Lazy Days of fun

We may be on vacation - but we definitely are not sleeping in. Monday morning 4 of the 5 kids were up by 5:30. Which means since 2 of them are mine - Tom and I were up too.


Although sleep deprived, we did get to witness a beautiful sunrise!

Nicole has found her new favorite "play spot"...

After a lazy morning, it was back to the beach!

Nicole overcame her fear of the ocean. I knew it was the sound and waves that were scaring her so we took the plunge and just took her out. Her cousins even let her hitch a ride on their boogie boards.

Oh yeah - see how much fun she was having!

Then Uncle Kevin brought the raft down and the big kids took a boat ride.

Nicole played in the sand.

And with her fear of the ocean gone - she would run for the waves without a second thought. She was watching Megan and Anna get water in their buckets for thier sand castles and just wanted to do what they were doing.

Once we finished up with the beach, the kids had a little art time inside.

Last night we decided to stay home and grill out and watch fireworks from our deck. Not only could you see the fireworks from Seaside and Rosemary Beach, but some of our fellow beach goers had some good fireworks of their own.

The hard part was that no one could sleep through that - Nicole was terrified and the other kids wanted to see them all...so it was a late night. But a great way to celebrate Independence Day!

Hope everyone had a Happy Fourth of July!