Florida Vacation Day 6

On Thursday, Day 6 we woke up to rain. So we decided to go eat lunch out and then grill at the condo for dinner. We went out to another one of our favorite places, The Back Porch.





When we got back to the condo early afternoon the rain had stopped so we all headed to the beach. The water was still nasty but we had fun anyway.

My mom with Brittyn and me with Lexyn

That evening during sunset we dressed the girls up and headed to the beach hoping to get some good family pics. Not so much, in fact there wasn't a single good picture of all of us but there

were several of the kids separated. This is just not a good age for picture taking.

lots of fake cheesing, and wondering eyes

This was the best one of all 3 together!

Gamma with her big girls!

Gamma and her baby

sweet Kinlynn hasn't learned to hate the camera so it is still pretty easy to catch several good smiles from her

Papa showed them a seashell he had found while diving

and they got excited listening to the ocean inside of it

Papa showing Brittyn his seashells

Can always manage to catch cute pics of them walking away from the camera

there were lots of little purple jelly fish that had washed up on shore that the girls were looking at

we turned our back for one second and realized Lexyn had walked into the ocean with her clothes on

And quickly got knocked by a huge wave

So Papa hoped right in with them and let them enjoy the waves splashing them in the face while they were fully clothed!

Then they all hoped in the pool, fully clothed, to get the salt water off. Silly girls, silly Papa, but LOTS of fun!

Florida Vacation Day 4

Day 4 was another day that my mom and I had the kids alone while my dad and Ben went scuba diving. This time they drove to Pensacola Beach and then had a 2 hour boat ride out to their dive spot. They had trained to be a master diver so they could dive the Oriskany, a sunken aircraft carrier. While they were gone we spent the day down on the beach because it was overcast and lots cooler for Kinlynn to be out for a long time. The water however was still NASTY!



She didn't mind the sand at all.

My littlest beach bum!

She fell asleep sucking on her sandy thumb.

Then stayed asleep for about an hour layed out on my mom's lap.

Since Kinlynn was napping I was finally able to spend all my time with my big girls! We had fun playing in the sand, and even got brave and swam through the nasty water about 20 feet to where it was gorgeous and clear water. The girls had a blast on the waves.

Little foot prints, and notice the tan line!

Lexyn

Brittyn

For dinner we went out to another fun atmosphere restaurant that had things for the kids to play on while waiting.

Florida Vacation Day 3

Our 3rd day on vacation the water was still nasty and my mom and I had the kids alone. My dad and Ben woke up at 6:00 to drive to Panama City to go scuba diving. They usually go diving 2 or 3 days while we are there and it wears them out that we don't count on them doing anything until dinner on those days. For most of Day 3 we stayed at the pool.








We got an afternoon rain shower that helped cool it off so we decided to head out to the beach and take a few pictures while the girls ran and played in the sand.


Brittyn

Lexyn

Me with all my sweet babies and some gorgeous clouds!

Walking with Kinlynn

Love this picture but my camera started to fog up so it isn't the clearest.

Florida Vacation Day 2

The second day we woke up and the water outside our condo was still nasty so we loaded up and headed to the Jetties about 5 miles down the road. The water there was very clear and pretty. We swam there and played in the sand for several hours. The girls loved it, that was until Lexyn realized there were fish everywhere. Then she wanted to sit out on the beach.


Brittyn



Lexyn playing in the shallow water so the fish couldn't get her! My sweet scardy-cat!!!

Papa was showing the girls a crab he found while snorkeling.

My sweet happy baby

She was great on the trip. Nothing bothered her and she didn't mind a bit that her schedule was off. She would just sleep whenever and where ever.

Brittyn enjoyed filling her bucket with sand and then swimming with it.

For dinner we went out to the Lucky Snapper. It's one of our favorite restaurants in the Destin area, and they make the BEST homemade Key Lime Pie. I don't eat seafood so my judge on a good seafood restaurant is by their key lime pie? :) Lexyn was enjoying a lemon!

Daddy and Lexyn

Another thing I judge a good restaurant by is the atmosphere. I love the restaurants that open to the gulf. So nice and breezy and gorgeous scenery.

Because the girls were good during dinner we took them to ride the train.

Florida Vacation Day 1

We started our vacation on Friday July 22nd. We drove most of the way to the beach that evening. The following day we only had 2 and a half hours to go but we couldn't get into our condo until 2:00. To kill time we stopped at the Pensacola Naval Aviation Museum. It was very neat with lots of kid friendly things to do and look at, and the best part it was it's free!



The girls had the best time climbing in and out of the airplanes.

There was also an inside play area with slides.

And they got to pretend drive some planes.

Finally around 2:00 we got to our condo and quickly put our swim suits on to head down to the beach only to find that the water was nasty with lots of seaweed.

Brittyn was starring at the nasty water really wanting to jump in but was quickly disgusted when it stuck to her skin.

So we played in the sand.

Brittyn

Lexyn

It's Been a While

Where to start?????? Where to start?????

It's been a couple of crazy busy last few months.

I have been having some terrible attacks since Kinlynn was born. Actually the attacks started when I was pregnant with the twins and then quit. Then when I was pregnant with Kinlynn I had about 6 or 7 more. We were self diagnosing these attacks as reflux. They made me feel like I was suffocating and couldn't breathe, with a severe sharp stabbing pain and I always ended up throwing up because the pain was so bad. When Kinlynn was 3 months old I started having the attacks again and they started getting more frequent and were lasting for 4 to 5 hours. On July 11th an attack started and lasted all night long. Finally I had my mom take me to the doctor to help me with Kinlynn while Ben stayed home with Lexyn and Brittyn. The doctor was afraid of pancreatitis because of the area that was tender. She sent me for some lab work and an ultrasound at the hospital. After lots of waiting in different rooms in the hospital while being sick all day and unable to walk the pain was so severe, they said I had gall stones but that one had gotten lodged in the duct and was causing pancreatitis and an enlarged liver. I was immediately admitted to be watched and put on antibiotics and fluids because I was so dehydrated. That was the first night I was away from Kinlynn, not exactly how I expected to spend that first night away from her. My friend Kelly came from work immediately when I was admitted, to relieve Ben so he could come to the hospital with me. My poor mom kept all 3 kids that night. It was a long night for all of us. Kinlynn is breast fed, and until that week she would NOT take a bottle for anything. She hated it. She screamed for 5 hours straight and went 14 hours without eating before she decided that the bottle wouldn't be so bad. The next day I had my gallbladder removed and then was transferred to another hospital for more monitoring and another procedure on Friday to remove 3 more gallstones that had gotten lodged. Finally on July 16th I was discharged from the hospital. The very next week our family left for Destin, Florida. I was still very sore and lacking lots of energy but I was not being left behind! Now a month later I feel great with no more attacks and no pain just lots of high medical bills because I do not have health insurance, which is also why I put off going to the doctor for so long. I was in the middle of trying to get insurance that would have covered it; however, now I have been denied by 2 companies.






The day I came home from the hospital. I missed these 3 babies so much during my 4 night hospital stay.

Silly Kinlynn

7-20-11 Kinlynn was trying to pop daddy's bubble gum bubble.

8-3-11 We tried out the new Crayola colored bubbles. I walked inside for a minute and heard the girls belly laughing. When I came back outside they were covered head to toe in the colored bubbles. It was a huge mess but they had so much fun and the clean up was simple. Just run the water hose over them and the ground and the color goes away.

8-8-11 Kinlynn was wearing her sisters old outfit.

The big girls have now started preschool 2 days a week so maybe, just maybe, I can begin to catch my blog up!