Perdido Key, FL 2011

 *** Just to let you know, This new blog is a lot different than the way I am used to, so bare with me. I have to figure out how to post pictures in a particular order and many other things. For now you get it like this and I promise to work on figuring more out***

On October 8^th, we headed out for our yearly fall break, trip to the beach. I didn't get as many pictures as usual since we had a few unexpected things happen... keep reading.  We had a long car ride ahead of us but really all the kids did very good. Especially since Scooter was on a steroid, albuterol, singulair and an antibiotic for his asthma (meaning he could climb the walls with the energy he had). Baby A did so good. She isn’t much of a sleeper for car rides but she slept some and then played and looked out her window some too. We got there a little past lunch time and let the kids go straight down to the pool. 

Baby A LOVES the water. She would put her face in the water and splash and laugh and have loads of fun. The boys are like little fish and jumped right in the FREEZING water and played. After a short swim time we headed to an early dinner at a really yummy hole in the wall kind of place. I think it is called Fisherman’s Corner. We had yummy Creole style seafood and then I headed back to the condo with the kids while the others headed to get the necessary groceries for the week. Right after everyone was in bed for the night the nasty stomach bug (that Rascal had earlier in the week) struck Tim and he was sick all night long. Luckily by morning he was better but needed the whole Sunday to recoup from being up all night long. While Tim rested in the condo, I managed to keep up with the kids on the beach with the help of my mother-in-law, father-in-law and brother-in-law. Without them there,  this would have been NO vacation for me, with them… I was able to relax a little myself.

Everyday went the same....we woke up around 7:30 (thankfully all kids slept in until 7:00 or 7:30) ate breakfast on the balcony then got ready to head down to the beach. 

Tim and Jonathan would fish from the shore and we would play in the sand, water or just sit and tan. 

 This is one of the many fish that would swim around us. It's a Lesser Electric Ray (and yes I still got in the water!).

 Jonathan caught the first fish. It was a nice sized Drum fish and the entire beach came around to see his catch. It was exciting! 

We ate lunch down on the beach (sometimes just snacked) and then had an early dinner. This is the only way to do it in my opinion. Sunday we ate at the condo since Tim had been sick and I was just waiting to see who would get it next. 

Tuesday night we were all getting ready to head to one of our favorite place to eat, Wolf Bay, and Scooter started crying. When I went over to him,  I felt he had fever (102.7) and so we decided to stay at the condo and order from a wonderful pizza place called Lillian’s. The stomach bug hit him right as everyone was headed to bed. So I slept on the sofa bed with him and tended to him all night. By morning he was better but still kind of weak. We went on down to the beach and he laid in the shade for a bit. After a while, he was feeling up to playing in the water. I am not sure how I managed to take care of Tim, Scooter, Rascal (earlier in the week), clean both my house and the condo and never get the virus but I can tell you my prayers were answered. I did eat cautiously the entire time just in case I was next.

Wednesday afternoon, we overheard someone say in the elevator “It was on the news, did you see it?” That had me curious so I googled the local news stories and I found out what they were talking about. A 6 foot bull shark had been spotted Tuesday and Wednesday swimming up and down the coast, 5 feet from shore and VERY close to our condo. This meant everyone was staying out of the water Thursday for sure. We think we saw it Wednesday from the balcony but at that time we had no clue about the shark so we weren’t sure what the “big fish” was at that time. The shark was injured and looking to beach itself so I was pretty sure by Friday he would have been long gone and maybe dead. 

Friday we all headed back out in the water and Tim and Jonathan did some more fishing. I enjoyed standing out there with them and scooping up the jellyfish with our nets. Unfortunately, Scooter got stung by one. He was so brave and had very little concern on his face when it happened. I kinda second guessed he had really been stung. Once we got to shore it was very evident he had been stung. His knee was swollen and it was VERY red. I tried to google a treatment but had no luck so we went to the front desk to ask. She told us vinegar but all we had was pickle juice. It worked though. We later found out that meat tenderizer, sea water and sand all work too.

It was such a wonderful trip and even though we had a few sick, a shark alert and a jelly fish sting, it still was a very relaxing trip!

 The water was so still the last few days we were there. The kids LOVED sitting in the tubes with Tim and Jonathan and floating in the ocean. 

 Scooter had a blast riding the waves on his boogie board as usual. A few days there were really big waves which made it lots of fun on the boogie board. Cautious mom that I am, made him hole the board and me hold the rope attached so he wouldn't get caught in the undertow. It was pretty strong a few days.

 Baby A loved playing in the sand. She would lay on her belly and move like she was swimming!

We had our family pictures on the beach one night and I loved the way these two (above and below) turned out. 

Scooter had the great idea to fill one of their pails with water for Baby A. She LOVED it. She would sit and splash in it and drop handfuls of sand down in the water.

 

I love her big floppy sun hat. She looked so cute in it!

 She finally has enough hair for me to put a small ponytail in the front and then clip her big bows to the ponytail. The bows stay in now and they look so adorable!

Baby A took her nap out on the beach every day. She napped very good out there too. This pop-up beach tent was the best thing we bought to take down there. 

Such a sweet picture!! 

Tim, Baby A and my shadows one day as we walked down the beach. 

Another precious picture! 

Look at the smile on her face! She was loving every wave that crashed into her feet!

I was afraid to bury her so we just buried her feet. She wasn't sure what to think about that. 

Silly Rascal is always up to being buried. Baby A was trying to figure it out though. 

They worked on this hole the entire week. It was pretty big by the time we left.

We had such a great time and am so glad we got to go even though we had Scooter's asthma attack 2 days before and Rascal's stomach bug a few days before and Baby A's sinus infection a week before. You should have seen all the medicine I had to take and disperse between all the kids. It was crazy.