Summer Fun

This summer has been so busy! It has been great though. On May 23rd, we left for Pensacola Beach for a full week of fun-in-the-sun!! We flew Chase from West Point to Pensacola to meet us for our wonderful "family" vacation. You see, when you have a child who is away -- really far away for college the term "family" takes on a whole new meaning. This year has been challenging, but very rewarding for all of us. I think we have all grown from our experience as the family of a Plebe at West Point and I think it has been a positive growth.

So this year, our usual vacation buddies "The Smiths" went on a cruise for their son's senior trip, and I don't blame them, mind you, I'd have picked a cruise over the beach too, but they were definitely missed as they have become permanent fixtures on our vacations year after year - LOL! Our families have so much fun together and our kids have grown up together since infancy, so maybe next year we'll get back to our routine with The Smiths!

This year we allowed the boys to each invite a friend to come with us on vacation and they did. Cameron brought his best friend, Josh, to hang out with and Chase invited his "friend," Mallory. We met up with some other friends there, The Graffeos, and The Harris family who also joined us at the Portofino Resort. Our condo had an amazing view of the Gulf to the left and Pensacola Bay to the right.

The Gulf view from our balcony & the Bay view from our balcony. It was awesome!

We are the ultimate "beach bums" and I could totally retire and live at the beach. We stayed from Saturday to Saturday, and I was still not ready to come home. We spend the whole day on the beach, just chilling, riding the waves, catching rays, throwing footballs or frisbies, playing in the sand, looking for shells, catching crabs, reading . . . oh the list goes on and on! Here are just a few pics . . .

Picking Chase up from the airport at 11 p.m.

Mallory, Chase, Cameron and Josh out in the Gulf.

My hubby, Randall, chillin' at the beach -- he is the ultimate Beach Bum!

Cameron and Josh hangin' at the beach.

Chase and Mallory at the beach

Me and my boys :)

After being at the beach for 5 days, we were ready for a little break from the sun, so the kids and I loaded up the car and drove down to Destin f0r some shopping. We hit Destin Commons first for lunch and some browsing. I bought the cutest "spoon watch" (it's a watch that has a band made out of two old demitasse silver spoons) at my favorite store there called "The Zoo"!

It is a funky little shop that has lots and lots of interesting stuff . . . they say it's a "hip-hop happening" shop on the Gulf coast. They carry unique jewelry, art, knick-knacks, cards and t-shirts . . . it's simply amazing! You can visit their website at http://www.thezoogallery.com/! I LOVE IT!!

We then headed to the Silver Sands Factory outlet mall! FUN!! Don't you just love an outlet mall??!!??

We took some fun pics while perusing the stores there. . .

Chase and Mallory at kiddie land - LOL

And then the infamous handstand . . .

On Friday, after spending several hours on the beach, the kids took some time out for fun at the resort's Adventure Cove. It's basically some slides and trampolines in the water. Fun was definitely had, but they were absolutely worn out when they were done.

And then Saturday morning we got up, packed and went to the beach for our traditional family photo-op:

We had a wonderful vacation! I find it so neat that even though Chase has been gone for a year, the second he steps off the plane, it's like he never left at all. That's how families are supposed to be. We have so much fun together, and we all love each other so much!


More to write soon . . .