On June 10th 2009, the kids and I joined some of our friends on a trip to Florida. We left early that Wednesday morning. We drove to Gainesville and stopped for the night so that we could see Ty. We got checked into the hotel and Ty came over to swim with us for a little. We then went out to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was sad to say goodbye to Ty, but hopefully he will come visit soon.
We then got up on Thursday and drove to St. Pete. The humidity about killed Alison and I as we unloaded the car. Mind you, we were staying in her cousin's condo which was up 3 flights of stairs. I think we lost about 30 pounds from sweating so much!! :-)
Then for the next few days we took lots of pictures at the beach and pool. Thank you very much to Walter, Michelle and Madelynn for letting us stay in your condo. Thank you, too, to Alison for taking us. We had our moments when we wanted to put the kids to sleep, mute them!, b/c of all the fighting...but we survived.
This is the kids right after we got to Gainesville and checked in to the hotel.
We wanted them to burn off some steam, considering we had just rode 8 hours in the car!
Ty and I ....boy, he is getting so tall! I miss him so much...I wanted to cry when he walked up there. He was so sweet with us...the kids love him and miss him so much!
The kids were like leaches to him...they couldn't get enough.
They were just so excited to be spending time with him!
Oh...My Goodness!! Ty is driving by himself!!This is his First Car...I'll keep my opinions to myself (for you guys anyway, I let him know what I thought :-))
I decided to ride with Ty to eat dinner...I was afraid that I was going to have a heart attack! I think he has a hole in his floor board on the passenger side....he doesn't start pressing the brake until we are almost on top of the car in front of us!!! Wow!!!
He has already had one fender-bender...I think this is why! But, over all he did really well...he wants to drive up to Hiawassee to visit us soon, but I'm too scared about that.
So we made it to the beach...the kids loved it!
Playing in the sand....
Alison and Holly
This is Alison's cousin, Michelle and her daughter Madelynn. She let us stay at her condo at the beach...Thank you!
The kiddos....
Lily and Lucas posing for me...
Lily has started really enjoying me taking pictures of her. You will see a lot of her "posing" for pictures. It has taken many years of me pestering her to get her to now enjoy it and ask me to do it. I guess persistance pays off.
This was Lily's idea of taking a picture in the grass...however, I wouldn't let her go and walk into the grass b/c it was the kind that will cut you...so she got mad and wouldn't get her picture taken. Drama...Drama...Drama
It was a pretty good hike to get onto the beach....and Lucas and Riley were good troopers for helping carry the sand toys!! Thanks guys...
This was the view from our bedroom window. You felt like you were on a cruise ship, b/c just a few feet away you were looking at water. This was the bay side.
Alison and I decided to have a glass of wine and unwind on the porch looking at this beautiful view...We had brought several bottles of wine, thinking we were going to relax...well, this was the only night that we ended up doing it. The other nights we were just too tired!
This was one morning...I caught the kids sleeping...how sweet!
The boys playing in the water...they like to ride the waves in.
Lily jumping a wave!
More sand time....
One of the evenings we went to the Tampa mall so that the kids could play in the playground. They really enjoyed. When we first walked into the mall, Lily saw a Hello Kitty store..Oh, my goodness, I thought I'd never get her out of there... she loved it! I wished I had thought about taking a picture of her in there...but I didn't...sorry.
The kids would climb up here and jump off. They had so much fun...we then went and had some ice cream.
On Sunday, June 14th, Both Lily and Lucas decided to start swimming without swimmies!! They still won't put their heads under the water, but at least they are dog paddling....The were so proud of themselves!
Riley was already swimming very well, she enjoyed jumping off the sides...
Lily swimming!!!
A little Mommy and Daughter time.Alison and Riley
Lily and Lucas swimming!!
Brody also decided to swim without swimmies! Although, he was a little braver, he put his face under the water...way to go, Brody!
We went out on Sunday evening to try and get a few sunset pictures. Here's what we got. We then went to a resturant on the beach and ate dinner. We parked in a tow away zone b/c there wasn't any other parking and by the time we finished dinner at 10:30 pm we remembered that we might not have a car waiting on us. We rushed out and found our 2 cars being the last one in the parking lot. There were other people screaming mad and cussing that their car had been towed. God was definately with us!! We were probably on the next truck to be towed.
Lucas showing me his shell that he found.
One day they will look back and LOVE this picture...how sweet!
They are really good at taking pictures for me!
Riley and Lily standing in the water. This picture just screams innocence to me. I love it!
A beautiful sunset!
Ty and I ....boy, he is getting so tall! I miss him so much...I wanted to cry when he walked up there. He was so sweet with us...the kids love him and miss him so much!
The kids were like leaches to him...they couldn't get enough.
A little Mommy and Daughter time.
The boys playing in the sand. 
Lily and Lucas playing in the water.
Taking a little quite time to read a book. Lucas actually fell asleep while I was reading this book.
Riley and Lily ending the vacation with a little bit of coloring time.
