Family photos on the Beach......

So we got all cleaned up the last night and took some photos on the beach. Afterwards we headed out to dinner at a restaurant on the inlet......

My Favorite........
Daddy and his girls.......
Mommy and her boys......

I hope you have enjoyed looking at our Florida photos (we had a great vacation)......I am FINALLY done!! :)

The Pool and Our Condo.....

Gabe enjoying the condo pool......
The boys......

Here is the inside of our condo......This is what you see when you walk into the condo....
Master bedroom with view of the ocean......
Kitchen and living room area.....

Living room...... 2nd Bedroom......
Balcony over looking the ocean......
From the outside.....we were on floor 4

Our Trip to Walt Disney World......

The Entrance......
Ali on Main Street USA.......
Ben on Main Street USA.......
Beau at Tommorrow Land......
Love this shot of all 5!!
Walt Disney.....

Brian and Abby (and me and Beau in back) on the Aladdin carpet ride.....
More on the Aladdin ride.....
Sisters.....
Ben and Gabe trying to move the world!!
Ben at the entrance to Tommorrow Land (and yes he is soaked from Splash Mountain)

Me and Brian.....
Gabe trying on some hats.....
Apparently Ben did not want to ride "It's a Small World".....
Abby, Ali and Ben on the Peter Pan's Flight right....Gabe and I were right in front of them.
Getting ready for the 3D Movie.....
Mickey during the light parade.....
Then Minnie Mouse.....

Fireworks at the end of the day over Cinderella's Castle.....


This is what 12+ hours at Disney World looks like......tired!
We had a wonderful time. This was our first trip there (I had went back in 1982) and the kids really enjoyed it and Brian and I were glad we could take them.......

The Beach at Sunrise.....

Abby and I went out early (at sunrise) one morning to look for sea shells. The Beach was beautiful and Abby and I had a great time together......

The sun was sooooo bright that morning.....

Abby's footprints in the sand......
We did not find alot of sea shells but did find alot of starfish!

Mr. Starfish......
Mr. Crabs.......
Abby trying out to be a life guard.......The Baywatch girls better watch out!!! :)

More Wave Surfing................

On the elevator heading down to the beach......
Beau......
Gabe....The "token" Sea bird on the beach photo.......
All 5.....waiting for the waves......
Ben.....

Photo #1.....Abby and Ali.......Look how big the waves are......
Photo #2.......
Photo #3.......
My artwork in the sand.........
Ben.......

Beau and Gabe......
Beau......
This was Abby after a sand fight with Ali......
Abby and Gabe.......

A Visit to the Lighthouse.......

Here is our condo from the road.....
Entrance to Ponce Inlet......
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse......Florida's Tallest Lighthouses......
175 Feet Tall......
Starting the climb of 203 steps to the top......
Gabe and Ben on the way up.....

Brian counting the steps while Ali watches him climb......
A view of the inlet from inside the lighthouse.....
We all made it too the top!!!
Very windy since a storm was moving in.......
Abby at the top......

Looking out towards Daytona.....
Abby and Ben looking up......
Beau visiting the lens exhibit......
Really cool place..................

Go-Cart City........

Go Carting was one of the things the kids really wanted to do....Ben was so happy that he was tall enough to drive a car by himself. This was one of our favorite things we did while in Florida! They got to ride three different times so the car colors maybe different......
Getting ready to go......
Ben (in orange) and Beau ( in red)......
Hot Rod Ali.....I took this one while I was in a car with Gabe!!
Ali (in red) and Beau (in white).......
Abby making her way around the track.....

Ali getting a little help from the go-cart guy after she ran into the tires!
Abby looking cute in her car.......
Beau.....getting ready for another ride......
Abby (in black) and Beau (in white) race around the track......
My favorite photo of the day.......love Gabe's face....
Ok.....this was Ben's first time driving the go-carts by himself. He has drove them at Grandpa Bo's but this was faster stuff. He was heading into the starting area after his last trip and instead of braking he pushes the gas and runs into the retaining guard and gets the cart stuck under the metal piece! The go cart guy rushes out to see if Ben was ok.....he was....but very upset with what had happened.
Poor guy.....everyone was looking at him and he just had to sit there (stuck)......
Luckily that was our last trip on the track because as we were leaving this is what we saw.....the go cart guys prying up the guard to get the cart unstuck!!!! :)

What's A Vacation without Car Trouble???

As we started our next day of vacation we realized that our front driver's tire was flat. We were able to air it up but having already fixed a leak before we left Effingham we thought we better have it checked out again......so we found a repair shop and waited.....it really did not take that long and we were on our way.....

Gabe watching them fix the van......
He looked worried........
Brian with "that look" of this is a fun way to spend my vacation.....
Abby and Beau enjoying the waiting area watching TV......
All fixed and ready to go.......

All Because Two People Fell In Love.....

5 kids, 7 houses, 2 campers, 15 or so cars, 2 dogs, 10 cats, over 35,000 frequent flyer miles, millions of photos and 20 years of marriage......

Such a Proud Moment.....

On the grounds of The Ripley's Museum is this huge statue of I think it's David.....but the kids had to play around it (and with it!!).

Abby had to lay on the ground to get this shot.......
Gabe....."Hehe....it's his butt"....


No caption for this one........
Yeah....that's our kids......we are proud!!!!!!!

More Florida Photos.....St. Augustine

We spent one day in St. Augustine. It's about 1 hour north of Daytona and one of the oldest towns in America. I love this kind of stuff but I am out numbered in the family :( We did walk around a bit and went to the original Ripley's Believe It or Not! Museum.
This set of shark teeth were talker than Gabe.....
This is the world's tallest man......and if you all remember he was from Alton...There was a statue of him just about a block from our old house......
Abby and her new guy.......Alot to love here.....
I found my best friend too.......
Lots of hands on stuff to explore......see the skull in the mirror??

The crew enjoying the museum......
This mirror was funny.....they had you try all these things with your face and it ended up being a two way mirror so there was people on the other side watching you the whole time!!
The boys want Grandpa Bob to try this at his house......
The boys in the tunnel of dizziness.....
Ben....sooooo excited about St. Augustine....

Ok....so we went to the most lamest wax museum ever! It was old, dusty, paint chipping, and just plain dumb......It took us about 15 minutes to go through the whole thing.....Honestly...if you ever go to St. Augustine avoid Potter's Wax museum.....only good thing...we sure did have some good laughs.

Here is some presidents.....
Ben with Benjamin Franklin.....
Ben and Abby with Dr. Evil and Austin Powers......
Abby and Ben now with Micheal Jordon.....
Gabe with Pirate #1.....

Gabe with Pirate #2.....
Do you see the little lizard? We saw them everywhere and boys loved to watch them run and climb up stuff....
St. Augustine church......
We took a walk around the city and visited the fort that once protected the city......
Yes....it's Ali enjoying her vacation......

Walking around the fort......
To finish our day in St. Augustine we signed up for a Ghost Tour through Ripley's. We were give disposible cameras to capture our "ghosts" and also some type of meter to register some "ghostly electricity"....

Here is Beau and Ben with our tour guide "Mr. Grimm".
Abby testing our her meter as we pass a cemetary.....
One of our stops was a little park that was used for hangings.....

One of St. Augustine's haunted cemetaries.....

Ben and Gabe watching their meters while we were at the cemetary......Can't wait to get our disposible camers back to see if there is anything on them...
This was taken in the dark inside Ripley's near the end of our tour.......We got to go inside the Museum when it was closed and dark. History says alot of "bad things" happened inside the castle.
We had a great time in St. Augustine and I will come back to visit all the historic sites by myself one day! :)

Hog Poge Photos #1

These photos don't fall under anything specific but wanted to show......

Watching the dolphins from our balcony. This was shot with my telephoto lens....
View of the beach from our balcony......This was looking south.....
Abby walking on the beach talking on her phone.......Also with my telephoto lens.....
Abby and Mom......sitting on a turtle!
This was the funniest thing we saw.....It's a Drive In Christian Church....it's like a Drive in Theatre!! You sit your car and attend church. We would have tried it out but we were not going to be there on Sunday during the services.

Dinner at Crabby Joe's......

Or as the family calls it "Crappy Joes"! We tried out a local restaurant one night. The kids thought it looked neat cause we got to eat out "over the ocean" on a pier. You could see the ocean below from the 1/2 inch slots in the floor! Let's just say....we only eat there ONCE!
It was very cloudy and was raining a little when we were there that night.....
Ali and Beau.......
Ali had to keep in contact with everyone back home!!

Gabe looking at the stuff in the ocean and down the beach......


Crabby Joes.....

First Beach Day......

Our first trip we made after checking into our condo was to the beach store.....6 boogie boards, 2 beach chairs, 1 umbrella and 2 sand castle making kits we were ready for the beach!!

Ali taking a break from boogie boarding......
This was our condo. This is the backside that faces the ocean. We were on the fourth floor.
Abby is ready for the waves....
Ben......excited about playing in the ocean......
Gabe "catching some waves"......
All 5 kids........boogie boards ready!!

Testing the waves.......
Looking down the beach towards Daytona Beach.....
Ali putting the sand castle making kits to work......
Love this one.....he was in heaven playing in the sand....
Beau found a friend.......

Gabe had to give little "crabby" a hold.....
Brian helping the kids make a "peace sign" hand in the sand.....It looked really cool.
Me enjoying watching the kids and the ocean, sitting on my beach chair under my umbrella......
Relaxing photo.......

We actually were in Ponce Inlet, FL. It's about 15-20 minutes south from Daytona. More about our trip(s) in the days to come. I really need to work on 2 weeks of laundry!!!! YUCK!!!

We're Back to Blogging......Where Have We Been??

For the past 2 weeks we have been on constant "vacation mode". From July 26-August 3 we were in Daytona, Florida and from August 6-August 12 Abby and I were visiting my sister with my dad in Boise, Idaho. It's finally back to reality and to the blogging. It will take me a while to update on our trips but I have some great stories and fun photos...

Here is Ali and Abby at the first Starbucks of our trip. Ali made us take her to everyone we could........ Abby and Gabe at dinner our first night in Perry, GA.
All the kids outside Longhorn Steak house on our first night in Perry, GA......

I am back.....kinda.....

The kids getting ready to boogie board in the Atlantic Ocean....... Me (in yellow) on the beach with the kids looking for sea shells......
Abby at Sunrise.......
Guess where we got to go?
Brian enjoying the ocean with the girls while the boys played in the ocean.....

Brian and I and the kids just got back Sunday from a week in Ponce Inlet, Florida (near Daytona). It was wonderful!! We had so much fun and I have alot to share and lots of photos (I took over 700), however it will have to wait until I return next Tuesday (8/12) from visiting my sister in Boise, ID. I have so much to do and Abby and I are leaving with my dad tommorrow evening. Abby and I will have visited both ends of the USA in two weeks.....sweet!!! :)

Meanwhile I will share a few photos of our Florida trip to keep your entertained....

See you all next week............ :)