Vacation 2012 - Fort Walton/Okaloosa Island

I promise this is my last post recapping vacay. 

SWIMMING POOL

Me & the kiddos jumpin' in together has become a bit of a tradition... 
Anthony bags on us who have to hold our noses... 
oh well ~ sorry we don't dig water up the snout

the cheerleader comin' out in me

Notice Anthony's sister in the lounger above Bryson's head... um yeah, she's not much on swimming... 
she mostly worships THE SUN gettin her tan on

night swimming ~ 

Me & my buddy... 

Out in the big water ~ 

  the ocean

this was Sawyer's first time to dip his toes in the water ~ awww

sunnin & relaxin

homemade recliners in the sand 

...and the fellas had to dig in the sand because the boys wanted to be buried.

and then another day, they wanted to be buried again

it was actually a group effort.... we took turns digging. . . I dug, Joey dug, Papa (Terry) dug, shoot, even the boys dug....

they seem pretty happy to be stuck in the sand, eh? 

and now they play D E A D 

I'm stuuuuuuuck! 

And a few more just because ~ 

I sure could get used to my toes bein in the sand much more often than once or twice a year...

Vacation 2012 - Ft Walton/Okaloosa Island... fun & grins

This here photo tour includes only those shots take on the indoors. 
Mostly in our rooms, but I had to include this first shot because.... 

 This was my father-in-law's 

VERY FIRST TRIP TO WHATABURGER. 

And just so you know, Anthony is loved by these mini men...his nephews 

 There was one of em by his side at all times pretty much 

 Hangin out

Even this little bitty un got some Uncle Anthony time - -  

   

Lotsa times, it was both of the bigger boys under his feet... 

they had been dying to ride in the cart at the condo and of course Anthony eventually gave in. Retaining his title of PUSHOVER...

There was always some amount of wrestling... 

as in every day...  

I was the one who started the standing on your head thing... I used to do that as a little girl in our living room. Just because...

Bryson popped up there like a pro. 

Dawson...not so much. 

Even with the help of his cousins, no can do.

I liked holding Sawyer, the little cuddle bug. Him is sweeeet!

The rare smile of Joey ~

not that he's an unhappy dude...

He's just a bit camera shy I s'pose. 
But I'm patient. 
Very patient. 
And I rarely put my camera down. :-P

One night the childless adults (me and Anth) ended up with all the potty trained kiddos (i.e. they apparently didn't trust us with the babe). So we played Popomatic Trouble. 
And I won. 
Two nights in a row. 
I'm a champ.  

Somebody learned how to hold onto his pacifier on vacation and pull it out, then put it back in.
See?

McKenzie decided to give Memaw (my mother-in-law) a mohawk one night. Funny stuff. 
This may land her on the back page of Glamour (as a don't with the black bar across her eyes).

Joey turned the BIG 4-0 midway through vacay week. He got a burfday cake from the local Walmart bakery (or was it Kroger)? Terry scratched  Joe is ! 40 in it with his finger. Heartfelt. 
Yeah, he put the exclamation point in the wrong place. 

And last but certainly not least...

   the elevator

The boy always battled for position. The position closest to the buttons that is... 

do your kids fight over pushing the button?

I don't get it. I guess I'm too old to get a thrill out of pushing the elevator button.

Ok, so there's your tour of the indoor fun we partook in on the family vacation. 

Check back for beach and pool pics. 

Vacation 2012 - Fort Walton/Okaloosa Island

Last week we were in Fort Walton/Okaloosa Island with Anthony's side of the fam for a little R&R.  

Who says save the best for last? Well besides Vanessa Williams... hardy har har 

Ima tell ya bout my favorites from vacay.

P A R A S A I L I N G 

  up we go 

  and up 

    and UP

Whoa, waaaaay up! 

They said we'd go up 450 or 500 feet. 
Once you get up that high, it's so peaceful. The view is amazing and it's so quiet. It's like you're up there with God. 


They dip ya so down we came
   * splish splash * 

We just chatted and enjoyed ourselves up there. 
I think we could have sailed for hours.  

Oh and Anthony's sister Christy went up with Bryson & McKenzie. Can't leave them out!

We booked our fun with Harbor Watersports in Destin.  Click here to see the info & book your fun. It was $40 each for adults. Since we don't have any kiddy poops I don't know how much they cost. The pics were $20 and so worth it!
   
D O L P H I N  C R U I S E 
We decided to join a few of our closest friends (wink, wink) for a journey on the sea to find some dolphins.

The water was very choppy that day so we couldn't go out as far, but we still saw some of Flipper's cousins.

The captain let the kiddos take turns steering the ship unassisted. 
Bryson was all business at the helm, do you hear me?

Dawson was hammin' for the camera. 

McKenzie was all smiles on the ocean waters

Even the babe enjoyed himself. 4 months old and such a good baby...

And yeah, us older folk had a good good time, too. 

Anthony livened up a bit when a Dave Matthews Band song came on. Singin along and such. Even thanked the boat guys on the way off the boat. :o) 

I have to explain these huge grins - I was tryin to take their pic and stumbled a bit a lot, so they got tickled at me. I'm such a clutz! 

We booked our dolphin cruise with the Seablaster folks in Destin. If you wanna give em a try sometime, here's their info. It was $20 each for adults and $10 for kids 5 to 15. Those 4 & under are F R E E ! Sawyer fell into that category. 

So anyway these two things were my faves from the trip...  
  'sides being lazy on the beach and spending time with this handsome guy...

More to come ~
   be sure to check back, ya hear? 

a HAIR revealing

Well I'm sure you've all been dying to hear what my HAIR NEWS surprise is...

I got brave.

Off to the salon we go!

This is my natural hair color - I call it boring brown. Buh bye boring brown, buh bye.

Back in 98 or 99 I had some highlights, right around the time Anthony and I got married. I kept em up for a little while. But I got tired of em and my stylist at the time did the pull through the cap thing so I just kept getting blonder and blonder. Not cool.

I told Brittany I wanted it to be subtle, to look kinda like the sun did it. Nothing too obv.

Don't I look brave sittin in the chair?! 

Trust me, it's all an act.

I was a nervous nelly.

But I did it anyway!

And this here's 

the HIGHLIGHTED VERSION THAT IS ME TODAY. . . .

with two and a half weeks' growth, gosh time flies...

and here's the top, complete with crooked part and bird's eye view of my two crowns

a few side bars - 
  #1 I stink at takin my own pic. I see younger people doin it all the time. It LOOKS so easy. Yet it's not. These pics are ten kinds of terrible, but just pay attention to the hair and not the face, k?
  #2 If you have two crowns, you feel my pain, right? I mean seriously. Some days I feel like Alfalfa. 
  #3 I suppose I accomplished SUBTLE. Anthony didn't notice til Sunday (had it done on Friday) and that was only because Bridgett said somethin. He said I thought it looked like you had had it cut. Um no. *sigh*

So there ya have it folks. 

Nothing major, but it's the first time color has touched these locks since like the millennium. Y2K yo!

Summer jam was pretty jammin'

There's a foundation at work that helps out employees in need all across the country. So to raise a little moolah and to let us employees have a lil fun, a couple Fridays ago they had us a mini carnival kinda thang. 

It was f - u - n ~ 
my only critique is that it was at 3pm and my hub couldn't come.

When our CFO took his shirt off to hop in the dunk tank, I giggled.

No shame in his game. 

On the third ball, this guy dunked him. CFO didn't stay dry for long. he he he

They had great food, corn hole and a Bingo tent for the old folk. 

And lotsa stuff for the little ones. . .  

like inflatables, ice cream, sno cones, the bungee thing, paddle boats, and even pony rides - - 

This little guy is my new boss's youngest son. 

So presh! Cute as he can be.

And brave up on that buckin bronco lil pony.

 My friend Kelly's 5 year old Gavin had his face all in the cotton candy. He's a cool kid.

He was doin flips in the bungee thing. Little daredevil.

This is the gal who inspired me to do that half marathon earlier this year. 

She's a cool chic... and has great taste in friends obv

We decided to do the zip line togethuh...  it was pretty cool ~  

 Anessia and her hub <3

someday they'll probably make some super cute babes - look at those smiles :o)

There were a couple live music acts, but I can't remember their names... 

they sounded good though. 

The event raised over $6,000 for the foundation. Pretty awesome. 

The money mostly came from a silent auction, with a dab comin from the live auction and of course the good ole dunk tank. Everything else was F R E E ....

I ain't gonna lie - I paid a few bucks to try to dunk a lady who used to be in the office by mine. She's one of those always happy folk who is happy to do anything for a cause. Of course I'm a terrible shot so I just ran up after missing three times and punched the thing to drop her. And she thanked me by splashing me. A.lot.