sandestin florida trip :)

once again going back in time... this time we went to sandestin florida. :) this was at the end of september 2008. this trip was one of my very favs i've ever takin. i took the kids by myself and we fly from salt lake city to denver. we had a lay over for an hour so we just walked around and got something to eat. then we flew from denver to lexington alabama. there cory and j.b. (cory's best friend) picked us up. by then it was a long day. about 6 hours to that point. we got dinner and then we flew in j.b.'s dad's airplane the rest of the way to destin florida. then we drove to sandestin. the kids did sooo well! elaina was in the stroller and lex was on my shoulders so we could get around. it was kinda crazy but a lot of fun too. we stayed in j.b.'s parents condo right on the gulf of mexico. it was so beautiful! the night we got there lex started to throw up. so the first day we just hung out in the condo. it was just so nice to sit on the balconey and just watch the waves, the people coming and going, and the dragon flies that were all over the place...thousands of them!!! *sigh* i wanna go back. :) well we spent a lot of time at the beach. j.b. and his wife wendy don't really like the beach so we went with them to the pool a couple of times. and cory doesn't really like the beach either but he came with us 2 times while he was around. most of the time cory and j.b. spent flying. j.b. needed a rating so that's why we went down to florida. cory did his training while we vacationed. so the kids and i were on our own a lot of the time. so here's some pictures of our trip...






lex loved going in the water. but laina didn't like it so much. it was kinda of hard to balance both of them at the same time. but it worked...laina would watch us play in the water while she played in the sand. it felt bad though because lex wanted to go swimming all the time and i couldn't take him because i was watching laina back in the beach. i decided to invest in some water/beach toys and they really paid off! the kids played in the sand a lot. they both loved to get really dirty. laina was always covered in sand. lex would try to stay a little cleaner.

















this is lex and elaina getting warm after going swimming at the condo's pool. the water was sooo cold!!! we couldn't stay in very long. the ocean was way warmer. you can see lex's floaty duck. he loved that thing!! that's one of the toys we brought home with us because he loved it so much.

we were in florida for 2 weeks. it was wonderful to be there for so long. i can't say enough how much everyone loved it there. there's a place called the village that we went to that has a bunch of shops and places to eat. they also have a water area..not big enough to be a lake but too small to be a pond. anyways.. they were having a dog jumping show. the dogs would run and jump as far as they could off the dock. it was fun to watch at first but then lex and elaina got really bored. so they started to play with other things. they had these boats you could control by turning these wheels. we never paid for them to actually do them but they loved turning the wheels. so here's some pictures of that. and that night we went out for dinner at a BBQ place there. it was pretty good. :)

this was takin on a bridge over looking the village. i wish i would of taken pictures while it was light outside. it's so pretty there. oh well. :(

this is one of the day's that cory could go with us to the beach. so cory and i took turns with each kid. lex loved being out in the water. and i got to go swimming a little while cory watched the kids. i can't tell you how relaxing swimming in the warm ocean water is for me. i LOVE it!!! so here's those pictures..















if daddy was at the beach elaina would be either sitting on his lap or playing right by him. she loved to have him there.














hide your eyes everyone!!! :P the swimming suit i bought for this trip didn't fit when i went to put it on. :( so the only one i found was this one. :P anyways.... this is a picture of lex.. i dug a hole one day and he put his foot in. then we dug it down further and he stuck his leg in. then we poured water into the hole and he got really stuck. he loved every min. of it. :) you can also see lex's other favorite toy....the sand was really fine so we had to dump water in it to make the sand turn the wheel..and he couldn't just pour water in it. the sand had to be there too.














in the bucket of toys came a mold of a train and an airplane. lex would take a rake and make tracks for the train to drive on. so this is the tracks he made. he did that for hours.















this is just everyone hanging out on the beach.

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lex swimming with daddy. he loves that duck. cory's not a big fan of swimming in the ocean...but he had a good time with him.

after we buried lex's leg i decided to show him his whole body can be buried. so here's me burying lex and him loving every min. of it. every day after that he had to buried at least once.










about 4-5 days into our trip i decided to be brave and go to the village with just me and the kids. from the condo you call a bus to come and pick you up. then it drops you off at the village and some other places. the last time we went to see the dogs jumping i saw a play ground on the way. so that's where we went. it was a pretty cool playground and the kids loved it.

everyday elaina would wake up and get herself ready to go to the beach. so couldn't wait to get out of the house.

at the village they had a water fountain that they had to go play in every time we went over there. this time we went lex found a dragonfly on the ground...so being a boy he went over and stepped on it to see what happened to it. it was very sad. we put him in his watery grave and said our last goodbyes.

the next day we came back to the village again. the kids both loved the bus ride over and back again. that was sometimes the best part of the trip. we went over to decorate a plate to take back with us. so they got to paint their own plates and put their hand print on it. i loved them but about $30 a peice cory wasn't too happy about it.




































this is us hanging out at the condo. and the picture of my feet is because wendy and i went to go get a pedicure one day at the spa. it was nice.. but really uncomfortable for me. i'm not sure if i'll ever do it again. but my feet were so beautiful. :)




































wendy had her 30th birthday while we were there. so i decided to decorate the condo. and that night we went out to a really nice dinner.

this was takin on the roof of the condo while the sun was setting just before we went out to dinner. and elaina got her horns done for the night.






we went to the village once again to wendy's fav place to eat. we got to sit outside and there was a band playing. it was a lot of fun and the food was veryyyyy good!

elaina was dancing to the band after dinner and a little girl came up and started dancing with her. it was very cute. the band was giving out free blow up gitars to the ppl watching them. so lex got one and had a great time with it. and so did j.b. :) it was a really great night and everyone had a great time.

we also went on this round about walk. it was right by the

water and this really cool hotel. it had tree houses you can climb into and cool vines hanging from all the trees. lex really loved going into the tree houses.

that day we also found out we could feed the fish right where the dogs were jumping in the water. man..i wish i would of known that before because we would of done that every day we were there. the kids loved it because there were really big fish. the kids could sit on the dock and the fish would splash their feet. there were a ton of fish that came up to us and they even jumped out of the water. it was really neat.

the last day we were at the beach most of the day. we had a great time. we went in the morning, went back and had naps, then went backa nd stayed til the sun went down. it was a great day and i had a great time with my kids.

we flew home the same way we came. fly in little airplane....fly in big airplane..have lay over..then fly all the way home. it was a great trip but it was nice to come home too. thank j.b. and wendy for a wonderful time. we love you guys.












this was us flying in the plane to alabama. it was really early in the moring when we left so we got to see the sunrise. and lex and elaina loved the ride home. they did just as good of a job on the way home as they did coming. i just have great kids. very easy going and they both love life. i'm so greatful for them. this is a picture of j.b.'s dad's condo that we stayed in. we had to walk from the condo down some steps, acrossed the street, and then down a path to get to the beach. then the walk to the beach in the sand. now you try to take 2 kids that want to be carried most of the way and all the beach toys, towels, ect and see if you can do it every day for 2 weeks. i was really tired when we got home. but i loved it. :)