I Have a Teenaged Daughter

Yeah, that's not a phrase that you would ever, in a million years, expect to hear from me, right???  Well, it's true!  My four legged daughter turned 13 years old on July 23rd.  Ha! 

She loved that hat every bit as much as you can imagine.  She kept it on for a grand total of 3 seconds.  I happened to snap a picture in that brief period of time.  :)

It just so happened that Syd's birthday fell: a) days after we had gotten back from vacation  b) when Wade was out of town for work c) when we were doggy sitting for the Hunts.  With all of those factors in play, we decided to throw a little puppy party for our Sydney Girl.

If you know me, throwing a puppy party is not really in my nature.  I'm not at all what you would call a "dog person."  But... I know that the life expectancy for beagles is 13.5 years.  Granted, Sydney has been extraordinarily healthy and will probably out live us all.  (I tease that she is going to be a Guinness Book of World Records holder for the oldest dog in history.  Ha!)  I joke, but she really may not have too many birthdays left, and I will be super sad when she kicks the bucket.  She has been a big part of our family's history - the only dog that we have ever had as a married couple.  Losing her will be like the end of an era, and I will be sad, I know this to be true.

At any rate, I knew that the boys would think that it was fun to throw Sydney (and her guests - Cody & Jack) a birthday party.  I was right - they loved it!

Sydney's Cake - Milk Bones, peanut butter, and a piece of cheese cut into the shape of a candle

 Jack & Cody got their teeny tiny milk bones that Leah sent.  Couldn't leave them out!

 The Birthday Girl and Her Guests

I learned that getting three dogs to look at the camera simultaneously is even harder than it is with three little boys.  ;)

 Sydney and her Boy

So far Sydney is sleeping until noon and spends the day lazing around the house - just like any other teenager.  But without the mood swings.  Ha!  She really is a super easy dog, and I am grateful for her.  Happy Birthday, Sydney Girl!

Family Pictures on the Beach

Usually, on vacation we try to grab a stranger to snap a quick family photo or set up the tripod and hope that the self timer happens to go off at the moment that everyone is smiling and looking at the camera.  This trip, I finally got smart and hired a sweet photographer to take some beach pictures.  I googled "Destin photographers" a couple of weeks before we left and was lucky enough to find a sweet girl that just started her business.  She was super reasonable and gave us the CD with copyright.  I was so grateful that she shared her time and talent with us!

I will treasure these pictures always.  :)

Destin 2013: Days 6-9

By this point, I am sure that you are starting to feel like you are sitting on your Maw-maw's plastic covered couch watching their vacation photo slides on a pull down screen, right?  Click.  Click.  Click.  Ha!  I'll try to wrap this up...  ;)

On Wednesday morning, Wade woke up Clayton bright and early to go on a fishing trip together.  They were both super excited about their father/son morning.  The trip was a shorter expedition - 6am-10am.  I was worried about my little fella because he tends to get a woozy tummy pretty frequently in the car.  I was sooo nervous that he would get seasick.  We bought him motion bands, and he did great!

 Somebody's 4:30am wake up call caught up with him.  ;)

When the boys got back to the condo, they got cleaned up and we headed to a late lunch/early dinner.  We ate most of our meals in the condo, but enjoyed a few meals out.  We went to Pompano Joes for lunch and it was delicious!  

Our condo had a sunroom that overlooked the pond.  Clayton spent many hours searching for lizards around the water.  He was in hog heaven!

On Thursday morning, Wade went on a deep sea fishing trip by himself.  This trip was longer - 6am to 2pm.  I took the boys to the pool that morning for a swim.  We were the only ones there for awhile, and the boys loved it!

We were at the boat docks right at 2 to see our Daddy's catch of the day.  

Wade met some guys from Kentucky on the trip.  One of them was a pastor, so he and Wade talked religion and such.  I think they had a great time and caught a bunch of fish.

We went back to the condo for Wade to clean up and then went to Fudpuckers to eat and feed the gators.  The boys loved every minute, as you can imagine.  ;)

That evening, we took the boys to the beach hoping to find more crabs. 

Friday was our last day of vacation.  :(  We surprised the boys with tickets to a pirate cruise.  It was fun!  They had water guns, foam swords, face painting, tattoos, and even found a treasure chest. 

The Buccaneer

We spent the rest of the afternoon doing the activities down by the boat docks.  Drew wanted to do the inflatable human beach ball thingy.

Clayton had his heart set on America's largest floating trampoline.  After watching for awhile, Drew joined him.  They jumped their little hearts out for hours.

Clayton met some sweet girls while jumping - no surprise there.  The part that was a surprise was that the girls were actually from our town.  Crazy!  Wade and I chatted with their parents for a bit and realized that we have some mutual friends.  It's a big, huge, small world, I tell ya!

 The kids got to see a dolphin jumping out in the bay.  So cool!

On Saturday morning, we packed up and headed west.  We were all sad to see our fun week come to an end.  :(  We amused ourselves in the car by using the timer function and propping the camera up on the dash board.  

 I love my bunch of crazies.  ;)

The Trifecta - it didn't last long, but it was glorious while it lasted.

We had such a fun time away with just the 5 of us!  There was a sign in our condo that said, "Memories of Vacations by the Sea Stay With You Forever."  I couldn't agree more - these precious memories will stay tucked away in my mind forever.  :)