bit harder than usual to say goodbye to the beach and our Florida life!

However, Chris and I are going back to Florida in October for our 10-year anniversary trip. So we will get one more taste of the beach this year. 

Until then, it's back to real life. School starts on Monday and the kids are excited. I'm totally not ready but I will just have to get ready. We had a wonderful time at the beach and the kids were amazing. I just love how happy they are at the beach. They don't fight and whine. They just play and enjoy the sunshine and it's perfect. I love my FLORIDA FAMILY!