Florida vacation....day 3

1. Oh the schlepping! I have met my schlepping quota for the summer. The "June Grass" (green slimy algae) is still here today and so we packed up the kids and went down the coast a bit to St. Andrew's state park in search of clearer waters. We found refuge in a cove that was clear and shallow. It was perfect for swimming and the little ones loved it, but there were no waves and very few shells.

We lugged our bags to the shore, but Megan and Laney were griping about the smell of the sea grass and I was getting frustrated and Mark was feeling irritated and we were "this close" to ditching the whole thing and spending the day in the rooms watching cable. Then we ventured over the dunes and found the cove. All was right with the world and the girls were thrilled. Except....we needed to pack up all the c..r..a..p..and get it to the other side.

Once we got everything to where we wanted it to be, we settled in for a couple hours of swimming and playing in the sand. Everly tried out one of the girls' floaties so she could walk around on her own in the water. She is changing so much. I am just seeing the last few glimpses of babyness and she is becoming a kid very quickly.

As we were lugging everything back to the van, we had to carry Anna and Laney because the boardwalk was super hot and they forgot their shoes. It was a little nutso. Mark had Anna and the beach umbrella, I had Ever and the towels and the beach bag, Mat had Laney on his back, Meg carried the sand pails and the floaties, Ethan handled the boogie boards.....and as we passed a couple that looked like they were about retirement age, we all had to laugh at what a spectacle we were. Someday! Someday it will be just Mark and I and a couple pairs of googles.

And we will miss the kids.

2. Me and Laney and Everly built some pretty respectable sand castles decorated with little shells we found in the sand all around us.

3.  The firefighters that work in the station next door to our house called today and said that they have Daphne there. The fence was damaged in a storm last night and she got out. Luckily we have the best neighbors ever and Tom called his daughter to go get her and find Tootsie and they will stay in their backyard during the day until we get back and fix the fence.

4. We grabbed Chick-fil-a for lunch and now Mark and Everly are sleeping and the kids are watching tv and taking a break.

I love it.

I have no idea what we are going to do with the rest of our time here....

I have no problem with that.

I am now going to see if I can sneak a rootbeer without any of the kids catching me.

5. For dinner we ended up driving out to Pier Park, a big outdoor mall type place. We saw a big bungee jumping thing and Mathew, Megan and Laney wanted to try it. So while they waited in line, I got some rice and chicken teriyaki to feed to Everly. She needs something that isn't fried. I'm tired of trying to dissect chicken fingers in order to get at something that she can eat. So we sat on the sidelines and watched the kids jump with various levels of gusto and whoever was hungry came and had a few bites. In the end, I ended up feeding everybody with 7 bucks worth of Japanese food.

We made up for it with 35 bucks worth of ice cream.

I think I may be bringing home an extra 5 lbs as a souvenir.