Find your happy place!

We found our kids happy place over vacation. Life is so busy.  After school, activities, homework, cleaning, cooking and a little playtime, there is not much time left.  I know it is my fault, that I have kept my kids so busy all their life, they are very much like me and don't sit still and need something to do all the time.  But with very little responsibilities over vacation, they found their happy places.

The beach!  We had to drag them off the beach each time.  Soaked, cold, shivering and even with jellyfish floating by.  They loved playing on the beach and in the water.  They were so happy and content!
Here are a few pictures.  More to come.

And the campfire.  Once again so happy!  It is so hard when they are very content to tell them they have to stop.  But I do believe they could have picked up sticks and played with the bonfire for hours on end and be perfectly happy!  In fact they did spend hours here over the course of two days.

And one unnamed grandpa hiding in the dark was about to get beat up by some of those big sticks they found.

What makes it even better is there is no TV, DS, IPOD, movie or expensive toy.  They were just happy with water and sticks. 

Peg Legs and sandcastles

Saturday morning we were on our own.  Waffle house and Walmart were on the agenda before meeting up with the crew for lunch at Peg Leg's.

 Eye patches and pirate faces for the kids.

 The whole family met up for lunch again, about 20 of us.  Then after lunch we headed to the beach for the sandcastle building contest!

 J'ma, Grandpa and Aunt J were teamed up.  They came up with shirts for their team and used boppers as part of their castle. 

 My sweep pea!

 And it begins. 

 Big pile of sand then pack it down with water.

 Aunt T and Uncle M were and team. 

 Go Batman!  I know it is heavy.

 Hmmm, what should I do now?

 Ladybug helping.

 Cousin M was on his own team.

 Team Windham, ready to go.

 Kids, are you playing in the water or helping!

 Batman takes a break from working to pose for the camera.

 Ok, steady there.

 Uh Oh, post has been abandoned!

 Team Windham.

 Go Grandpa, look as his tools of the trade.

 Ok, Cousin D is back and ready to go in bathing suit and water shoes!

 J and E our our hosts for the weekend are watching from their suite at the top of the building.

 Starting to come together!

 Aunt T and Uncle M - complete!  Fantastic job.

 Cousin D and R!  Complete - Fantastic job.

 Grandpa, what are you doing?

 Surveying our work.

 Cousin M almost done.

 Carving our the windows now.

 Bopper team complete

 

 Windham team complete.

 Cousin M complete.

And the first place winners are.... Aunt T and Uncle M!

 Second place goes to the Windhams.

 Cousin M comes in 3rd.

 Cousin David and R in 4th and....

The boppers in....well you know what place comes next.!

Thanks to J'ma for the prizes for the winning teams and to cousin M for the photography!

Crabs for dinner

As I mentioned, we had a reason for traveling east over our holiday.  It was probably six months ago or longer and Jan and Dad mentioned that they would be in Pensacola for Thanksgiving.  That they would be celebrating her sister's 50th wedding anniversary.  I immediately wanted to go. My first thought was I was there to celebrate their parents 50th wedding anniversary when I was little and it would be special to be at this one.  Well everything fell into place.

J and E planned the weekend, none of it was a surprise and they planned it the way they wanted it and how they wanted to share their special day with family.  It was perfect.
 

We arrived at the restaurant (on time I might add, after dragging the kids off the beach).  We had a private room at Crabs with our own waitress.

 We had an excellent menu to choose from.  We were shocked at the amount of food.

 Me and my dad.

 Batman

 The 50th anniversary couple. 

 My sister and her hubby.

 My sweetie.

 Batman and Daddy.

 Batman using his lobster tools on daddys fingers. lol.

 J and E welcoming their guests. 

 Me and Ladybug.

 My sister, ready to get dirty.

 Showing Batman how it is done.  I had to be shown too.  Never had crab legs before.

 The table was decorated beautifully.  She had our name places set up with pictures of everyone when they were younger.  Here is our family.  Don't laugh please. Then each person had a bag of gold chocolate candy for their "golden anniversary".  I am still enjoying the chocolate in a Christmas dish on my counter!

 I order the seafood platter!  That is a lot of food!

Uncle M ordered the steak!

 Ladybug and J'ma

 Grandpa and Batman.

 Aunt T and Uncle M.

 My cousin, so Ladybug's second cousin.  She loved these guys!

 Key Lime Pie for dessert, Daddy's favorite!

 Cousin M - above and Cousin M below.  Kids loved these guys too!

Loved the crab behind him.

 After Appetizers, Dinner, Wine and dessert, J had prepared a video to share with everyone.  She did a wonderful job!  As she explained, 50 years of memories is hard to break down into a 40 minute video.  But she added the pictures and narrated along on the video breaking each section up into stages in their life according to the places they had lived.  Beautifully done sharing their stages of life with job and kids and all their traveling.  Very impressive that they not only traveled around the United States but they reached the status of "the century club" for those that have visited 100 or more countries!

I will brag on my sweetie a little.  As the movie ended, he leaned over my shoulder and whispered, "I want to grow old with you". 

 They did not want gifts, just wanted to celebrate with family.  But they got a gift for each other.

 It is a cruise, which seems to be their preferred way of traveling the world.

 J and E and their boys.

 The whole party - most of them. 

Congratulations on your 50th wedding anniversary!  We can't tell you how much we enjoyed being a part of it and sharing it with you!