Florida beach pictures!

We made it to Destin and had only one day of rain. I hear Arkansas got a few days of rain or people say lots of flooding. It was a wonderful vacation. We went with some of our good friends named Adam and Laura Harrell and Daniel and Jill Edwards with their 5 month old baby, Clarke. We actually stayed right outside of Destin at Mirimar Beach in a house that I found online. Since it was the end of summer and I guess "hurricane season" we got the house for half price! This was well worth it.

Noah and Ally loved the beach. Noah played on a little boogie board and he called it "surbing." He would say, "do you want to go to the ocean and ride on my surbing?" I kept telling him it was called a surf board, but it kept calling it the other. Too cute though. Everytime Ally would go to the beach, which was usually only for an hour or two, she would get sand all over her. She would then touch her face and eyes and constantly say, "My eyes, my eyes!" in this deep voice like it was sooo painful. Neverless, Travis would take her back to the house and swim while Noah and I would play at the beach.

It was so nice getting to spend an entire week with Travis and the kids. Since I work some, I am not with them everyday, all the time, so I don't know what that is like. It was definitely wonderful, but exhausting. I got to really see some things that they have been learning or maybe just learned. For example, Noah was eating M & Ms (it was vacation, we didn't eat great) and he was actually counting them one by one. I think he got to 9. He knows how to count pretty far, but he was taking them one by one and lining them up and counting them. It was pretty cool. It may not be that big of a deal, but I have never seen him do that. As for Ally, she talks so much and talks so well for her age I am told. She told me while we were downstairs, "I want to go upstairs and watch Barney!" That is an eight word sentence. It was a clear as can be too. It was just fun for Travis and I to get to spend every waking minute with them. We really appreciated it. We celebrated Ally's 2nd birthday in Destin on Sept. 1. We got her a cookie cake and she got to blow out 2 candles. Another funny: My husband has a silly personality and I think it is rubbing off on Noah. Travis says as a joke sometimes that if he doesn't want to do something or doesn't like something he will say "that is for the birds." Well, we were talking about getting Ally a cake and Noah with a sweet little grin on his face says, "Birthday cakes are for the birds." It was soooo funny. It cracked everyone up and the whole trip we kept repeating that line.

As for the adults, we had fun as well. We enjoyed watching the Republican National Convention for 2 nights, which was sooo good, we watched a few movies including the Notebook (my favorite), Cloverfield (I don't recommend) and 3:10 to Yuma, which was pretty good for a western. I got to read 2 books. I love to read so on the way up and back from Destin and while the kids were napping, I got my read on. I have never read the Chronicles of Narnia series, so I read The Magicians's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Very good and hopefully I will get to read the rest soon.

I hope to get more pictures of them actually on the beach later. Thanks for everyone thoughts and prayers for a safe trip for us. It turned out just perfect.